Week 15 of Serialization of Where Does My Autistic Son Belong? Chapter 15 Bali Recon
In 2019, I published Where Does My Autistic Son Belong?. It chronicles my struggle with raising my adolescent autistic son, Sebastien, and my subsequent decision of setting a home for him in Bali. As part and parcel of A Mother’s Wish initiative (amotherswish.com.sg) to raise awareness about the need to treat autistic individuals with genuine respect and empathy, I am serializing the book on Medium (please see the links below for all the serialized chapters to date, includin
Week 14 of Serialization of Where Does My Autistic Son Belong?
In 2019, I published Where Does My Autistic Son Belong?. It chronicles my struggle with raising my adolescent autistic son, Sebastien, and my subsequent decision of setting a home for him in Bali. As part and parcel of A Mother’s Wish initiative (amotherswish.com.sg) to raise awareness about the need to treat autistic individuals with genuine respect and empathy, I am serializing the book on Medium (please see the links below for all the serialized chapters to date, includin
Painting Series by Jean-Sebastien Choo, Self-taught Autistic Artist #20—That Happy Place
by Choo Kah Ying In a recent conversation with a newfound friend about my posts on my autistic son, Sebastien, I commented casually that writing and thinking about Sebastien living in Bali is my "happy place". But my casualness belies the importance of this "happy place" to me. The truth of the matter is, amidst all that is going wrong with this world—climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic that has prevented me from visiting Sebastien in person in 20 months, writing these
Painting Series by Jean-Sebastien Choo, Self-taught Autistic Artist #19—Mind Canvas
by Choo Kah Ying Whenever I tell people who ask how Sebastien, my autistic son, is doing very well, their first follow-up question would be something along the lines of, "Does he speak more words these days?" Although I can easily empathise with such a neurotypical sentiment, it also saddens me to no end. For it illuminates the immense challenge faced by A Mother's Wish in its mission to change the limiting, but predominant, mindset of many, including parents of autistic indi
