My article on our holiday to France and its treatment of my autistic son

Dear everyone,

Here are the excerpts of my article, entitled "Snapshots of an Enlightened Society" , on our holiday to France with Sebastien, my autistic teenage son, back in August 2013. It seeks to offer insights on how an enlightened society would treat individuals with autism and other intellectual handicaps. 

Snapshots of an Enlightened Society

By Choo Kah Ying

Travelling with Sebastien, my autistic son, has always felt like an adventure, a foray into the unknown, despite the fact that he has become an avid traveller over the past seven years. This is especially the case since his entry into puberty and his transformation from a relatively compliant child to an assertive young man with a mind of his own. For us, venturing overseas, particularly to a completely new location, where we are unable to anticipate Sebastien’s interactions with others and his surroundings, is an endeavour that is fraught with tremendous risk...

Well, none of my fears about Sebastien’s encounter with the French public came to pass. And throughout our three-week journey to Paris and the Southeastern parts of the country, we encountered many locals, from complete strangers to Jerome’s friends and family members. Their attitudes ranged consistently from discreet and considerate acknowledgement of Sebastien’s handicap to warm concern for his well-being. Our three-week journey abounded with examples of the civility and enlightened attitudes of the French people from different walks of life…

What had left an indelible impression on my psyche as a parent of an autistic child was the casualness and the ‘matter-of-fact’ way in which the French people treated Sebastien with decency; doing so did not turn them into saints. Not once did they make us feel as though they were making special accommodations for him. Moreover, this attitude was not just manifested in the action of any one individual, but in the composite of the discrete gestures of multiple individuals in diverse contexts and locations. The cumulative effect of their actions illuminated their acknowledgement of Sebastien’s right and entitlement to a place in society. He is, first and foremost, a human being, who deserves to be treated with decency like his neurotypical counterparts. And if anything, he deserves a little more, for his life has been made harder by the unfairness of circumstances beyond his or my control. When I marveled at their attitude to Jerome’s teenage nephew, he had looked at me with incredulity: “How else would one behave towards Sebastien?” And that was when I got it: as far as they were concerned, acknowledging Sebastien’s right to be treated like any human being was the least that they could do; doing anything else would make them feel like lesser human beings...

Please do read the entire article and share this email with others to promote greater public awareness about autism. Let's move towards this vision of an enlightened society and support individuals with autism and other intellectual handicaps.

Much thanks,

Kah Ying

A Mother's Wish Holiday Programme for individuals with moderate to severe autism, Nov 30-Dec 15

Dear everyone

I am excited to announce our fifth “A Mother’s Wish” (AMW) Holiday Programme for individuals with moderate to severe autism — Nov 30^th to Dec 15^th. The AMW fund and the families of the participants will share in the costs.

The holiday programme concept constitutes our baby steps towards the ultimate vision ofcreating a community that provides affordable quality programmes for youths and adults with moderate to severe autism all-year-round.

Through the holiday programmes, we hope to offer an experience of AMW’s model of collective caregiving that spreads the responsibility of caring for individuals with autism across the community.


Concise Overview of Holiday Programme, Nov-Dec 2015

• 12 activities (Nov 30^th – Dec 15^th).
• Only activities with six participants will run. 
• Targeted participants — individuals with moderate to severe autism, aged 6 and above. Priority  to participants who sign up for 3 or more activities. 
• Duration: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m, unless otherwise stated [approx. 2 hours programming & 1-hour travel time].
• Public transport component: Participants will travel by public transport, under supervision (1 assistant/volunteer: 1 participant), to participate in ONE activity on each day of the holiday programme.
• Academic component: A fun review worksheet (customised for each activity) will be provided to each participant at the end of the activity. 
• Cost: $40 per day
• Deadline: Please return the completed form AND make the payment to reserve your spot no later than October 31^st, preferably beforehand.  A receipt will be issued to you. Should there be any cancellations, payment will be refunded to you promptly. 
• Contact: choo.kahying@awakeningminds.com.sg or 8163-4509.

