Ping Lian comes into his own
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; Special Needs on 7 Feb 2005.
Recently the Star (Metro) carried an encouraging story about 11-year old Yeak Ping Lian, Malaysia’s own autistic savant. Ping Lian is autistic and ADHD whose artistic talents have just come to light. He is homeschooled and has recently been added to the Savant Profiles of the Wisconsin Medical Society website of University of Wisconsin Medical School. That’s where internationally recognised expert on savant syndrome Dr Darold A Treffert is attached to.
Visit Ping Lian’s website and gallery here. I’ve been told by Pam of Calvary Life Ministries that the boy and his family attends Calvary Church. Read about Ping Lian and other extraordinary autistic savants at the terrific Wisconsin Medical Society website. More about Dr Treffert who advised on the Dustin Hoffman movie The Rain Man, here.
Ping Lian only started homeschooling when it became apparent that conventional schools couldn’t handle him. Tragically, authorities still insist that differently-abled kids stay in school under the new mandatory education act (compulsory for the first 6 years, since 2003) even when trained personnel and facilities aren’t readily available. But they’re beginning to relent – exemptions are now given to medically certified children to homeschool on application to the Ministry of Education. (Guess where that puts ‘normal’ kids who want to homeschool for no better reason than sheer conviction?)
I appreciate that not all parents may be able to cope with a special child (even if I believe parents do it better) nor do they want to homeschool, but present resources certainly do not inspire confidence. So, what to do?
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Homefrontier » Child prodigy’s father advocates homeschool Says:
16 November 2010 at 1:33 am.
[...] can also read about Malaysia’s own autistic savant Yeak Ping Lian in HOMEFRONTIER here and here. ShareThis var shared_object = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: document.title, url: [...]
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