VSA camp 2006

Tuesday:
the orientation day for VSA camp. yucky cos Mel and Jiejie got assigned to the same grp (Pinocchio) while i kena ostracize (to Snow White). then it so happened that the peeps in my grp all came tog and the only girl, who is not from the clique, is 3 yrs younger than me, comes from integrated program and behaves much more mature than me.
then during the talks we were introduced to more on the behavioural patterns of children with Down syndrome and autism. listen until very sleepy but made me worried wad if i cannot handle the child (autistic) assigned to me... the speaker, she mention sensory overload and stuffs like that.

Wednesday:
the first day of camp where we meet the kids. was still nervous and i too gan jeong already. hitch daddy's car end up reach at 815 when we were supposed to reach at 9. then i end up zor bo walk ard the school explore like a zombie (also because not enough sleep). took some pictures of the school wall decoration...

then very early Zhan Xin's mother brought him in. so i asked the routine qn we were taught to ask: is he allergic or sensitive to anything? then his mum also like in a rush to move off. that's abt all i asked.

Thursday:
today i actually looked forward to gg camp. haha though feeling sleepy but the spirit is there. anyway Zhan Xin was nicer today when i met him. he's answering a lot more of my questions and showing more positive response than ytd.
but then suddenly just before we were waiting at the canteen for the bus to the botanic garden, he suddenly walked very fast towards the bus and it was drizzling... goodness. it took hell lot of effort to finally coax him back to the canteen. i had to suffer one long scratch on my arm. thanks to TY if not i really dunno how to talk him into gg back to the canteen. he was using his whole body weight to push me.
cos botanic garden very near town... so we left direct from there for dinner. we went to Taka de mos burger with Jiejie, Mel, Jian and new friend BoonTat... =X after that accompany ah Mel go her usual hang out (Kinokuniya and HMV) before we left for home... fell asleep on the train. so bad. ah mel alighted at kovan never tell me. den i wake up she already gone le. )'=
managed to take some pictures at the garden...

Friday:
well think woke up on the wrong side of the bed today so quite moody. on the bus with the IP girl from Snow White then i also never talk. a bit anti-social. bad bad WangWang. today got more response from Zhan Xin in the morning but after that in the afternoon he suddenly become very moody and keep complaining about headache. keep walking around the classroom in circles too. i became very dizzy and got headache also. try to stop him end up head got worse. so i resorted to sitting down and jus let him roam since he's not doing any harm to the rest. had some trouble getting him to eat his dinner as he don't take fried rice... coaxing didn't work. help from Jiejie and TY before got him to stop his tantrum and eat hotdog bun.
i learnt today the bus that he likes to draw is called a spy bus. and i used that to coax him into making a shirt for his play (Sam the crumpled tee boy) and actually joining in the play.

Afterthought:
autistic children look so normal it is impossible to differentiate them from the rest of us. some of them are so cute... but i wonder what will it be like when they grow up. is it really a lifetime thing for their parents to take care of them? 3 days only and i am so tired, then their parents everyday also have to take care of them, isn't that even more tiring? i do hope science will be able to discover the cause of autism soon. only then can we find a cure.
i also happen to notice that the participants for this camp mostly come from well to do or above average families. more efforts should be put in to raise awareness among the lower-income families too. i encountered a few snob kids who are siblings to the children. so what if they are without disabilities, they forget to be humble.