When he was 3.5 years old, my son was diagnosed with ASD. To support him and cope with his loads of therapies, I left my job and started to work with him. he used to speak when he was 1 year old, but completely went silent when he was 2.5.
ST, OT, group play, ABA, we tried everything, but nothing really improved him much. After 2 years of running around the world to get help for him, I found nothing really worked for him. then I decided to help him by myself, I learned special needs education, first a normal diploma, then an executive advanced diploma, which equals to a bachelor degree; to help him speak, I even learned phonetics and speech training from a British trainer and got a professional coach license!
I have my Master's degree in Biochemical Engineering, worked 10 years in the industry; but to help my son, I totally changed my direction and learned another 3.5 years on special needs education.
My learning on special needs education and teaching to him was very effective, he could decode most words, he could read books aloud and accurately, but he still did not talk - even though we were doing at least 2 times ST a week for the past 7 years!
A miracle happened, in an unexpected event.
In 2020, when we had a long lockdown at home, nobody could go anywhere, maids could not come to the house, so I was very busy with housework and could not teach him as before. Having heart pain to see him wondering in house aimlessly, I started to teach him singing when I was doing house work or cooking - surprisingly, he started singing with me!!!
He could not pronounce words clearly in singing, but he was very patient in learning sounding; very soon, he could sing songs which I never dare to dream that he could sing - he remembered those rhythms after very few tries, then most of the effort was put into practice to sound correctly - but he was so happy in doing that, very often, we were singing happily together, sometimes for 1 or 2 hours nonstop.
HE STARTED TALKING!!! Very short sentenses, but he showed interest in talking to others!
As singing together, I noticed his breath was very shallow. It was 2020, realizing Covid could be a long-term inconvenience for our life, I started learning TCM therapeutical cuisine through a proper TCM college course at that time - thanks to my biochemical engineering background and strong interest in medicines, the learning was very natural for me, so I started to use some food therapy to strengthen his breath and lung.
It works! Not only he could sing longer with the stronger breath, but his frequent nose allergy and sneezes were also gone - symbals of a stronger and healthier lung!
It helps with his speaking too!
I guess the herbs, food therapy and the long hours of singing practice really strengthened his breath; with the stronger breath, he found it easier to speak, so he started speaking!
Now he talks so much, long sentences; sometimes I have to stop his talking to avoid my head spinning.
But his sentences are jumbled up, syntax in a mess, so now I am teaching him English grammar and syntax
What a surprising journey to teach an ASD boy to speak!
Just to share with parents for children with special needs - never give up!
BTW: I was singing Chinese opera when I was young - that type of singing required lots of deep breathing (丹田气)； so when teaching him, even though through normal songs, my sounding and breathing during singing are very different from normal singing, maybe that helped his breathing too, imaging daily practice Qi Gong for 2 hours.
ST, OT, group play, ABA, we tried everything, but nothing really improved him much. After 2 years of running around the world to get help for him, I found nothing really worked for him. then I decided to help him by myself, I learned special needs education, first a normal diploma, then an executive advanced diploma, which equals to a bachelor degree; to help him speak, I even learned phonetics and speech training from a British trainer and got a professional coach license!
I have my Master's degree in Biochemical Engineering, worked 10 years in the industry; but to help my son, I totally changed my direction and learned another 3.5 years on special needs education.
My learning on special needs education and teaching to him was very effective, he could decode most words, he could read books aloud and accurately, but he still did not talk - even though we were doing at least 2 times ST a week for the past 7 years!
A miracle happened, in an unexpected event.
In 2020, when we had a long lockdown at home, nobody could go anywhere, maids could not come to the house, so I was very busy with housework and could not teach him as before. Having heart pain to see him wondering in house aimlessly, I started to teach him singing when I was doing house work or cooking - surprisingly, he started singing with me!!!
He could not pronounce words clearly in singing, but he was very patient in learning sounding; very soon, he could sing songs which I never dare to dream that he could sing - he remembered those rhythms after very few tries, then most of the effort was put into practice to sound correctly - but he was so happy in doing that, very often, we were singing happily together, sometimes for 1 or 2 hours nonstop.
HE STARTED TALKING!!! Very short sentenses, but he showed interest in talking to others!
As singing together, I noticed his breath was very shallow. It was 2020, realizing Covid could be a long-term inconvenience for our life, I started learning TCM therapeutical cuisine through a proper TCM college course at that time - thanks to my biochemical engineering background and strong interest in medicines, the learning was very natural for me, so I started to use some food therapy to strengthen his breath and lung.
It works! Not only he could sing longer with the stronger breath, but his frequent nose allergy and sneezes were also gone - symbals of a stronger and healthier lung!
It helps with his speaking too!
I guess the herbs, food therapy and the long hours of singing practice really strengthened his breath; with the stronger breath, he found it easier to speak, so he started speaking!
Now he talks so much, long sentences; sometimes I have to stop his talking to avoid my head spinning.
But his sentences are jumbled up, syntax in a mess, so now I am teaching him English grammar and syntax
What a surprising journey to teach an ASD boy to speak!
Just to share with parents for children with special needs - never give up!
BTW: I was singing Chinese opera when I was young - that type of singing required lots of deep breathing (丹田气)； so when teaching him, even though through normal songs, my sounding and breathing during singing are very different from normal singing, maybe that helped his breathing too, imaging daily practice Qi Gong for 2 hours
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