What We Do

“Receptive Labels”

Hin has weak language skills. He likes eating very much, so our therapist began the training by teaching labels of food such as “biscuit” and “cake”, so as to increase Hin’s interest and enable him to use those labels in his daily life. Hin has gradually learnt a number of receptive labels. He has also been able to read a book and label ten objects in a row! It was really impressive!

“Calm token”

One day after the training session, Sing was crying and refusing to leave our centre. Our therapist revealed that Sing always lost his temper, easily became disruptive, even hit and kicked people. The therapist then designed a calm system for encouraging Sing to keep calm with the use of calm tokens. After the treatment, Sing has had better control of his behaviours and emotions. He has also been able to express his needs with words and stay calm while leaving our centre.

“Learning to wait”

Many children like playing with tablets, Hayson is also one of them. When our therapist took away the tablet from Hayson, he cried and lied on the ground. The therapist designed a treatment plan to help Hayson learn to wait and stay calm. When Hayson was staying calm, the therapist would reward him with the tablet. The therapist then gradually extended the waiting time and integrated some sedentary exercises into the training. Hayson has improved a lot. Now he can calmly wait for a period of time and promptly respond to the therapist’s instructions!

“The changes of a shy boy”

Some children with autism have good language abilities, but are not good at communication, Kyle is like this. He used to speak very softly and rarely interact and communicate with others. The therapist first taught Kyle to speak louder, then deliberately asked him to give some objects to others. Kyle has gradually learnt to look at people, call their names and pass the object while saying “It is for you”. We also trained him how to proactively make requests when needed, such as using an appropriate voice volume to say “I want the red car!”

“Red, Orange, Yellow, Green……”

Children can name about 10 different colours by the age of 4-5 years, but Man did not have any concept about colours. Our therapist therefore started to teach Man to recognise and name some basic colours by using her favourite cartoon character as a reward. With repeated practices, Man has gradually been able to identify 9 colours. When Man was colouring her favourite character, she even asked for the colour pen she liked and turned the character into her favourite colour - red!

“Follow me!”

Yu liked interacting with people, but he was not aware of the environment around him and could not express in words, which hindered him from communicating and socialising with others. The therapist did some actions with objects that produced sounds, such as shaking a sand hammer, and then saying, “Follow me!” to attract Yu’s attention and train his imitation skills. When Yu imitated the therapist’s actions, the therapist would hug him or hold his hands to sing a song with him, so as to increase his learning motivation. At the end of the training, Yu has learnt to imitate different types of actions, including clapping hands and thighs, and has also been more aware of his surroundings!

Hin, Sing, Hayson, Kyle, Man and Yu were invited to present their experience in receiving ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Hin, Sing, Hayson, Man and Yu are past beneficiaries of APF, HK. Kyle is a current beneficiary of APF, HK.