Why we are doing Oliek Books? Who are we?

Every time we met parents, we usually receive these questions:

1.   Are you an early childhood educator?

2.   What has motivated you to do this?

But before I answer those questions, let me introduce myself.

My name is Athirah Zainal;. I am the mother of two energetic children, Irfan and Naela. By profession, I am an engineer, and my husband is an early childhood practitioner who runs a child enrichment centre.

When Irfan was three years old, a paediatrician had suspected he might be autistic due to his speech delay and poor eye contact. Alhamdulillah, he is now five years old, and his speech has improved a lot. Irfan is no longer suspected of being autistic.

Following the advice of the paediatrician, we took Irfan to a child psychologist, psychiatrist, and occupational and speech therapists.

After meeting with these professionals and reading research articles, we realized some mistakes we had made when Irfan was a baby.

We love to read him books since he was a baby. But we read the wrong books. The books were not suitable for his age. Usually, we read him books aimed at children 3++ years old.

We thought, the sooner, the better to introduce him such books. But we were wrong. By accelerating the process, we were doing damage to our kids. We need the right book to read to the baby. Even the way you read the book must be right!

That is how we decided to do Oliek Books. We do not want other parents to repeat our mistakes. Hence, our first book must be for baby. It must align with early childhood essential knowledge!

Mama, Irfan and Naela