What We Do

“Please take the cup for me!”

Alma was not communicative before the treatment. Although she loved playing with others, she would only tap others’ hands gently or wave her hands to invite others to play together. Our therapist first trained her to call other’s name to start a conversation. After Alma had mastered this skill, the therapist made use of making a cup of hot chocolate with her to increase her desire to communicate. When Alma had been familiar with the making process, the therapist asked her to lead the whole process. This activity facilitated communication temptation so that Alma started to have the desire to direct her therapist to open and close the bottle of chocolate powder, and also to make a request by saying “please take the cup for me.” We were glad to see that she was motivated to speak.

“I like playing with my friends.”

Our therapist once showed a toy cash register to Oscar but he did not know how to use it. Therefore, the therapist provided Oscar a set of play food and a shopping bag for playing shopping games. Shopping games allowed Oscar to do role-play, enhanced his imagination and gave him an opportunity to socialise with his peers. During a normal training class, Oscar was arranged to do a task which was relatively boring and required sustained attention, the therapist then asked another child to invite Oscar to play together on purpose. The therapist allowed them to play immediately, so Oscar learnt and experienced the benefits of playing with others. After a series of training, Oscar had  also learnt to think from others’ perspectives. He gradually began to play with another boy and they even held each other’s hands while leaving the centre!

 “Sit nicely!”

Wilbert was weak in imitation and could not sit nicely when he first came to our centre. He also did not pay attention to instructions and often escaped from the chair. Our therapist used the token system which required him to put all the building blocks into a box before playing toys. The therapist gradually moved from more-helpful prompts to less-helpful prompts, lengthened the time between giving blocks and increased the number of blocks. Wilbert gradually learnt that finishing the task would lead to the reinforcer. When Wilbert put the last block into the box, he would leave his chair to play toys immediately. After the training, he could sit nicely, and could follow his therapist to pick up, beat or shake an object.

 “Expressing yourself is the first step in communication”

Chun did not know how to speak or use other methods to express himself. Therefore, Chun always lost his temper when he could not get what he wanted. Our therapist then planned to teach Chun to wait, point at things, and make different sounds. The therapist first presented Chun a toy he wanted, placed a “wait card” in front of him and said “wait” at the same time. When the time was up, the therapist praised Chun for “good waiting” and provided him the reinforcement. Besides, the therapist trained Chun to speak some words before he could get his favourite food. After a month of training, Chun could point at things and spoke some words. Chun’s mother felt really grateful for his improvement.

Alma, Oscar, Wilbert and Chun were invited to present their experience in receiving ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Alma, Oscar, Wilbert and Chun are past beneficiaries of APF, HK.