Story by Jose Francisco (father)
TERIMA KASIH BREAKTHRU!!!
TERIMA KASIH Ms PHOEBE!!!
TERIMA KASIH!!!!
My name is Jose. I am the father of Jones. Jones is our third child among my five children. He was diagnosed with mild autism.
Looking back at Jones’ life: He learned to walk after the age of one. At the age of three, the only word he could say is “daddy”. Even my wife was called as”daddy”.
He shouts whenever he wanted something. This is because he cannot express himself. Previously, he also had difficulty eating certain food like rice. He can only consume very soft food.
We were having difficulty leaving Jones alone. He needs to be constantly chaperoned by his nanny.
He was very uncontrollable, unpredictable and most of the time his mood changes without any reason.
He behaved differently compared to other kids. We discovered Jones’ condition through my brother-in-law. He noticed Jones’ strange behavior and inability to speak at the age of three. He advised us to consult a doctor. However, in our city, there were no developmental – behavioural pediatricians. We needed to go to the capital, Manila, for consultation. There, he was diagnosed with a condition of mild autism.
There’s a clinic for special children at my place. We placed him there and had speech and occupational therapy sessions. After a year with those therapy sessions, he improved a lot and started to speak. We also enrolled him in a mainstream school where he was in the normal classes with the other children. However with the assistance of a shadow teacher from time to time he was fully out of the special session.
In 2013, we moved to Kuala Lumpur because of my work. It was really hard to find an institution for special children here in KL. I am glad that we found breakthru while searching the internet. At first he was afraid, because of the new classmates and new environment. But a year later, we saw a lot of improvement.
NOW IN 2015….
He is very independent. He can feed himself and can consume any type of food. He can even take a bath and dress up by himself. He can follow simple instructions. He’s more well behaved when in public. He can read and write better.
He is also good in addition in maths subject. All of these changes are because of full and dedicated support given to our son from this Breakthru Enrichment Station. I don’t fear for his future anymore as I can see that he can handle himself and live a normal life.
Having a special child is very difficult and expensive. We, parents of these special children, often worry so much. But we have to accept them. They are gifts to us. Because of them, our parenting skills are tested and we learn to generate more love. These special children are proof that we are loving and patience individuals no matter who or what they are. These children are our family jewels.
