"When our son, Kai, was 3 years old, he had delayed speech development compared to his peers. He had difficulty communicating in kindergarten and with family members.

Our paediatrician referred Kai to Lela, and Kai was diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Thanks to Lela's early intervention and language therapy over the last 9 years, Kai has successfully caught up with his peers in a normal mainstream primary school.

Kai achieved AL4 for both English and Mother Tongue for Primary 6 Preliminary Exams. We are happy to see these!

We have referred Lela to several of our friends."

From an early age, it was clear that our daughter needed some additional assistance to navigate certain situations. She struggled with social interactions and found it challenging to adapt to new environments. We started her with various early interventions since 2.5 years old but her progress was slow.

Fortunately, we were referred to Lela and got a slot for an initial consultation with her. Very soon, we started the language therapy sessions.

Three months since the first session with Lela, we could see a significant improvement in our daughter in terms of socializing and adaptability. She can interact with family and friends with eye contact and no longer has meltdowns as much as before. We were so thankful that we have finally found the right one! 😉 With the sharing from Lela on what we could practice at home, we found it very useful.

With her improvements during the therapy sessions, Lela further suggested for shadow support in school as the next step in her development to prepare her for primary school. We agreed to it and it has been one of the best decisions we have ever made.

With the shadow support provided by Lela, it has helped our daughter feel more comfortable in social settings, allowing her to engage with her peers and build meaningful relationships. She truly understands our daughter's unique needs and tailors her approach accordingly.

The shadow support has also been instrumental in helping our daughter navigate the academic realm. This is through working closely with her teachers in school, ensuring that her learning experience is optimized to meet her individual needs. With the collaborative approach and Lela’s close supervision in the shadow support, it has resulted in improved academic performance and a newfound love for learning in our daughter.

Furthermore, we have noticed a significant boost in our daughter's self-esteem and independence since she started receiving shadow support. With the guidance, she has become more self-reliant, taking on challenges that she once found overwhelming.

We are grateful for the support and guidance that Lela has provided and we would highly recommend shadow support to any parent seeking to empower their child with additional assistance.

Ms Lela’s Language Loft gave us hope to try for a second child.

When Leo was 1.5 years old, he didn’t respond to his name and didn’t know who mummy or papa was. This was after we tried very hard to convey the meaning or get him to respond to his name.

We got worried and sent him to KK Hospital. His appointment was scheduled 6 months later when he was 2 years old. The nurse told us that if he started talking, we could cancel the appointment.

He didn’t. He bombed the tests the paediatrician set for his screening and still did not answer to his name.

They enrolled him into the EIPIC Programme (Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children) with a 1.5-year waitlist and told us to get private therapy and ABA intervention (Applied Behavioural Analysis) for him.

We were told that they suspected he has autism.

We could not wait for an appointment with EIPIC and reached out desperately to our personal contacts and was referred to Ms Lela.

The improvement in the first one month was phenomenal. Leo was able to have longer attention span.

Lela sent us videos and advice on how to better help him at home.

Leo was then able to identify us as "mummy" and "papa". He started calling his grandmother "nainai" without any prompting. It seems like, through Ms Lela, Leo has found the secret to language.

He learned how to point and state the items and their colours such as “red car”, “lorry” and “light” with much gusto and confidence! From the second month onwards he started learning functional words such as “milk”, “eat”, “open”.

On the 6th month with Ms Lela he picked up “Don’t want”! This made communication a lot easier! Yesterday night we had a pleasant surprise. He softly muttered, “I want a cookie!” It was his first ever sentence and we were so happy! There was no way we misheard it.

Leo has improved under Ms Lela’s tutelage and I believe he will continue to improve.

We are so glad with his improvements. We are now trying for a second kid when initially we were fearful of the challenges that lay ahead of Leo.

We hope other parents see this and also consider Ms Lela’s Language Loft at the earliest opportunity.

This is especially when you feel like you are left hanging with no idea which early intervention programme to turn to.

We were helplessly waiting and worried that it might have been too late for Leo had we waited any longer.

Keep up the good work Ms Lela! You changed everything for Leo’s future!

Zi Ming has been with Language Loft for slightly more than 6 years.

From a toddler with limited words and expressions, he has grown into a boy who can now express himself and, at times, very chatty when doing his favourite activities.

We are thankful for his progress and the improvements we have observed from the weekly sessions with Lela.

Lela has a very interactive approach in engaging Zi Ming with activities and instilling concepts and basic understanding in order to get him to perform his tasks.

Lela is firm in her teaching methods but we could see that Zi Ming has enjoyed most of his time and sessions there.

We are grateful for the time and effort put in by Lela and her faith that Zi Ming has the potential to grow.

We would like to express our gratitude to Lela who has been helping Joseph in his language development.

Joseph was diagnosed with autism and he started seeing Lela since he was 23 months old.

