This month, we would like to celebrate one of our kids who has been with us for over 2 years. Being a non-verbal child, the biggest milestone for us was when he started to verbalize again in May 2015 after a year after he has stopped doing so. This happened one day when he did spelling time with his mother, and he needed to spell words such as “banana”, “grapes” and “apple”. He has also recently started to sing his favourite songs including the ABC song, which eventually led on to him singing BINGO, Old McDonald and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, among many others. He has also learnt to incorporate songs and associate animals with the sounds they make (i.e. Cow – Moo, Duck – Quack).

Previously, this child could only say 1, 2, 3 up till 100, but he has now mastered saying full sentences such as “This is number one”, “This is number two” etc. This is something we target with most of the non-verbal children here, and it is definitely a proud moment for all of us here at EAP Malaysia when a child masters full sentences along with the identification of numbers.

He is also able to discriminate between the different PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) pictures, flip the PECS book and look for the particular picture he wants. With the “Familiar People” program, he has been able to match the names of each person when their pictures are shown. Take for instance, Jane is one of the familiar people in his program. When Jane’s picture is being shown to him, he is able to match the word “Jane” to the picture when the SD “Give Jane” is given. He did this for the first time recently, and it goes to show how far he has come!

We are so proud of this child, and we look forward to celebrating even more successes with him. This just goes to show that having hope and believing in a child with autism can go a long way. The rewards of such a job comes from moments like these, and it is an indescribable feeling.

(The name of the child has been kept anonymous due to privacy and confidentiality of our clients.)