Iman and his father

A diary by Iman's father - June 28, 2011


Today I sent  Iman to UKM Autism Lab. Started from this month (up to Sept.) MaIA conducted a classroom intervention for five autism children including my son. It is like a classroom setting. Iman really improves a lot since he was sent to MaIA, he started to interact with our family members. Thank’s God.

At 9:15 am Iman and his friends started to go to the class. They were marching to the class by holding a long rope so as to make sure all of them goes straightly to the class. I feel so sad to see his faith as an autistic child. What will happen to him when I was no more in this world. Thus educating these children at younger age is crucial for their future development.


I keep on watching all of them marching to the class. All of them look so excited to get into their classroom heading by their teacher. To all the teachers at MaIA, I really appreciate your contribution in educating our children. May God bless you.

Tip's In Handling Iman's Sensory Problems

The following list tells you about Iman's sensory problems. We've got some solutions towards some of his behaviors, but the rest remains unsolved (thus I need some help if you can suggest something to us regarding his sensory behaviors) :-

1.He couldn't stand the sound of a blender, so we use to ask him to push the start button, it takes so long for him to get use to it. At last it works. My friend told me, autism children do have a very sensitive sensory, that blender might sound so irritating to his ears, thus we should be able to convince them that 'it's ok - there's no threat"

2.He is still playing with his own saliva - this problem remains unsolved

3. He likes to bite on plastic materials, also his clothes resulting them to have some holes all over his t shirts. I also need to change to a new handbag, sometimes once a month. One thing that worries me a lot is his behavior in biting the electrical wires, telephone wires etc. This is so dangerous. That's why I can't sleep early at night as I'm so worry about him - this problem also remains unsolved

IMAN'S PROFILE

My son, Muhammad Tajul Iman was born on 15th June 2003. He was like a normal boy when he was born until he was up to 2 years. We noticed something not right in him. He's physically normal, but there are a few things that makes us so worry. When he was 2 1/2 year old, we referred him to Hospital Besar Kuala Terengganu as I noticed my son always knocked his head for no reason. Also, I noticed he was not able to speak or communicate with us thoroughly, no eye contact, and temper tantrums. After a series on treatment and follow up, the Doctor at HUKM diagnosed him to have Autism and ADHD (Attention Defisit Hyperactive Disorder) problem. It was in July 2005. That was only 2 months after my Phd registration at UKM Bangi. Now, he is already 8 years, eventhough he's yet to speak, but he seems to have lots of improvement since I sent him to MaIA (UKM Autism Lab) in March 2009. I hope this blog will help you to get a clear picture on what is Autism and help you to cope with your children, students and also with those Autistic person in your neighbourhood.

We need to educate parents, teacher and caregivers, also to help them to cope with their daily lives. It's not an easy way to deal with children with Autism. We're chosen by the God and to have such a good commitment in our lives, education and all the support materials are crucial for us to survive and to help other people in  need. Not just among us, we hope this page will be able to make people out there to understand more about Autism World. So that they will always be there to support us. Thank you.

Video Interview With Parents at MaIA UKM

To all my friends, here I show you our video interview among parents of Autism Children. I'm sorry as this video is yet to be translated to English version. For the time being it is in Malay Language, hope to get you an English version ASAP.

VIDEO - Press to Preview

Iman's/Parents's Diary - A process to know you Iman

30th June 2011- Mum's Diary

Today we're on our trip to Petrosains KLCC. Today I noticed that we parents should be more attached to our son's education centre. When we spent time together on a trip to KL, it's gives us an opportunity to interact with teachers and other parents also. I do bring Iman's other siblings as I believe it'll help them to release their tension also. To me going for a trip today is like a "Wow moment". I remembered a book form Jamilah Samian "Cool Mum Super Dad" that said parents should have their own precious moments together, so start thinking about a candle light dinner, going to watch movie, bowling, etc etc with my beloved hubby. My daughter thank me so much and ask whether it's possible for us to go to karaoke, I said "YES". She's so happy and I suddenly aware that all this while we've been so stressfull and have limited time for ourselves. My husband and I seems so busy with our Phd since 2005, also we really committed to Iman's treatment and trying to cope with his situation, at the same time, we tend to ignore the rest of the family members. Poor kids. Mummy will never do that again.

Back to Iman, while talking to his teachers today, I got a positive feedback about him in school. He seems to be the most behave student in class. It really surprises me a lot as at home he seems to be the opposite side of him in school. He keeps on pass urine (once in 10 minutes), doing all his bad habits like biting on his clothes, playing with the water at our kitchen sink etc. Something is wrong somewhere. I'm in need to parents education I think. Dr Hasnah gives her positive feedback. There'll be a weekend class for us on parents education. Well I hope so Dr Hasnah. Thanks for your concern!