Programme Outline:

Monday, Nov 30^th: Creative Arts — Making Vegetable Print Wrapping Paper

Tuesday, Dec 1^st: Creative Arts — Embodied Movement

Wednesday, Dec 2^nd: Wellness — Bodywork and Massage Techniques

Thursday, Dec 3^rd: Creative Arts — Music

Friday, Dec 4^th: Lifeskill — Baking I

Monday, Dec 7^th:  Creative Arts — Making Creative Gift Tags

Tuesday, Dec 8^th: Fitness — Physical Cooperative Activities

Wednesday, Dec 9^th: Fitness — Functional Training

Thursday, Dec 10^th:  Creative Arts — Drama and Movement

Friday, Dec 11^th: Lifeskill — Baking II

Monday, Dec 14^th: Fitness & Wellness — Yoga

Tuesday, Dec 15^th: Creative Arts — Music and Dance

Read more about the individual activity and enrol your child: http://awakeningminds.sg/a_mothers_wish_dec_2015.html

Learn more about the service providers: http://awakeningminds.sg/media/motherswish/ServiceProviderWriteupsDecember2015.pdf 

The AMW Fund allows us to subsidise the holiday programme and keep the rate at $40, while compensating our service providers, assistants and coordinator fairly. Find out all the different ways that you can help AMW: http://awakeningminds.sg/amw/participate/how_to.html

Please feel free to share this email with others.

Cheers,

Kah Ying

Writeup about A Mother's Wish June Holiday Programme for Autistic Individuals

Dear everyone:

We have just completed our 4th A Mother’s Wish (AMW) holiday programme with 11 activities (June 5–19, 2015) for 17 autistic participants! Once again, we would like to give special thanks to our community-in-the-making — the autistic participants, their families and helpers, service providers, and last, but not least, the volunteers! This time around, our motley group of volunteers were sourced from all quarters —students from Raffles Girls’ School, Hwa Chong JC, Meridian JC, and NUS, working adults, friends of acquaintances, and even my sister and niece.

At this juncture, with four holiday programmes under our belt, we would like to take a step back to look at how we have been doing from a ‘big-picture’ perspective: 

• Our community is evolving with new and returning participants and their families… 
• Our work with ever-changing participants is growing more complex and we are exploring alternative programmes to address challenges...
• Our pool of volunteers is expanding and we will be introducing training for our volunteers for the next holiday programme in December... 

Please go to: http://awakeningminds.sg/amw/updates/updates_2015.html to read more about these reflections, the day-by-day descriptions of the activities, and the accompanying photos!

To help fund AMW's activities, you can purchase a painting by Jean-Sebastien Choo, an artist with autism (30% goes to AMW, 70% to the artist); products featuring his artwork (90% to AMW, 10% artist); or contact me to find out how you can contribute direct funding to AMW (100%). 

Thank you in advance for your support,

Kah Ying

A Mother’s Wish 4th Holiday Programme for individuals with moderate to severe autism (June 5th–19th)

Dear everyone:

I am excited to announce our fourth “A Mother’s Wish” (AMW) Holiday Programme for individuals with moderate to severe autism — June 5th to June 19th. The AMW fund and the families of the participants will share in the costs.

The holiday programme concept constitutes our baby steps towards the ultimate vision of creating a community that provides affordable quality programmes for youths and adults with moderate to severe autism all-year-round.

Through the holiday programmes, we hope to offer an experience of AMW’s model of collective caregiving that spreads the responsibility of caring for individuals with autism across the community.

Concise Overview of Holiday Programme, June 2015:

• 11 activities (June 5th – 19th).
• Only activities with six participants will run. Targeted participants — individuals with moderate to severe autism, aged 6 and above.
• Priority will be given to participants who sign up for three or more activities.
• Duration: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m, unless otherwise stated [approx. 2 hours programming & 1-hour travel time].
• Public transport component: Participants will travel by public transport, under supervision (1 assistant/volunteer: 1 participant), to participate in ONE activity on each day of the holiday programme.
• A fun review worksheet will be provided to each participant at the end of the activity. From previous experience, we have found that this is a more “fun” way to get the participants to practise academic learning skills.

