This is the story about how Ayub had unintentional speech and drama therapy at school.

At the start of every school sprint the Acton KL guides will email the weekly syllabus out. And every time I feel stressed at the thought of Ayub having to go through it. Everything looks like a mountain of a challenges for my special needs kid. Yet, at the end of the sprint, I’m constantly blown away during the exhibition day when Ayub does his presentation.

But this time, when I saw that the sprint was drama, my heart dropped. The kids had to write, direct, and star in their own play, led by SoulArist. How could Ayub possibly do that?

All my worries about the drama sprint

1. Ayub has short term memory issues. He’s like Dory. Tell him something and he’ll forget it 5 minutes later.
2. Ayub has speech issues. His biggest issue. A lot of difficulty with speech and comprehension. He struggles to speak with clarity. He often repeats his words in loops, never quite getting to the point. And comprehension? Oh boy, he tries so hard and it breaks my heart to see him struggle with comprehension.
3. Ayub has a small emotional range. He understands happy, sad, and angry. Anything else is a little too nuanced for him. He’s just so pure. Once he asked me why Aisha screams when he hugs me. I told him she was jealous. “What does jealous mean?” You know how sometimes when you see someone with a really cool toy or game or device, and you feel like you wish you had it? And you feel kinda frustrated and a little angry that they have it but you don’t? “No. I feel happy they have it.”

Ayub’s first disastrous encounter with speech and drama

So when Ayub was 5-6 years old, his kindergarten had extracurricular speech and drama club once a week after school. Back then, Ayub hadn’t yet been diagnosed with autism. But it was plainly obvious that he had speech problems. So I thought enrolling him into the club would help his speech and boost his confidence. It did not.

During his concert day, his club put on a play. King Arthur. Ayub couldn’t remember his lines. He couldn’t read yet at that time. When it was his turn to speak, all the kids and the teachers were whispering his name loudly. “Ayub! Speak! Ayub it’s your line!” He mumbled inaudible nonsense and the play continued until it came to his part again.

Although he couldn’t explain it, I could see that he felt embarrassed and humiliated. I felt awful. Awful that he couldn’t learn his lines or speak and extra awful that it was my idea to put him in that position.

So when the sprint came up at school as drama, all those old feelings came back.

I was so worried I emailed his school

Hi Acton Team!

This sprint sounds really fun 😀

I just want to preempt you all that it’s going to be a tough one for Ayub. Speech, body language, comprehension, and conversation skills are his biggest weaknesses. I’m very excited that he will be able to work on these weaknesses at Acton and I’ll be forwarding the sprint brief to his therapists so they know how to help support him outside of school. But I am a little worried that he may be frustrated (and frustrate his peers) when he’s unable to complete what may be simple tasks to others, because they are very difficult for him i.e. memorizing lines, script writing, improv.

Please do continue to build his confidence and reassure him that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and that he doesn’t need to “compete” with the other eagles. And if possible, please do explain to the other eagles that they may need to practice extra patience with Ayub this sprint (even MORE so than usual lol).

Thanks all!