20 th June

Today is my 40th Birthday. On the way to school, I forced him to eat some bread in the car as he refused to have breakfast this morning. I didn't know that my son will be very angry and threw his temper tantrums again. I cried in the car. After a while I noticed. There's a new lesson for today. "Never force autistic child to do something that they don't want to". So to all my friends out there, please do not do the same mistake. he almost broke my windscreen today (for the 3rd time this year). Thanks to God, it didn't happen today.............. 

Health Tips For All The Parents Out There

Well this is my advice to those parents with autistic children. We got to stay healthy in order to live our life. Thanks to Allah as last year I came to know about Herbalife. I admit that my live was so terrible the first 3 years after my son was diagnosed having 2 in 1 (Autism and ADHD). He's severe Autisme. Iman was diagnosed having Autisme and ADHD in Sept 2005 and I registered my Phd at UKM in July 2005.  Until now I'm yet to complete my study. And I don't know whether there's a "YES" to my hope. My health condition get worse, I was obese, I got asthmatic problem (maybe because too much crying at night) and diabetes.

Back to my health profile. My weight was already 90kg when he was diagnosed. I was also a GDM (Gestational Diabetic Mother) for all my 4 pregnancies. Thus all were Cesarean babies. I started to jap insulin (10 units) since I carried Iman in my womb. I didn't know if this might contributed to his Autistic and Hyperactivity problem. My husband also got High Blood Pressure since 2006 as the whole family can't be in bed early (as the earliest for Iman to sleep was at 3.00 am everyday and this continues until June 2009).

I was growing up to my maximum weight (108 kg on 10th March 2010) and I was ordered to jap insulin (15 units) on 1st April 2010 if my Blood Glucose stays at 15-19. Alhamdulilllah, with Herbalife I managed to get myself free from Insulin Injection as a miracle happen to me. I met a person on 10/3/2010 (only after I got an accident as I cried all the way from the clinic to the University since I was ordered to jap insulin. I can't see a car at the junction as I was really burst in tears that day. Thanks God as nobody was injured that day).

I came to know about a Nutrition Club while I waited for a bank to open. I drink a free sample at the Club (only 1 hour after the accident). That lady who offered me to have a drink that day is my Angle. Her name is Azlinah Ahmad. She made me came to the club for 8 days consecutively (for her to monitor my Diabetic level) but I came to the club 2 weeks consecutively. Thanks to God that on the 1st April the Doctor said that I no need to take insulin. I remembered that day when I cried on the Doctor's shoulder after she said "Laila, if this result stays (for another 2 weeks - Blood Glucose 6.5), you no more have to jap insulin. Just control your diet. Until now my fasting Blood Glucose result stays at 4.5 - 5.5, the most is 6.

My husband's blood pressure also back to normal 4 months after we took Herbalife. The best part is his eyesight became better as he managed to reduce the power of his lense! Thanks to Allah. God still loves me and my husband as he want us to be healthy for our gifted child. Now we enjoy a healthy lifestyle with Herbalife. Only with this product we can increase our plain water intake everyday as the products itself enhance our healthy eating habits. I reduced back to 90kg only after 2 month with Herbalife!! And today (18th June 2011) I'm already 85 kg.

So my advice, please log on to www.myherbalife.com and register yourselves under MY202952 and my Last name is MAT TAHIR. Let's take a healthy food for us to live a better life. The Herbalife tea makes me feel better, it's also anticancer. I use to commute from Bangi to Shah Alam (it takes me 1 1/2 hour everyday from home to my workplace). I can teach up to 6 hours a day. This product is so EXCELLENCE!!! Please view other testimonials in the following videos, to sign up and to know in details please log on to http://tjl-weightlossgain.blogspot.com/ 

Iman's diary

15 th June 2011 - Today's Iman's birthday. He's already 8 now. This week he starts a new habit, he pass urine once in 15 minutes. It was almost a year since UKM Autisme LAb (Maia) managed to toilet trained my son. Unfortunately, this week we'd to put on the diapers again. I can't cope with his behavior. Live is becoming so stressful again as once I put on his diapers, he starts tearing the diapers, he's happy to see the cotton out from the diapers. It's a mess. It's all over the place now, in my house. The maid was so upset and I wonder what will happen next, this is the 3rd maid in a year. Indonesian maid used to ran away from our home nowadays, again, how can I cope with all this??  God please help us, to be though all the way through........ 