Programme Outline:

1. Friday, June 5^th: Creative Arts — Music and Dance
2. Monday, June 8^th: Creative Arts — Making Windchimes
3. Tuesday, June 9^th: Fitness — Frisbee
4. Wednesday, June 10^th: Creative Arts: Making Decorative Paperweights
5. Thursday, June 11^th: Creative Arts — Drama and Movement 
6. Friday, June 12^th: Fitness — Football
7. Monday, June 15^th: Lifeskill — Baking I 
8. Tuesday, June 16^th: Creative Arts — Music 
9. Wednesday, June 17^th: Fitness — Functional Training
10. Thursday, June 18^th: Sensory Creative Arts — Making Aroma Play Dough
11. Friday, June 19^th: Lifeskill — Baking II

To read more about the individual activities and enroll your child, please click here.

To learn more about the service providers, please click here.

Cost: $40 per day

Deadline

• To reserve a spot, please contact us for a registration form. Please return the completed form AND make the payment no later than APRIL 24th, preferably beforehand.
• Only activities with 6 participants will run.

• The spot is reserved ONLY when payment has been made. A receipt will be issued to you. Should there be any cancellations, due to unforeseen circumstances or a lack of participants, payment will be refunded to you promptly.  

• For those who have signed your child up for only two activities, you may lose your reserved spots to those who have signed up for 3 or more activities and a refund will be issued. We genuinely feel that participants and others can best connect with the others when they have participated in at least 3 activities.

Contact: choo.kahying@awakeningminds.com.sg or 8163-4509.

The AMW Fund that allows us to subsidise the holiday programme is principally funded by the sales of Sebastien’s paintings and products inspired by his artwork: 

http://www.awakeningminds.sg/sebs_raw_art.html
http://www.awakeningminds.sg/amw/our_products.html

If you would like to offer a contribution to AMW (100% to AMW), we will send you an A4-sized print of Sebastien’s artwork in return.  

Thank you for your support and please share this email with others who may be interested.

Regards,

Kah Ying

Our third AMW holiday programme for individuals with moderate-severe autism was a huge success!

Dear Everyone:

A Belated Happy New Year to you all!

At our third “A Mother’s Wish” (AMW) Holiday Programme for individuals with moderate to severe autism (spread across Nov 28-Dec 11, 2014), I was delighted to see how we were beginning to cultivate a sense of community. As our group congregated each day, we were happy to reconnect with familiar faces —participants, helpers, and parents from previous holiday programmes — and excited to welcome new ones. For the parents and helpers shouldering the primary responsibilities of caring for our children, the holiday programme also offered a degree of respite and connection, thanks to the assistance of the volunteers.

This time around, our participants took public transport and participated in eight activities: Football, Baking Banana Oat Cookies, Functional Training, Building a Miniature Garden, Drama and Movement, Baking Fruit Tarts, Embodied Movement, & Assembling an IKEA CD Box.

We are most grateful to our service providers, assistants, volunteers (principally from Meridian JC, but also from NIE and NUS), and families for their involvement and support. Special thanks to Mrs. Selina Tan who opened her home to host four of our events and the refreshments she provided! Together, we embody AMW’s model of collective caregiving — spreading the responsibility of caring for individuals with autism across the community. With these baby steps, we hope to achieve our ultimate dream of building a community that provides affordable quality programmes all-year-round.

To ensure that the AMW holiday programme activities are affordable for families and that service providers are compensated fairly, the costs of the programme are subsidised by the AMW fund. If you are looking for some unique gifts, please check out AMW’s product offerings. 

Please contact Kah Ying at choo.kahying@awakeningminds.sg for more information and purchases.

Click here to read more about our Dec 2014 Holiday Programme and see our gallery of photos.

Look out for our June Holiday Programme (slated for June 8-19, weekdays, 1:30-4:30 p.m.)! If any of you are interested to be notified to sign your child up for the activities, volunteer for the programme, or suggest service providers, please contact me! 

