What We Do

【The challenge of returning to training】

One day, Chun Hung lied on the ground and cried when our therapist asked him to tidy up his toys and return to his seat. The therapist revealed that Chun Hung always refused to return to training. He even hit or bit people at the beginning of his training, so the therapist focused on training him to stay calm and follow instructions. After a series of practices, the therapist held Chun Hung’s hand and took him back to his seat for training when the playtime was over. Chun Hung was able to keep calm this time and focused on learning imitation.

【Learning through watching cartoons】

Hin’s ability of expression was weak, we seldom understood what he said. He liked watching cartoons very much, so our therapist made use of cartoons to teach him. The therapist paused the cartoon video from time to time, and then asked Hin some questions. Hin had to describe what happened in the cartoon, how the characters felt, why things happened and what would happen next. Through using cartoons as a training tool, Hin has gradually described events smoothly and recognised more and more emotions.

【Story cards】

Our therapists often use story cards to train children’s language and logical reasoning skills. On this day, a therapist put a number of story cards in front of Ho, then guided him to arrange the story cards in chronological order and tell the story. Ho could only describe one to two events in the story cards at first. After the training, He has been able to describe three to four events smoothly. He could also answer questions about cause and effect, and even predict what would happen next.

“I’m a train fan.”

Dragon is a train fan who loves trains and their route map very much. Our therapist added the route map into the training to improve Dragon’s learning motivation. Before each training session, Dragon had to choose a MTR station as the starting point, and then the therapist would pick another station as the destination. Whenever Dragon completed an exercise, he could move his chessman to the next station on the route map. When the chessman reached the destination, he was allowed to play with toys. The route map has successfully enhanced Dragon’s interest and motivation in learning, making the training more effective!

“I want to play with toy trains!”

Sam is a huge fan of toy trains. He threw tantrums whenever his favourite toy train was taken away. In order to teach Sam not to lose his temper and to share toys with other kids, our therapist designed a series of training programmes for him. After a period of time, Sam has learnt to stay calm, not to snatch toys from others and to express himself properly by saying, “I want to play with the toy train……Could I have it back, please?”

【Follow instructions】

Yuen could not follow any instructions not even the basic ones such as “sit down” or “stand up” at the beginning of the training. Our therapist showed Yuen how to do the actions and guided him to imitate. When Yuen was doing an action correctly, the therapist immediately said the corresponding verb to indicate the name of that action. The therapist then taught Yuen in a fun way like using the kitchen setting to teach relevant instructions. Yuen is now able to imitate actions and to follow the therapist’s instructions to pick the related kitchen utensils and food as well.

Chun Hung, Hin, Ho, Dragon, Sam and Yuen were invited to present their experience in receiving ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Chun Hung, Hin, Dragon, Sam and Yuen are past beneficiaries of APF, HK. Ho is a current beneficiary of APF, HK.