Autism Spectrum

The autism spectrum, also called autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or autism spectrum conditions (ASC), with the adjective autistic sometimes replacing the noun autism, is a spectrum of psychological conditions characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, as well as restricted interests and repetitive behaviour.

The terminology of autism can be bewildering. Autism, Asperger syndrome, and PDD-NOS are sometimes called the autistic disorders instead of ASD.Whereas autism itself is often called autistic disorder, childhood autism, or infantile autism. Although the older term pervasive developmental disorder and the newer term autism spectrum disorder largely or entirely overlap,  the former was intended to describe a specific set of diagnostic labels, whereas the latter refers to a postulated spectrum disorder linking various conditions. ASD, in turn, is a subset of the broader autism phenotype (BAP), which describes individuals who may not have ASD but do have autistic-like traits, such as avoiding eye contact. Some autism are severe or moderate or light.

Our first experience dealing with Tajul Iman's behaviour

Tajul Iman at 6 years old

My son was born on 15th June 2003. Everything seems to be normal, our baby was such a cute boy. The main difference between him with other siblings was he stay speechless until the age of 2 years. We notice a few other symptoms : no eye contacts, no social interactions and he always knocked his head, also with temper tantrums.

I registered my Phd (in Food Science & Nutriton at UKM) in July 2005, only then, just 2 months after my registration my son was diagnosed having Autism and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). Can you just imagine, how I cope with his condition? I was just not prepared to take this initially.

My life was like a roller coaster. I didn't know what was Autisme before. I prayed to the God, asking Him, "Are You Punishing me now?". Everyday my son throws his tantrums.  I couldn't sleep well every night. Iman used to stay up until 4 am everyday, busy biting things like plastic materials, electrical wires. I didn't dare to sleep while he was busy playing with those electrical items. He was so fond of fan. I shouted at him almost  everytime when he plays with the standing fan. I was afraid that he might hurt his fingers.

He broke down our sliding doors 3 times in 4 months, he broke down our windsreen twice in a month. I was like crazy. I couldn't stand his behavior and tantrums. I cried in agony. My predicament took me to another serious problem when I couldn't concentrate on my PhD. I just managed to defend my proposal during my third semester. I didn't see my supervisor for so long. She was so angry with me. I cried every time I saw her in her office.

I kept on hiring and firing a few maids. There's no use to pay them a sum of money when they couldn't take care of my son. Some of them even abused my son. He couldn't speak or report anything to me. I remembered one day when I saw my Indonesian maid kicked my son's tummy. I fired her on the same day. I  feel like kicking her out of my door.  But I end up crying. The next day she ran away from home. At least she learnt a lesson.

My health get worse. I suffered from diabetes, asthma (maybe too much of crying especailly at night), anxiety disorder and the worse part, I got Gout at the age of  35. I am a type of person who got a tendency to eat more when |I was stress. I grew up to 108 kg in March 2010. Then it was a turning point in my life when the God saved me from Insulin Injection. (Please refer to "Parent's Health and Education" section from this blog). 

What is Autism

Autism is a neural disorder in the kids which results in an abnormal growth of the kid. The growth of the brain cells is hindered in Autism resulting in poor communication and senses. The symptoms appear during the early age and if not attended well, then can result in a hindered growth of the kid. The symptoms appear by the age of six months and can stick to the child even in his adulthood. The children suffering from Autism cannot communicate well with the kids of their age group neither they are interested in making friends as they become under confident. The behavior of the kid also becomes abnormal and he finds it difficult to react normally to the things happening around him. The thought process is also affected and the kid might not be able to understand things properly.

Autism makes a kid very vulnerable and fearful. It can result in the situations where the kid would not be able to find the appropriate words while speaking. Moreover, the learning ability of the kid also decreases gradually as the disease worsens. The kid would not be able to interpret the things happening around him like sense of light, color, weather and temperature.

Autism can be treated by providing a safe and secure environment for the kid to grow. Regular counseling, treating kid with utmost care are the best ways. Psychologists and therapists help kids to learn in a special way so that they understand all the things around them. Working in a group with kids, group tasks, social skill development can help the kids. Some kids even need help in performing basic tasks like bathing, brushing, dressing up etc. To treat Autism, the parents and the therapists, both are required to show highest level of patience as the only thing which a kid suffering from Autism needs is your time.

Read more: http://www.righthealth.com/topic/What_Is_Autism#ixzz1PUwOEtFE