Tag: Autism

Piano prodigy to raise funds for autistic kids

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by GAN PEI LING © The Star 17 August 2017

Charitable move: Ticket sales from Andrew’s concert will go towards raising funds for autistic children and buying a piano for his former primary school.

SERDANG: An award-winning 12-year-old music prodigy is dedicating his first solo piano concert on Sept 2 towards raising funds for autistic children and buying a piano for his former primary school.

Andrew Kuik Jie En started learning the piano at the age of seven.

He won first prize in the children’s category at the 2013 Abing­ton (Oxfordshire) Music Festival in Britain when he was eight.

Since then, he has won several prestigious piano competitions in the country, including the Steinway and Sons Youth Piano Competition (Category 2, for contestants aged 11 to 14) and the Kingsburg Inter­national Piano Competition (Inter­mediate Category) Excellent Gold Award last year.

Half of the ticket sales for his recital – priced at RM40 for each ticket – will be donated to the National Autism Society of Malaysia (Nasom).

“I learnt about autism through a play (adapted from British author Mark Haddon’s mystery novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) in drama class in school and I sympathise with them,” said Andrew, who enrolled in the Nexus International School in Putrajaya last year on a scholarship.

He has also met autistic children and learnt the challenges of communicating with them.

The organiser of the Steinway and Sons Youth Piano Competition, Bentley Music, will be hosting Andrew’s hour-long recital at the Bentley Music Academy in Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, from 3pm to 4pm.

Andrew said they had raised about RM18,000 for Nasom and RM40,000 to buy a baby grand piano for his alma mater, SJK (C) Shin Cheng (Harcroft).

“I want to buy a new piano for the school because the existing one is very old and sounds off,” he added.

Andrew has been practising five hours a day for the past two months to give his best at the recital.

He will be playing eight classical pieces from composers such as Bach and Chopin.

To buy tickets to his recital, call Madam Chua at 010-286 6809.

Seven-year-old wonder kid

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by GAN PEI LING © The Star 8 May 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: She could not hold a pencil and does not like wri­ting much.

Yet, Madhu Barghavi Vijaya­ku­mar has written her first children’s book at the age of seven.

Diagnosed with autism two years ago, the girl has become an inspiration for families with autistic children.

The launch of her 24-page book titled The Golden Parrot and the Magic Teapot attracted almost a full house at the auditorium of the National Museum yesterday.

A nervous Barghavi read out on stage one of her two short stories in the book, accompanied by her mother Jegadeswari Krishnan.

“It’s amazing she has come this far, a girl who earlier didn’t want to read and write or hold a pencil,” said her personal tutor Mahalet­chumi Tavamany, 37.

Just three years ago, Barghavi had poor motor skills and Mahalet­chumi had to train her to work with clay, marbles and play dough to strengthen her grip.

“Even now, she still doesn’t like writing that much.

“She prefers activities like liste­ning to people read books,” said the special education teacher.

Mahaletchumi has been spen­ding an hour to tutor Barghavi weekly since 2014.

Jegadeswari said the idea of the first story about the golden parrot in the book came to Barghavi last year when her school teacher gave her an empty booklet to write a story.

“The booklet only had illustrations as she hates writing but she repeated the story to me a few times so I encouraged her to write it,” she said.

“It took her a few weeks and immediately after that, she came up with the second story on the magic teapot.”

Jegadeswari, who wanted to nurture the author in her daughter, then found a family who offered to sponsor the publication cost.

Priced at RM28.90 and published by Rakyat Media Industries, proceeds from the book sale will go to non-profit organisation Love Au­tism Society of Malaysia (Per­sama).

Persama patron Tan Sri Dr M. Kayveas, Persama founder Thila Laxshman, and director of a film on autism Redha, Tunku Mona Riza were also present yesterday.

“Don’t mould your child. What I did was accepting her as she was and try to encourage and empower her in the face of adver­sity.

“I don’t see raising her as a challenge but an experience.

“I didn’t try to change anything in her and she has grown on her own,” Jegadeswari said.