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Journey into the autistic world.

Monday, April 26, 2010

A free public talk on mental illnesses

Dear everyone:

For this Awakening Minds update, I would like to highlight the following event.

1. May 29, 2010: "A Journey With..." (organised by the Silver Ribbon Singapore): This is a free talk by four authors who have written books on their experiences with mental illnesses (including myself on manic depression). This event is open to members of the public. You will have the opportunity to purchase an autographed copy of my book, Five Little White Pills... And Then There Were None: A Journey from Manic Depression to Recovery ($16.00, G.S.T. waived). To make my life easier, you can also pre-order your copies so that I would know how many to bring to this event.

The details are as follows:

Date and Time: Saturday: 29 May, 2pm – 4pm
Location: Toa Payoh Public Library
RSVP: Please call the organiser at 6386 1928 or email info@silverribbonsingapore.com; registration is compulsory.
To preorder my book, please reply to this email.

2. Lela Luorno, a speech and language therapist, will be giving a talk entitled "Language Development and How To Do It At Home". This talk will be held at Children's Partnership, a psychology services centre on May 14 at 7pm. The talk will be about two hours. Please contact Ms. Luorno at lela@languageloft.net to register for this event.

3. Do look up at my Website for workshops and one-on-one consultations for individuals and families in the area of autism and special education (http://awakeningminds.sg/workshops.html; http://awakeningminds.sg/consultations.html) and mental wellness (http://awakeningminds.sg/mental_wellness_workshops.html;http://awakeningminds.sg/mental_wellness_consultations.html).

To learn more about the talks and workshops that I have conducted, please look up: http://awakeningminds.sg/past_events.html.

Please feel free to tell others about this Website and the events.

Best regards,

Kah Ying


Monday, April 12, 2010

Awakening Minds Update Featuring Article on Autism: One Spectrum of Humanity

Dear everyone:

This latest Awakening Minds update features the following:

1. I have put up a new article entitled "One Spectrum of Humanity" that encapsulates one of the key objectives of Awakening Minds: to challenge the prevalent deficit-tinted perspective of people with autism and the close-minded goal of "normalising" them, as though being "normal" or "typical" constitutes the ideal. By opening our minds and perspectives, we can learn to appreciate autistic people in our midst, acknowledge our own weaknesses and celebrate the diversity of humanity. Below is a small excerpt of this article, an appetiser to tempt you go read more.


One Spectrum of Humanity

by Choo Kah Ying

The medical terminology for the diagnosis of autism is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Depending on their overall functioning levels, people with autism are placed on an autism spectrum that ranges from mild to severe. Once they are placed on the autism spectrum, their atypical attributes are subject to a heightened level of scrutiny by us -- the “neurotypical” caregivers and professionals -- through our deficit-tinted lenses.

Using our conventional frameworks of reference, we are constantly measuring how far they fall short of their norm as though being typical is tantamount to being ideal. In fact, as we seek to “normalise” autistic people in our own image, we can be so fixated on their deficits that we fail to recognise that some of the attributes of autism constitute strengths that can be of tremendous value to humanity...

The reality is that we neurotypical people, as with autistic people, have our fair share of strengths, deficits and idiosyncrasies; they are just different from those of people on the autism spectrum. Considering our own clustering of distinctive traits, we should all be placed on one spectrum – the spectrum of humanity that celebrates our diversity. Each of us is no better and worse than another, just different... (For the full article, please go to www.awakeningminds.sg [Media Tab] [Articles on Autism])


2. As part of this update's theme of promoting public awareness of autism, I am highlighting my book reading/talk again, which features my self-published picture book, All Because of the Hummingbird Or the Horse (targeted at primary schools). As the book is digitised, I will be able to project the book as a slide show (page by page), thus allowing the students to follow along the reading easily. I will also request for volunteers to help to me to click to turn the page. In addition, I will do a personal talk targeted at young learners about Sebastien, my son, with a slide show. I have found that my sharing of Sebastien in my previous book reading of this book at an international school helps students to adopt a compassionate attitude towards him and interest them in the book reading. To me, the transformation of young hearts and minds will plant the seeds of compassion in our future generations.

This talk could be part of the primary schools' character-building projects and themes. This 90-minute talk/book-reading (SD$250.00, negotiable) will also include a give-away of five copies of All Because of the Hummingbird to students who exhibit kindness and compassion towards others (www.awakeningminds.sg, BOOKS tab).

3. I would like to express my gratitude to the parents of autistic children who have purchased my book, Raising Sebastien: Realising the Potential of Your Autistic Child (Marshall Cavendish, 1996, SD$16.00) these past two months. Most significantly, I had the privilege of providing a consultation for a wonderful family of an autistic child and developing learning materials for him. Through this experience, I would like to exhort parents, particularly those of children with classic autism who are lower-functioning than their mildly autistic counterparts not to give up on their children. Just because professionals and educators tell you that your children are far from the norm does not mean that they cannot improve in their functioning. With perseverance and creative teaching methods, you can still do your best to help your children to be the best that they can be. If you are open to their uniqueness, they may still surprise you by what they can do!

4. I would also like to highlight a few interesting and relevant links for you to check out:

a. A good friend of mine forwarded this video of a talk by Temple Grandin, an inspiring person with autism, who has overcome incredible odds to become an expert on livestock, animals and autism. From the beginning of my journey with Sebastien, she has given me insights into the inner workings of the autistic mind with her books. In this talk, she really rocks!


b. I had the privilege of being involved in the final-year school project on autism with two wonderful journalism students from NTU, Wong Hui Foon and Han Weiding, who spent two days learning about and filming my homeschooling life with Sebastien. Their passion, compassion and enthusiasm made this experience memorable and give me hope that our future generations would demonstrate compassion to people with special needs. Please check out their project (in Chinese) at http://reachautism.sg.

c. I would also like to talk about Spit it Out!, a wonderful literary tool and game that was invented by the brother of Roger Curtis who is a close friend of mine. This fun and dynamic game cultivates interest in language, creative thinking and assertiveness. The tactile and colourful letter cubes also makes this game ideal for autistic children who are tactile and visual learners. I have come up with variations of this game in playing it with Sebastien. To learn more about this great game, check out this game at www.spititout.com.

d. Finally, I highly recommend this movie: "Mary and Max". Based on a true story, this beautiful and poignant film depicts an extraordinary pen-pal relationship between an 8-year-old Australian girl and a 41-year-old American man with Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism). This film reinforces my belief that we as a society can really help to improve the quality of the lives of autistic people if we embrace them with open-mindedness and compassion. They need love and support from us more than all the professional help and interventions they receive in their lives.
If you are interested in my workshops in autism or mental wellness, please check out some of my proposed topics at www.awakeningminds.sg, EDUCATION/MENTAL WELLNESS tabs. Please feel free to email me or forward this email to others who would be interested.

Best regards,

Kah Ying
+658163-4509