Info Updates

I'm sorry to the one who sent me an email to update their info on the list, I accidentally deleted your email.  I forgot which one of you was it.  Please send me another email at atsee27@yahoo.com of your updated info.

PID, I already included you in the list, plus your requested seminar info below.

Thanks!

SPED Seminar

There will be a 3-day SPED Seminar at the Phil. Institute for the Deaf on April 24, 25, 26, 2013; 9AM-3PM.  Those interested may call the numbers below.

 

Outline of the Course

Types of Special Needs Students

Characteristics of Each Type & Recommended Programs

DepEd Policies and Guidelines for Special Education

Psychology of Exceptional Children

Class Management and Instructional Materials

Special Education Teaching Principles

Evaluation & Writing of the Individualized Education Program [IEP]

Methods and Techniques in Teaching

Hands-On: Demonstration & Practice Teaching

Course Fee: P3000 Inclusive of Handouts & Certificate of Completion

[Discounts for Students, Public School Teachers, Parents and Groups of 3 from any NGO] 

Facilitator is Ms. Julie Esguerra, Speech Therapist

Venue: PID, Nagtahan, Pandacan, Manila

Tels: 564-0156*564-0126*703-1819 0927-266-1858

Dale and his fascination with Minecraft and drawing

Dale has been keeping notebook after notebook of drawings.  He has about 20 big notebooks that he fills up with cartoon characters.  He sort of migrated to using paint and Photoshop, but he still draws in his notebooks.  Here are some of his drawings:

Aren't they cute?  :)

He also has a YouTube channel now for when he plays Minecraft and records them (gift he asked from my Mom is payment for the game and Bandicam, a video recording software).  This is the first video he made, I was in awe because I could understand what he was saying!

Because in real life, we really cannot understand him most of the time because he talks too fast.  Before he started this, I was kind of skeptical because I told him that maybe the people who will watch the video cannot understand him.   I even asked him to disable comments because I told him I might not get over negative comments (LOL).

His siblings told me that Dale is a bit of boastful jerk in online gaming communities.  He seems like a know-it-all.  I told him not to boastful and he said he wasn't.  He also congratulates them if they kill his character.  Haha.

To end this post, here is his YouTube channel intro:

Hello people and friends, This is Arolf and Toast! Explore my adventures in Minecraft and more!

(Become a toaster if necessary.)

Carly and Dale

It has been a long time since I wrote about Dale.  He's now 14 years old and will be in Grade 8 this coming June.  School was great because for the first time in years, he didn't get a line of 7 in his final grades and he finished 6th in the classroom.   Behavior was tolerable, from what his teacher said.  There was an episode where he ran to the library and hit a senior with a pen, but it was handled well.

He acquired another "annoying" habit of "taser-ing" his neck with his fingers.  Tasering, as he calls it, is like sending an electric shock through his body.  He said it helps him control the bad and evil thoughts that comes through his brain.

He also touches surfaces of the furniture or the light switch in rapid succession and tells me he is trying to ward off evil by his touch somehow.  He also asked if he could speak to a priest about it.  Of course, I said yes, but we haven't really gotten around to it somehow.

It's a tiring and hot summer, and all he wants to do is play on the computer or his Bolt (a tablet).  He is begging off violin lessons since it's summer vacation.  Maybe we'll go back as soon as school starts.

I feel terrible when most of the time I start to tell him to stop doing the things he is doing, like talking too much or whining when he doesn't get what he wants.  I should understand him better.  He asks me to pray with him before he sleeps because he said I help him to not think of other bad things.

He said that this attitude came also from him becoming a teenager now.  Come to think of it, maybe it is.  Maybe the normal rebellious teenager ways for him are these behaviors. 

There was this one time that we went to a family gathering, and he didn't want to swim.  He claims that the trees bother him.  We got into a fight where in all the frustration, I punched him in the arm (yes, I am a bad mother) and I just screamed at him and cried while we talked.  He even told me "You dare punch your own son?!" I told him things that I am not proud of and regret now.  I think all my patience ran out that day.  All my frustrations, I just let them melt and explode.  When I wasn't talking to him anymore, he silently slid on his trunks and went to swim because he said he didn't want me to get mad anymore.  He got out of the pool after an hour because I earlier said that "if you could only swim for one hour!"

The next day when we were both calm, I told him I was sorry and he said, "It's okay, Mom. I'm sorry, too, that I cannot follow everything you want me to do."

He reminds me now of Carly, the brave teenager who has autism and cannot talk.  She is now 17, I think.  Carly said here that her brain is wired differently.  Exactly what Dale told me years ago.  I am now telling myself to have more patience with him and be thankful that I have Dale, just as her parents have Carly.  No two children are alike, but Carly and Dale have something in common.  They just want to be happy.

Watch Carly's story below: