What We Do

“Sportsmanship”

Lam used to concern about winning when playing games. Whenever he was about to lose, he would cry and yell, “I do not want to play anymore!” Our therapist therefore arranged many game sessions for Lam to help him develop an appropriate attitude towards winning and losing. On this day, the therapist and Lam were playing a throwing game. Lam failed to avoid being hit by the ball. Although he was a little discouraged, he did not cry. He was even able to continue the game with the encouragement from therapist.

“Stars, Sun and Moon”

Everyone has their favourite patterns or objects. Rui likes stars, sun, and moon very much. Our therapist made reward stickers with these patterns to enhance his learning motivation. During the treatment, we taught Rui to sit nicely, concentrate in class and imitate movements by using the stickers. At the end of the treatment, Rui could imitate movements and greet people by saying, “Hello!” Using the patterns that children like as rewards is very effective for the treatment.

 “Opening and closing doors”

Fong was obsessed with doors, especially opening and closing them. Even if he was at a distance from a door, he would try his best to reach out and touch the door. Such a behaviour affected his learning. The therapist therefore trained Fong to sit nicely and control himself not to touch doors. Fong has been able to control himself not to touch doors gradually. Even the therapist arranged Fong to sit next to cabinet doors on purpose, Fong could sit nicely. His self-control ability really improved a lot.

“Toilet training”

Before receiving ABA treatment, Yat resisted to use the toilet and did not have toilet awareness. The therapist conducted toilet training with Yat every day to help him build the concept of toileting. When Yat successfully used the toilet, the therapist would blow bubbles as a reward. The therapist also took Yat to the toilet regularly to help him establish regular and routine toilet times. After repeated practices, Yat has learnt to use the toilet and started to express the need of using the toilet spontaneously.

“Imitation learning”

Imitation is the basis of learning. However, Fan could not imitate actions. His learning ability and motivation were low as well. Toys were unattractive enough to motivate him to do imitations. The therapist arranged a shorter playtime for Fan to maintain the attractiveness of toys and facilitate his learning. With repeated practice, Fan has been able to imitate actions such as high-five, building blocks and clapping hands. Learning imitation would help Fan get prepared for understanding and following instructions in the future.

“Describing”

Many children with autism only use short sentences while describing things, which affects their social communication. Rui could only use simple vocabularies before treatment. Our therapist designed training to teach Rui to describe things in longer sentences by looking at pictures and reading storybooks. Rui learnt to build sentences that consist of subject, verb and object such as characters, actions and places step by step. Rui has started to develop and use descriptive sentences. He would even describe the contents of the storybook while pointing to the pictures.

Lam, Rui Fong, Yat, Fan and Rui were invited to present their experience in receiving ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Lam, Rui, Fong, Yat, Fan and Rui are past beneficiaries of APF, HK.