children galore

these 2 days of work have been especially children galore.

seen and interacted with so many cute small lil kids! today, i conducted a circle of friends with a group of p1 kids.... and they're awww so lovely.

it's the first time i tried out the circle of friends and it's pretty interesting. i was trying to help this boy (suspected autism) make friends, by picking 5 volunteers in his class to be his circle of friends.. so they are in charge of taking care of him, reminding him things and basically, be his friends! i think the idea is really great..

u shld see those little kids.. u'd melt! and the things they say.. haha.

i asked, so how can u make him smile more often? what can u guys do?

one of them said, tickle him! *tickle tickle*

give him calvin and hobbes!

and all the other silly little things they say... so cute la!!!

yesterday, we went to visit a special school. ethan's enrolled in that school in an autism class. we were touring the classes when i heard ethan's distinctive cries. i looked into the classroom and saw a little boy lying on the floor, screaming and crying and twisting.. the teacher was struggling to pull him up. he turned a little and i saw his side view... it's ethan. my heart broke.

i didn't know what to do/how to feel but as the principal who was guiding us and the rest of the group moved away, i had to follow too. i felt helpless. seeing my own nephew in there, struggling, yet i couldn't do anything to help him. i didn't tell anyone and just walked away.

i think this affected me alot. i thought of my poor auntie (his grandma), how she would be heartbroken to know this, how she's barely able to take care of ethan at home anymore.. how she's old, tired, jaded.

in my job, i sometimes feel so torn between children in mainstream schools and children in special schools... many of them need help, just in varying degrees. those in mainstream are abit luckier.. they usually are able to learn more.. my heart pains for children like ethan, who are probably unable to learn much for the rest of their lives, but of cos the philosophy is always to maximise their learning, to give them whatever little they can have. any bit counts.

selfishly i wish ethan can be like a mainstream kid.. to be able to have friends, play catching, learn knowledge, read stories, buy his own food, laugh with people. these are such simple things that each of us grew up with, but for severely autistic kids like ethan these are things which may never happen for a lifetime to come.