Then, he still did not know how to call daddy and mummy. Lela has taught him very well and established the foundation of his language very well.

For instance, Lela showed us practical ways to teach Joseph how to call us daddy and mummy. Within two trials, Joseph picked it up! Joseph knew how to answer "Yes" and No questions in just a few of her sessions.

Joseph has also progressed very well from answering questions using a single word to now being able to form a full sentence answer by himself!

In addition, she has given us practical and precious tips on how to teach Joseph.

I am very thankful that I have made the right choice to bring Joseph to see Lela for his language deficit. Joseph has progressed well.

My husband and I will never forget her love, help and tips for Joseph. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you very much Lela!!

We are writing this note to express how thankful and grateful we are to Lela for helping Adrea overcome her difficulties in learning.

Adrea started off with Lela when she was two years old.

She had difficulty in chewing food and we were amazed with the results in the first 6 months. Adrea could progress to eating all sorts of normal food.

We continued with the therapy with Lela.

Progressively, her speech and language improved significantly.

Adrea is now ready for mainstream primary school.

We were referred to Lela when our son Rayden was about 20 months old by our paediatrician when he noticed he was having some speech developmental delay.

From our own observations, we realised he was not speaking or expressing himself through sounds as much as his peers.

We had our initial consultation with Lela and decided to take that leap of faith which has definitely paid off.

The initial 6 months were not easy, as Rayden cried in almost every lesson but Lela showed patience throughout this period and Rayden still participated in the activities that Lela engaged him despite his cries.

Just as immediately as his crying started, the cries suddenly stopped in one of the lessons and he never looked back.

Lela’s Unique Teaching Style for Rayden :

• Takes time after each lesson to run through with the parents what they did after each lesson, provided constructive feedback and what we could do in our own time to improve his speech development.

• Firm and strict when needed, but also made the lessons enjoyable and fun.

• Doesn’t bore the child with “reading after me” style, but one that mixes hand-on activities and academic content.

• He developed from someone who was quiet initially to a very talkative, inquisitive boy and one who doesn’t shy away from asking questions even in a crowd.

• Changes her teaching style over time as Rayden grew older to prepare him for each stage of his academic development but still focused on his speech ability. He was able to write at a fairly early age, and when Rayden was in Kindergarten, she prepared him for Primary One by incorporating Maths and English comprehension syllabuses – using these as part of developing his speech – in her lessons, and it helped him assimilate into Primary school when he started Primary One this year.

We are very grateful to Lela for her dedication and support over past 6 years in making Rayden the confident and self-assured kid he is today.

Engaging Lela to help Rayden with his speech ability is a decision we never regretted and we are confident other parents share our sentiments too.

Thank you so much Teacher Lela!

I miss Aunty Lela so much. I hope I can reattend her lessons. I hope I can visit her soon,” Lewis wrote on a post-it pad. “Mama, can I buy Aunty Lela a meal?” he asked the next day. As you can see, Lewis absolutely loves Lela.

Lewis was diagnosed with Austistic Spectrum Syndrome (ASD) at the age of 3 and he was having issues with interactions and communications. We were recommended to Lela and started Lewis on therapy sessions with Lela from 7 September 2013.

We were most impressed with Lela’s method of teaching and engaging Lewis. Lewis was responding well to her right from the start and was looking forward to the sessions with her. He would come back and relate to us excitedly what he did at the sessions. Lela would always provide a brief on the objectives of each session and on Lewis’ progress.

Throughout the 8 years that she taught him, we saw how Lewis had grown into a more confident boy. He is now able to communicate better with his teachers and his peers in school and with family members at home. Lela also taught him to build social skills to prevent bullying at school.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Lela for nurturing and guiding Lewis all these years. We would highly recommend Lela’s services to family and friends.

Coco was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) when he was just 4 years old.  We were lost and did not know where to go then.  We started to find out more about ASD and searched for answers in the internet.  It was then that we came across the Languange Loft website and saw the testimonials of other parents with kids having ASD.  Then, we took a leap forward and met Lela.  With her vast experience and sincere concern with Coco, we felt at ease as we know Coco, with Lela’s guidance, will improve.

We sought Lela’s help as we saw Coco had poor verbal communication skill but, instead, Coco got more than that!  She was very instrumental in most of Coco’s early development.  Coco became more social, disciplined and confident, just to name a few, with all the different techniques that Lela used in every session.

During each session, we found that aside from the learnings that Coco was getting, we were also learning from Lela.  Her feedback every session guided us also as parents on how to support Coco. So, it was a two-in-one session😊, a session for Coco and a session for us, parents.

We are forever deeply grateful to Lela for everything that she did and most specially for her love to Coco. It is a fruitful journey for Coco and us with the guidance from Lela.

