Esplanade's guest writer, Lawrence Ng shares how he has used the arts to help his son, who is on the austism spectrum, learn and grow through the arts.

This article is an excerpt of the article by Esplanade, read the full article here.


Like most dads, I run around, kick a ball and climb the occasional tree with my son Kai. But here's something about Kai: he has autism.

Born in 2004, he was a healthy adorable kid. However, when he was about three and a half years old, we noticed that he seemed different from his peers. Apart from speech and communication delays, his behaviour was often explosively violent, and he had tantrums that would last for hours. Eventually, after a lengthy process of occupational and psychological assessments, he was confirmed to be on the autism spectrum. I was devastated.

Read on here to find out how the arts has helped this father-son pair to grow as individuals and strengthened their relationship!

Image Credit: Esplanade