What We Do

“Role-play”

Chun Hei could only recite poems at the beginning of treatment. He seldom took the initiative to interact with others. Our therapist therefore used toys for the role-play with Chun Hei to teach him fundamental daily live conversation, for example “I’m Chun Hei” and “I love eating”. Chun Hei could even use the dolls to accomplish different instructions, like bringing a doll to sleep. Besides, we tried asking him what had happened a moment ago, so as to train his memorisation and recall skills, and at the same time to boost his communication skills.



“Sit nicely to learn”

Many children will cry fiercely when their toys are snatched by others. Kit got the same situation too at the beginning of his treatment. One day, Kit was playing with his toy yet the therapist suddenly grabbed the toy away from his hands. I once thought Kit would lose his temper but he did not. Instead, he calmly waited for the therapist to return the toy to him. It is obvious that Kit can now stay calm and sit nicely to learn after repeated practices.



“Gentle and firm”

Many parents experience testing behaviours from their children and feel lost. Lucas displayed many testing behaviours at the beginning of the training. He didn’t listen to the therapist’s instructions at all and would throw things, walk around and kick chairs. Our therapist used a gentle and firm attitude to help Lucas sit nicely. Lucas’s behavioural problems gradually reduced. He even learnt to say “I want” to express his needs. The training was also conducted more smoothly.



“Walk independently”

Some kids know how to walk, but they are unwilling to walk. They will even cry intentionally as a return to be held in arms by their parents. Yau always acted cute and asked her mother to hold her in her arms. The therapist thus invited Yau’s mother to join the treatment to train Yau to walk independently. Under the guidance of our therapist, Yau’s mother and Yau practised walking together in the Centre. After Yau successfully walked alone indoor, we went outdoor to practise more. Everybody was happy to see Yau being willing to walk on her own.



“Caring about others’ feelings”

Ho did not seem to care about others’ feelings at the beginning of treatment, like if someone got hurt, he would just ignore him or her. The therapist then designed a training regarding “caring about others’ feelings”, so as to let Ho understand that showing care of others would make others feel good. Putting the icons of two people together, which meant that the two people became closer. By visualising abstract feelings, Ho could easily understand how his behaviours would affect his relationships with others. Besides, the therapist arranged some role-play sessions for teaching Ho the proper way to express his care for others politely through words and actions. One day, when the therapist lost in a game of musical chairs and felt sad, Ho patted on her shoulder to comfort her.



“Reducing self-harm behaviour”

Louis always hit his head and screamed. Such self-harm behaviours seriously affected his learning progress. Every time when Louis attacked himself, our therapist would ask him to go back to his seat and place his hands on his legs. When he could follow such instruction, a block would be given. Louis could only leave his seat after he had gathered all blocks. After a period of repeated practices, Louis could gradually control himself. He seldom hit his head anymore and was able to dedicate himself into the trainings.



“The strongest reward”

This day, the sound of glass breaking came from the playground. Hang was playing with a tablet excitedly, and the sound came from a glass-breaking game that Hang was playing. The therapist was teaching Hang the names of different objects, which was a challenging task to him, so the therapist used his favourite glass-breaking game as a reward to enhance Hang’s learning motivation and effectiveness.

Chun Hei, Kit, Lucas, Yau, Ho, Louis and Hang were invited to present their experience in receiving ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Chun Hei, Kit, Lucas, Yau, Ho, Louis and Hang are past beneficiaries of APF, HK.