T.T
The following are 4 autistic children in the Ampang Dyslexia Association Centre who I have had the privilege of teaching, playing with and being an abang to during my recent July hols. I am grateful to my mom, the association an to God for giving me a chance to do something constructive during my hols instead of slacking of like some of my classmates.
Shahrir is the probably the one who became the most attached to me. Cikgu Mariam (who's the Teacher-in-charge) tells me that everytime Shah hears my car pull up in the driveway he starts asking "Abang datang?" Shahrir's disabilities is known in the medical world as a "Global", this means that he suffers from everything. A bit of dyslexia, a bit of autism etc. That being said, he's actually quite good. In fact he'll be graduating from the Autistic class into the normal classes. Unfortunately, he's still a bit lax when it comes to sharing.
Iskandar is just soo cute, complete with baby-face, long eyelashes, mischievous yet innocent demeanour and child-like fascination with everything. He's afraid of loud noises which explains his phobia of rain, specifically rain & thunder (just like Haruhi Fujioka!). Also, when there are loud noises nearby, he closes his ears and starts spouting gibberish/random phrases like "Good Morning Teacher" and most commonly "Osa, osa, osa". You just have to hear how cute he is!! His favourite word is radio and he has a strange attachment to said device. Academically, he get's distracted really easily however, he's forte is maths. He can easily count up to 40 whilst the others falter around the 20 mark. Loli-shota anyone?
Chun Hong is well...for lack of a better word..untamed. Seeing as he's quite "new" to the class, Cikgu Mariam is still trying to get him to sit still. He regularly cries but the way he cries is hard to describe. He often cries out in LOUD bursts (Iskandar normally starts sputtering gibberish at this point) but then he'll get distracted quickly and settle down just as rapidly...it's a really weird potentially ear-drum perforating experience. Beneath his 'untamed' exterior, I believe he is normal. It's just that fate dealt him a bad hand. He has a tendency to spout completely random phrases and sing random (usually Chinese) songs. His favourite is CNY songs but also sings a medley of english songs.
Edzra (I think this is how his name is spelt). I know little about this boy since his attendance to the school is quite irregular. He has OCD and throws a tantrum when his schedule gets messed up. I think his disability is something like severe dyslexia. Accordingly, he takes a loooong time to learn something. His speech is also kinda slurred and difficult to hear. He loves puzzles.
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Labels:
association,
dyslexia,
Malaysia
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