Educational Psychologist

[pedro01]

Hi All

My son is having some developmental problems - he's almost 4 years old but is way behind in his language development. He is also having problems keeping up with some of the subjects at school. The school even mentioned that they may not be able to handle him for much longer. Apart from this, Ben is a VERY sociable child, he knows how to turn on the charm, he is intelligent and learns what he wants to learn very quickly, then in other areas he's weak - such as his manual dexterity, balance and perhaps his short term memory. He is often in his own world and even has his own language to some extent. When I use flash cards & show him something for which he doesn't know the name, he will say something in gibberish. If you don't teach him the right word & ask him again later - he'll come out with the same made-up word. He can speak & ask for things - but he's like a 2 year old in his speech development.

The school has recommended having him assessed by an educational psychologist - the problem now is finding someone in Thailand that can help us. Not only do we need an educational psychlogist, we need one that can speak English !

We have taken him to local doctors - a few doctors have said that he's autistic - a diagnosis that I am not ready to accept as they did generally this after 10 minutes with him, no tests were carried out & no recommendations given. Speech therapists have given us exercises to carry out with him but nothing that has captured his imagination - and without that - he cannot concentrate.

Can anyone recommend an educational psychologist here or perhaps Singapore ? Other alternatives will be considered.

Cheers

Pedro

[leisurely]

Contact 'The Village' here in Bangkok. It is a small school specialising in children with special needs. You would have to get the number from directory enquiries. All staff are english speaking and the director is a very kind man who would be able to either help or point you in the right direction.

Good luck

[GoodHeart]

While I have no firsthand knowledge- I was told by an educator here that the Rose Marie Academy has a lot of experience working with special needs children.

http://www.rose-marie.ac.th/

[Sheryl]

Hi All

My son is having some developmental problems - he's almost 4 years old but is way behind in his language development. He is also having problems keeping up with some of the subjects at school. The school even mentioned that they may not be able to handle him for much longer. Apart from this, Ben is a VERY sociable child, he knows how to turn on the charm, he is intelligent and learns what he wants to learn very quickly, then in other areas he's weak - such as his manual dexterity, balance and perhaps his short term memory. He is often in his own world and even has his own language to some extent. When I use flash cards & show him something for which he doesn't know the name, he will say something in gibberish. If you don't teach him the right word & ask him again later - he'll come out with the same made-up word. He can speak & ask for things - but he's like a 2 year old in his speech development.

The school has recommended having him assessed by an educational psychologist - the problem now is finding someone in Thailand that can help us. Not only do we need an educational psychlogist, we need one that can speak English !

We have taken him to local doctors - a few doctors have said that he's autistic - a diagnosis that I am not ready to accept as they did generally this after 10 minutes with him, no tests were carried out & no recommendations given. Speech therapists have given us exercises to carry out with him but nothing that has captured his imagination - and without that - he cannot concentrate.

Can anyone recommend an educational psychologist here or perhaps Singapore ? Other alternatives will be considered.

Cheers

Pedro

Samitivej has a pysch clinic which includes specialists in children and they do various types of tests. Likewise Bangkok Hospital has a clinic but it is concealed under the euphemism "special clinic" so easy to miss on the web site. I think it's fairly large and it treats children with attnetion deficit and the like. Either of these places can probably provide the detailed exam and testing that is needed -- agree with you that a diagnosis made that casually is not reliable. In fact, your description of him as very sociable sounds distinctly unlike autism. It's worth getting a thorough work-up to arrive at the right diagnosis. Good luck.

[gingerflower]

Can't help with Thailand resources but.....

http://www.exploralearning.com/index.html

this is a company in Singapore that we came across while contimplating a move there. I can't recommend them personally as we haven't dealt with them but it may be a good place for you to start.

Our son had/has very similar difficulties to yours. Have you ever heard of Central Auditory Processing Disorder? You can't get a definitive diagnosis until a child is 7yo but we have been working with a speech therapist with the assumption that our guy has CAPD. Specifically, we've been working on his auditory memory. We've had great results over the past 8 months.

Good luck and let me know if I can help any further.