My Special Son, Daniel

12:08 AM Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »
No...Daniel doesn't smoke...just pretending to be Sherlock Holmes...not kidding!
We found the wooden handcrafted pipe in Kuala Trengganu, in an antique shop in China Town & immediately thought of him. He loves it!

My younger son, Daniel, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2+ & this has changed my whole life eversince! Autism is becoming more & more "common" & the number of children diagnosed with autism is on the rise every year! Many misunderstood people with autism as "their freewill to choose seclusion from the world due to psychological issues" but the truth is "their INABILITY to understand the world & therefore, withdrawal into their own more predictable worlds." Autism affects development in children in 3 main areas:
1. Communication: absence/deficit in skills for communication, both in usage of language, gestures or body/facial expressions
2. Social Interaction:deficit/absence in understanding both written/unwritten social rules & cues
3. Rigidity in Thoughts: like to perform or do things repetitively & does not like new ideas/things/routines etc, or limited in imagination
Besides these 3 developmental deficits, these children are often also affected by other developmental delays such as language difficulty, learning difficulty, & also by sensory dysfunction i.e. malfunction any/many of our 7 senses - taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing, sense of balance & sense of space.

Daniel is now16 years old & goes to Sibu Autistic Centre at Agape Centre, Sibu, attending a young adult programme. Daniel is the reason why I have started the centre for children with autism & related disorders!

Daniel is very lovable i.e. when he doesn't scream or bang with his fists when angry or in pain! He is like anyone else! He wants/loves attention, gentleness, & not being left out by the rest of the family! He gets extremely frustrated when not understood & he LOVES oranges!

1 comments:

Pat said...

hi auntie Josephine,
stumble upon ur blog here n i was really encouraged by all ur posts... i hav a cousin who is slight autistic... at first i could not understand y he had to shout n scream for every five seconds when he was about 3 to 4 years old n found it very annoying... but later when i found out tat he has been diagnosed wif autism, i feel very helpless n sorry tat i never treated him well enough... n i really salute my uncle n auntie who spend so much time n money juz to bring him around learning new things... ur post once again remind me tat ppl like Daniel juz need more love n encouragement from us... God must hav really trusted you for letting you hav Daniel in the first place...

Patricia