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‘Pay it forward’ is a value that Pathlight School adopts. We believe that our students can be of service to others despite having ASD. We have been fortunate the last two years having generous donors to help our school be where it is today. Now it’s our turn to give something back.
On the 13 October 2006, seven Pathlighters, four student volunteers and four adults including Mrs Lilian Chai, Ms Loy and Ms Annie headed for Beijing for five days.
The main itinerary of the trip was to visit Hope Foster Home in Shun Yi, Beijing. This orphanage helps abandoned physically disabled and sick babies in Beijing. Pathlight students were there to get a close up view on how these babies live. They were also there to do their part for the home.
“The children helped to clean the toys for the kindergarten and weed the garden,” said Mrs Chai.
It was a good learning experience, as most of the students do not do a lot of chores at home back in Singapore.
As this was the first time taking ASD students out of Singapore, there were concerns on how the students will adapt to a new environment. The school did the
pre-departure talk and during the trip, schedules were given and directions clearly stated.
“The children were obedient and were good at following teachers’ direction. They tried to stay in the group, help each other and played well together,” said Mrs Chai.
This was also the first time the teachers got a glimpse of what it was like for the students after school. They noticed the students still lacked life skills.
“They needed a lot of prompts on the steps of bathing and what to eat when it came to meal preparation (eg. breakfast and sushi night), they needed physical modelling, verbal and physical prompts to help them out,” said Mrs Chai.
Based on the above observation, Mrs Chai suggests that parents give the child the opportunity to pack their own bags when going on holidays, plan a checklist and minimise prompts during packing. It is also important to look out for the missing skill that the child may have when on holiday. Simulation will also help the child in transition and how to generalise.
When it China, do what the Chinese do. The students also got a chance to tour famous monuments of China such as the Forbidden City, climbed the Great wall, Tiananmen Square and the night market at Wang Fu Jin.
Mrs Chai said that the students enjoyed themselves a lot that they even talked about the trip when they returned.
Mrs Chai and the other teachers are now working on the students play skills by letting them play monopoly to let them practice turn-taking. This is an extension of the trip.
So, with the right visuals, work system and schedule, going on holiday with an ASD child can be memorable. Even being on the plane for six hours did not cause the students to flinch.
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