School / Special Needs

Making Writing Fun For An Autistic Child Who Struggles With Spelling And Language

by Laila Zain · December 8, 2017

I like writing. I like it a whole lot. My job is to write at SAYS and for fun I write on this stupid blog. It’s my job and my hobby omg I’m such a loser. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. Now that I’m an adult, I still want to be a writer. Ayub does not want to be a writer.

The kiddo only learned how to recognise the individual letters of the alphabet when he was 6 years old. He could sing the song, but it just hadn’t clicked for him that each letter you sang, represented a letter (and sound) that you write.

I am the worst teacher in the world

It was a struggle and I got very agitated when I tried to teach Ayub. I’m kind of an asshole. The kind of asshole that doesn’t study or do homework but still gets an ‘A’ during the exam. That was me. I assumed that Ayub would be the same. But of course, he’s much cooler than me, so no. Ayub is not an asshole.

Ayub is kindness and love.

He would come home with homework when he was 6 years old. It would be three pictures with the word below and one missing letter. For example, the picture of a cat and below it: _ A T. Fill in the blanks. I would say “Cat, ‘ke’, ke-at. What letter sounds like ‘ke'”?

Ayub would be like… “A?” No. “B?” No… “L?” -_-

Eventually I would say “C-A-T”. And he would have no idea which letter ‘C’ is.

So, we would sing the alphabet while looking at the alphabet written out and point to each letter as we sang, until we reached the one we wanted to write. Does that make sense? Omg, it was the worst. It didn’t help that Mr Smartypants Sulaiman taught himself how to read when he was 3 and was always butting in and giving the correct answers and making Ayub feel bad.

Had to lock him away playing video games with Mr Ninja in the Man-Cave. Eventually I had to CREATE HOMEWORK for Sulaiman so he had something to do while Ayub did his homework. Annoying fella.

Here’s Sulaiman aged 2, dressed as Mickey Mouse for his end-of-year school concert just because.

Anyway I learned how to read when I was 7 or 8 so I wasn’t too bothered about Ayub not being able to at the age of 6.

His kindergarten teachers taught him the alphabet

I just can’t be a full-time homeschooler. Luckily Ayub and Sulaiman were attending the most amazing kindergarten in the world I love it so much it’s called Little Kingdom. His teachers eventually taught him how to recognise each letter individually. I don’t know how they did it. Probably drilled it into him. It was a Chinese kindy and they really focused on study. Seeing as he was weak in language, they decided not to teach him Mandarin, but would use that time to focus on English instead. Ayub was happy and loved and learning so it was fine with me.

Ayub aged 5 at the Little Kingdom year end concert (Fat Sulaiman on the left).

He still couldn’t read or spell but at least he could finally recognise the alphabet. Sometimes Ayub forgets how to write a certain alphabet even now, but it’s cool. Who needs capital ‘G’ and capital ‘Y’ anyway? Those are the ones he always struggles with.

The Dyslexia Association of Malaysia taught him how to read

A blessing that came from Ayub’s misdiagnosis of dyslexia was that we were introduced to the Dyslexia Association of Malaysia and they are the most wonderful people. Kind, caring, patient, and so supportive of their kids. They have a special way of teaching the kids how to read and write. Ayub ended up excelling there. Well, obviously because he’s not dyslexic.

Sweaty Ayub on the left. Field trip to the park with the Dyslexia Association of Malaysia.

Eventually his teachers advised me to take him out of the centre because they were worried he wouldn’t be able to reach his full potential there and may start to regress. He could read.

But he couldn’t write.

Starting a journal the Ayub way

In January 2017 I was all “Yaaaaas let’s set goals and make good habits and be awesome as a famileh!” That lasted about two weeks. But within those two weeks, the boys started journals and wrote in them every day.

One sentence a day, I told them.

Sulaiman’s journal lasted a bit longer and I should go look for it because it’s amazing. His entries were like, “Today I ate chicken.” “Today I ate noodles.” “Today I play phone.” “Today nothing happened.”

Ayub’s entries were such a struggle to get on paper. I’d ask him what he wanted to write. And his answer was either “I don’t know” or a jumble of words and no coherent thought. Thank Emma for speech therapy.

At the same time, Ayub started attending Acton KL and his first ever sprint was to write a journal.

Spelling is hard but Click n Spell has made it easier

Thank you Acton KL guides for introducing Ayub to Click n Spell. It’s an online spelling program. Ayub can’t learn in a class. He can’t listen in a group setting. Too many distractions make it near impossible for him to consume information, let alone retain it.

Online learning has served Ayub well. Just him, his computer, and his headphones. No people. Gamification. It’s good for him.

I like to give the kids words to spell just for fun. I start with really simple ones like “cat”, “hug”, and all our names. Until they keep asking for harder words. This is what happened with Ayub last month:

Ayub: Mama I’m so good at spelling now. Give me a word I will spell for you.

Me: Ok. Spell ‘school’

Ayub: S-H-O-O…

Me: …

Ayub: C-L!

Me: Well, you got all the letters. Good job. Spell ‘mosque’

Ayub: M-O-S-K.

Me: Lol. Close enough.

Ayub: All your words are too hard. I will pick a word. I will spell ‘coconut!’

Me: Ok.

Ayub: C-O-C-U-N-T

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Cocunt. Ok, still a way to go with Ayub. But he gets the general idea.

This post is getting way longer than I anticipated

Look, all I wanted to do was show you Ayub’s kick-ass journal about programming. I gave you a whole backstory instead. Sorry.