Please feel free to share this email with others.

Much thanks,

Kah Ying

Happy Holidays from A Mother's Wish!

Dear everyone:

As 2014 draws to a close, we are pleased to have conducted our third “A Mother’s Wish” (AMW) Holiday Programme for individuals with moderate to severe autism! The holiday programme constitutes our baby steps towards the vision of creating a community that provides affordable quality programmes all-year-round.

This time around, our participants took part in eight activities—two baking sessions; football & functional training; building a miniature garden; drama and embodied movement; and assembling a household item. We are most grateful to our service providers, assistants, volunteers, and families for their involvement and support. They embody AMW’s model of collective caregiving — spreading the responsibility of caring for individuals with autism across the community.

To ensure that the AMW holiday programme activities (http://www.awakeningminds.sg/amw/holiday_activities.html) are affordable for families, the costs of the programme are subsidised by the AMW fund. So if you are looking for some unique Christmas gifts, please check out AMW’s product offerings (http://www.awakeningminds.sg/amw/our_products.html). They include Sebastien’s original paintings, his unique hand-crafted collage, and merchandise inspired by his artwork. This year, we also collaborated with MDIS School of Fashion and Design students to develop designs for a T-shirt, tote bag, and other products, inspired by Sebastien, his artwork, and AMW.

Please contact Kah Ying at choo.kahying@awakeningminds.sg for more information and purchases.

Thank you in advance for your support and enjoy a wonderful holiday season.

Kah Ying

My article: A Mother's Wish for My Autistic Son

Dear everyone:

I am pleased to announce the launch of A Mother's Wish Blog with my first article: "A Mother's Wish for My Autistic Son" (http://www.awakeningminds.sg/amw/blog/index.html). 

My blog articles will revolve around A Mother's Wish (AMW) that subsidises and runs diverse activities for individuals with moderate to severe autism during the June and December holidays. It is our dream to do so all-year-round. I will also write about my homeschooling journey of Sebastien, my moderately autistic teenager (18 years old) — my ongoing inspiration for starting AMW.

By sharing these musings, I hope to spur families, interested individuals, and policymakers to take action on the lack of services and opportunities for moderately to severely autistic individuals (particularly youths and adults) in Singapore, whether through AMW or not. AMW is my endeavour to do my part and empower others, instead of waiting helplessly for change to come.

Here is an excerpt:

...with the 18^th birthday of Sebastien, my autistic son, looming on the horizon — the age that heralded the "official" entry into young adulthood, I felt a desperate urgency to incorporate part-time work into his homeschooling programme in order to thrust Sebastien further into the outside world. Yet a round of phone calls to special needs organisations in Singapore, which provide job opportunities for moderately autistic youths like Sebastien, proved to be disheartening. Unless I was prepared to place Sebastien in a work facility that requires him to perform the same repetitive tasks eight hours a day, five days a week, there were no openings for him. Such a soul-destroying vocation was not a fate that I would impose on myself or anyone else, let alone my son...

At this juncture, Sebastien has gained enough knowledge and experiences in life to possess the desire to continue his pursuit of an interesting and ever-evolving existence. He inhabits an inconvenient space of yearning for a young adult’s life, while lacking the necessary abilities to achieve it on his own. As his mother, I find myself stuck with “mission impossible”: How do you reconcile a young adult’s evolving ambitions and the limitations of his autistic condition?...  

To learn more about:

A Mother's Wish (AMW): http://www.awakeningminds.sg/amw/about_a_mothers_wish.html

AMW holiday programmes: http://www.awakeningminds.sg/amw/holiday_activities.html

Sebastien's paintings that help to subsidise AMW holiday programmes: http://www.awakeningminds.sg/sebs_raw_art.html

Kah Ying's writings:

http://www.awakeningminds.sg/books.html, http://www.awakeningminds.sg/articles_autism.html

Please feel free to share this email with others...

Much thanks,

Kah Ying