Pauline,
Kell is indeed well-behaved in class. I was observing her from the playground and she will always be one of the few that listens and follows the teacher's instructions rather than running around. And that ang moh boy (Kai or Carl or something like dat? I asked for his name but cant hear him clearly) is very playful. When he saw me standing at the playground and looking into the class, he came running to the glass wall and smiled cheekily and waved and jumped. Later when I was inside the school, he came to play with me and I teased him by saying "I know who you are ...." and he laughed. Haha....
I was telling my neighbour about Kell and how she has transformed after attending
LV@RP as her girl is now very traumatised by her bad school experience. Just the mention of the word 'school' will send her to tears!
Well, I cant resist but to sms you what an impression she made on me! keke....
Re stuttering: see below:
Dr Alan Greene on Toddler Stuttering
When a child stutters, parents are often told to relax, that the stuttering is a phase that will soon be outgrown, and that nothing need be done. This advice can be unfortunate.
Treatment of stuttering is more effective the earlier it's begun. By needlessly delaying evaluation, parents can miss an important window of time when their child's stuttering is most treatable. On the other hand, many children go through a developmental stage of speech disfluency that's often confused with true stuttering. This normal disfluency does disappear over time without need for treatment.
If a 2-year-old begins to repeat syllables, short words, or phrases (su-su-such as this, or such as... such as... such as this) about once every 10 sentences, and begins to use more filler words (um, with uh pauses or er hesitations), is this normal disfluency or stuttering?
Children with true stuttering tend to repeat syllables four or more times (a-a-a-a-as opposed to once or twice for normal disfluency). They mmmmmay also occasionally prolong sounds. Children with stuttering show signs of reacting to their stuttering -- blinking the eyes, looking to the side, raising the pitch of the voice. True stuttering is frequent -- at least 3 percent of the child's speech. While normal disfluency is especially noticeable when the child is tired, anxious, or excited, true stuttering is noticeable most of the time. Children with true stuttering are usually concerned, frustrated, or embarrassed by the difficulty.
About 4 percent of all children will have true stuttering for at least six months, most commonly between the ages of 2 and 5. Most of these will recover by late childhood, but about a quarter of them will develop severe, chronic stuttering. Whenever parents suspect that their child has true stuttering, it's important to bring it to their pediatrician's attention -- it's easily treatable, unless you miss the window of time when treatment is so effective.
From another article:
Although these symptoms are often the result of a normal phase of development, parents should be concerned if their child stutters frequently (e.g., more than 10 percent of their speech), has stuttering that grows progressively worse, or stutters in association with unusual body movements, facial tics or tension.
Other signs of problem stuttering include:
- Excessive repetition of whole words and phrases
- Increased facial tension (particularly around the mouth) and tics during speech
- Growing tendency to prolong words
- Speech that appears increasingly strained or full of effort
- Speech that becomes louder or rises in pitch
- Tendency of the child to avoid situations that require talking
aishite,
count me in for the biennal festival. sms me ok? thanks!
too bad i cant join in for the sentosa trip. must have been great fun.