KambingBujang

The first appointment was all about [1] recognizing the things around him or things that interest him, and  [2] understanding one or two instructions at a time.  For the session lasted for an hour, the doctor evaluated Amirul as okay. It means he is developing speech but very slow. He recognized a lot of things and that’s good. But he needed to build up with understanding more than two instructions at a time. 

May be I got lucky or what, because I didn’t have to waste much time waiting for my session to come. The registration was fast and the appointment was on time.Usually, in public hospital, you have to wait for hours in queue just for registration and then wait in anxiety for your name to call to see the specialist.

I only had to wait for 15 minutes before a nurse calling out Amirul’s name. After that we met the doctor.

We started with small conversation, and the doctor told me what was the session all about.

These are the test that the doctor evaluated on amirul:

1. Recognize The Pictures: what amirul didn’t recognize was flower. He is a boy, okay. What do you expect when you show him flower?
2. Puzzle: This was his first time dealing with picture puzzle. Yes, he is familiar with puzzle game on iPad. But, he still needed my assistance to do the puzzle.
3. Lego Imitation.
4. Instructions.
5. Speak a word.

• One-by-One instruction - Give him 1 lego and instruct him to match the lego with picture. Spread out about 6 to 9 flash cards in front of him, and say,

“Amirul, please put Lego on ball”.

• Two-by-Two instruction- This activity is a little bit harder at first. Give him 2 lego and instruct him to match the with two pictures. Spread out about 6 to 9 flash card in front of him and say,

“please put Lego on -

1. Ball + Car, or

2. Ball + Flower; or

3. Ball + Cat”

For this example, the ball is the control word and it must be in front, no matter what. At this stage Amirul is at learning level. He needs to do this activity more often.

(B) Puzzle. Just buy 3-4 pieces of puzzle and let him do it himself. But sometimes, he need an  assistant. The crucial part is when he finish doing puzzle, you have say it out loud, so he may follow voice.
(C) Visual Imitation. For the first stage, take three legos and build something. Instruct him to build the same like you. After that, cheer him up. It will him stimulation.

2. Speak with him frequently.
When we speak to him, the word must be sound and clear. Plus, the doctor needed me to write down before we even to start conversation with Amirul, like transcript or something. The rational behind it was he could learn quickly when the conversation is constructed and repetitive, Let me give an example:

“Amirul, this is a chicken. The chicken is a bird. The chicken has feathers”

I have to established target word that must be used often and repetitively. Chicken is the target word for the example above.

3. Buy a notebook to write down the daily acitivity.
I have to have a notebook regarding amirul activity and progress, more like a journal. In there, i should write down about

• What activity course we have done today,
• The list of vocabularies: even if i have to list eeuu as one of the Amirul’s vocabularies (eeuu is a digger actually)
• The transcription of what we going the speak with amirul.

For our next session, doctor wanted to a journal. She would evaluate the activity, and the vocabulary based on the journal. Then from that, she would determine what Amirul should do next. We have another six sessions. The doctor said that she wanted to do monitoring closely the progression and it will be intensive as we would have that sessions on every week.

The conclusion.
For the time being, I should continue with the activities the doctor has instructed me to do. She said it was a homework for parents, as if my teacher assigned me a homework when I was in school.