Coco is now in Secondary 1 mainstream secondary school. He saw Lela for more than 8 years.

Hope you have the same blessing that we had, especially Coco.

Our son, Cayden, was born with Atresia (right ear) and Microtia (left ear). He wears a hearing device.

This caused delay in his speech development and learning when compared to children in his age group.

We were recommended to Lela by my sister. Her son (my nephew), Jude, went to therapy sessions with Lela earlier (please see their testimonial below).

After the initial consultation with Lela, we felt comfortable with her.

We saw the strength of Lela's teaching methods at the very first lesson when Cayden was just 3 months old. We could see that she would make a significant impact in his speech.

We had total trust that she would be able to help him build up his development and speech confidence level as he grows during his childhood years.

How time flies. Our son will be 5 years old this coming June! Throughout the last few years, we have seen Cayden picking up his first word followed by improvement of expressing himself. He now speaks in complete sentences. He can converse confidently and easily with us and the family. He can easily express his thoughts and what he wants.

Lela is patient and very experienced in handling the children and situation. This results in very positive outcome.

She often gave advice to us as parents on what to focus on Cayden's development so that we can continue to work with him at home. She also showed us how to enhance his confidence and speech ability.

We are forever grateful to Lela for her focus in guiding Cayden in his learning and speech development that now enable him to converse normally just like any other children.

We highly recommend her to anyone seeking therapy for their children.

My daughter, Clara, has Dyslexia.

When she was 5 years old and in Kindergarten 2, I was at a lost when her teacher flagged her spelling.

She could not spell and had problems with numbers and letters of the alphabet.

Phonics did not work.

We did not know what was the learning issue.

I contacted Lela through a friend's recommendation and got an immediate slot for an initial consultation with her.

Clara started lessons with Teacher Lela very quickly, She advised on the next steps on what I needed to do.

Shortly after this, Clara was diagnosed with Dyslexia.

Clara showed improvement after one to two sessions with Lela and is always looking forward to her lessons.

Under Lela's intervention and coaching, she kickstarted Clara's confidence and joy in learning the way of learning. This helped her in her daily school work.

Clara improved in leaps and bounds. From not writing and not even rote counting numbers properly, she progressed to reading and writing well.

As time was tight for us, Lela advised to defer her for Primary 1 entry. This was also recommended by the psychologist.

Two years on and counting, under Lela's professional care, I am glad to say that Clara is all well-prepared for primary school.

I am also heartened to see that Clara is a happy, confident and fiesty child after Lela's "transformation".

Lela's professionalism and knowledge is highly recommended.

She has the "magic" to make kids better. This is something which I am grateful for.

Thank you Teacher Lela!

Our son, Firas, met Lela when he was 3 years old.

He was not speaking a single word nor did he even babble. He was suspected of having autism but was not yet diagnosed.

After going to his first lesson with Lela, Firas showed improvement.

Lela gave us wonderful advice on how to teach Firas learn the correct way - through understanding and communication, instead of parroting.

Firas showed lots of improvement as lessons continued with Lela.

Firas has begun to speak and expressing out his wants. We are so happy.

Lela's lessons are fun and interactive.

Not only was it a learning journey for our son, Firas, but we learned along the way too.

Lela does not treat us as if we are in a teacher-parent relationship, but as a friend whom we can share and express our concerns and feelings about Firas.

Thank you Lela for being a part of our journey with Firas.

We had just returned after 3 years in Hong Kong and needed to find someone to help with Kaleb’s learning disabilities as soon as we could.

He was 5 years old and had difficulties with recognising letters, numbers, speech and proper grammar. On top of that he could not sit still in class.

Lela was recommended by my mum’s neighbour whose son was previously under the care and tutelage of Lela. We were lucky she had a slot, and Kaleb and her got along very well from the start.

Kaleb would look forward to her lessons as she knew how to make learning fun. She was able to help him focus in class, recognise letters and numerals, as well as correct his speech and grammar.

Under her care, Kaleb was able to overcome his deficiencies and was ready for primary school. We are so grateful to Lela for her kind help with Kaleb.

She is highly recommended.

Shaun was 3 years old and he was still not able to speak clearly.

We decided to consult our paediatrician who recommended us to Lela (Language Loft) for an assessment of Shaun's speech condition.

We contacted Lela and arranged for an assessment. Lela shared the test result with us with a detailed explanation on how her sessions would be conducted.

Six months since the first session with Lela, we could see an improvement in Shaun’s speech and pronunciation.

At the end of each session, Lela would make it a point to share with us Shaun's learning progress and what we could follow up at home (if we have the time) to enhance the learning process.

It has been a good partnership with Lela for the past three years. Lela is a one-stop centre who strongly believes in holistic learning. Getting Shaun ready for primary school was one of her plans other than dealing with his speech.

