it is tough to give stephen medicine whenever he is sick. we thank God for the maid who love him, even thought of putting medication into sweetened drink for him.

stephen's speech is moving onto what is known as"Echolalia". this is a term that describes the repetition of other peoples' words. supposing to be a sign that his speech is developing. very often he will repeat what we say therefore we are careful to use words / sentences that are meaningful to his situation so that when he use it, a positive / essential reaction takes place. this is to help him know that words have "power " to move thing. isn't that biblical? As God spoke, the world was created.

for me the 2 greatest challages now are (1)how to help him express whenever he is fustrated. now he resort to "violance" kicking and hitting pp. can be very painful. (2) how to have him walk when we are out shopping etc. often he want angel to carry him and that's very tiring. his current pram is already starting to give way. makes it hard to go places too.

my observation tell me also stephen is able to "feel" strongly the love of pp for him. of course i am in 4th position when the family is concern. maybe now 5th. the other day, he actually took deborah's hand to have deborah bring him downstair to the car instead of me. similar situation happens in sch and church too.

in sch he willingly go with teacher Hanazah (teacher for 2006). and when his teacher for 2007 was sick, he didn't even wanted to take the thomas train picture and go with the teacher that was taking over. austistic child has a issue with socialising? that makes me think again, maybe they are good at choosing who they want to be with.

His new year at sch has started. and the school got a different teacher to teach him. he is also having a 2 student to one teacher this year. last year was one to one. supposely his is improving so the teacher -student ratio went up.

was a shock to us and believe stephen too when we know that he is going to have a different teacher. i guess for me, i am happy that he got a teacher who love him as a person, not just cheers when he is able to complete a task. usually we are only happy when a task is done but we seldom celebrate the effort (effort not necessary = result). i believe he should be happy in the process of achieving the task we have set for him. so we will wait and see what happen. he still look out for his 2006 teacher. so his 2007 teacher got some catch up to do to win his trust and favour. just like me.