Lela meticulously crafted and planned Shaun's learning objectives and milestones one year ahead. She shared the plan with us and kept us updated after each lesson. She shared learning outcome and achieved milestones.

Six months before Shaun's entry into Primary One, his speech and English was going really well. His Mathematics was way ahead of his kindergarten 2 curriculum.

Lela's approach and teaching technique ensured Shaun was able to understand and grasp academic concepts well.

Six months into his Primary One, we are proud that he is keeping up with English (written and spoken) and Math (ahead of his Primary one standard and he is in a SAP school).

He is now a resilient, confident and talkative boy.

We cannot thank Lela enough for her commitment, enthusiasm, support and professionalism in making Shaun's learning journey a seamless and an enjoyable experience.

We wish Lela and her family all the best and we will always keep in touch as friends.

My wife and I would like to compliment Lela for her professional service in teaching our son, Isaac, in terms of his speech delay and language deficiencies and guiding him in precise stages at the shortest time possible.

As a result, we have seen a massive change in Isaac. His confidence has grown and he is interested in learning new words and trying to construct sentences. It is simply wonderful to see his growth.

We, as first time parents, decided to engage Lela in December 2018 because Isaac at aged 2 showed slow progress in interacting with his peers. There were times when he showed his frustration when he could not express his needs.

We are happy to work with Lela. She is friendly and professional. She will communicate with us on Whatapps on how she taught and engaged Isaac’s attention through various methods.

She sees things from our perspective and even offer nuggets of advice along the way to help us on how to teach Isaac during our days off.

Knowing that Isaac’s previous school principal and teacher had difficulties handling Isaac, Lela even went out of her way to write emails to them to assure them that Isaac is not autistic. More importantly, Lela even came down to Isaac’s school as a moderator to advise the teacher on how to handle Isaac’s behaviour.

We cannot thank Lela enough and would not hesitate in recommending Lela to other parents as she is someone whom you can trust!

Looking back, it felt like a miracle when we saw the change in Kyan through the help of Lela.

Kyan was turning 3 that year when we met Lela through a friend. Nothing can describe the journey we went through when we realised Kyan can hardly call "daddy" and "mummy". In fact, he can merely murmur a few words. We were so worried and did not know what to do.

As a mum of 2, I compared the progress of my elder daughter to Kyan and felt devastated. We decided to consult Lela. During our first consultation, I remembered Kyan was so active jumping around and could hardly focus at all. Lela gave us some tips and directions of what to do with Kyan such as reducing the number of daily milk feeds and taking note of his behaviours, among others.

I remember Kyan was struggling to go into his weekly sessions and Lela reassured us that he will be fine. True enough, after a few sessions, Kyan would gladly hold her hands and followed her into the class. Through her persistent efforts and strong guidance, Kyan made leaps and bounds of progress. He was able to sit and focus very well in school and at home. He also began to slowly show interest in talking and interacting with people.

Kyan is now turning 5 and he is a happy, chatty and confident boy. We are glad we went to Lela. Her guidance and patience with Kyan have definitely helped define who he is today. It was never easy with Kyan and we are grateful for her love and concern. Nothing can express our gratitude to Lela and we will definitely recommend her to anyone who  needs help in this area. Kyan misses Lela so much! Here's wishing Lela and her family the very best in life and may she continue to touch the lives of all those in need!

I first contacted Lela through a colleague’s recommendation.

From our first meeting I could tell that she was experienced, knowledgeable and committed to helping us.

She was firm when need be but always made the sessions enjoyable. Ashraf always looked forward to her sessions and progressed well. She gave advice when I needed it and worked with his kindergarten teachers to provide support.

Now, four and a half years down the road, Muhammad Ashraf is a more confident individual. He has improved in his reading ability, handwriting, speech articulation and also behaviour. From a child who hardly spoke much, he is now able to articulate better and speaks up often.

"I feel happy and sad at the same time…. happy that I have improved so much but sad that I won’t get to see Teacher Lela anymore.", Muhammad Ashraf, aged 9.

Thank you so much Teacher Lela. Bless your wonderful heart. May you continue to make a difference in the lives of other families just like you did to ours.

Lee Young was slightly over 4 years old when our pediatrician recommended us to Lela. We started the therapy session with her from Feb 2013 and through a psychologist recommended by Lela, we found out that Lee Young has a learning disorder known as Specific Language Impairment.

As our boy was unable to articulate his needs to us well, he often broke into tantrums. Lela was patient yet strict with him and gradually corrected his behavioural issues. She also worked on his language and writing.

He has grown from "a boy with few words" to a chatty and confident young boy thanks to the guidance from Lela all these years.

We are grateful to her for her dedication and we have grown to be friends and beyond. Lela often jokes that he is like her fourth son.

Thank you Lela!

From,
Kok Kim & Guat Ling
Parents of Lee Young