What We Do

 “Learning through visual cues”
Chelsea didn’t look at people and couldn’t speak when she first came. After training for a while, the therapist found that using pictures of eyes could train Chelsea to keep eye contact well. Visual cues greatly improved her learning effectiveness. Chelsea was then able to look at the therapist and imitate various movements. What surprised us the most was that Chelsea started to imitate sounds as well.

“Focus on learning”
Tsz Ming was too energetic that he was not willing to sit down and learn. When the therapist asked Tsz Ming to return to his seat for training, he would immediately run away. After teaching, Tsz Ming gradually understood that he could play with toys after completing a task. He started to build up learning motivation. He was then able to sit still and imitate the therapist’s actions with using different objects, such as cutting fruits with a toy knife. He could even match three sets of objects consecutively.

“I have to win!”
Children learn the concept of winning and losing at the age of three to four in general. Bradley was six years old but he did not know about winning or losing at all when he joined our programme early this year. Our therapist taught Bradley the concept of winning and losing and also raised his motivation for winning by arranging him to compete with another therapist to get his favourite tablet as fast as he could. At the end of the training, Bradley understood winning and losing and had battles with the therapist on different objects.

“Either A or B”
Cindy would pull her hair, pinch fingers and keep crying when she could not get what she wanted. In order to teach Cindy to accept something that against her wants, the therapist offered Cindy two options. Cindy had to choose one of them and learnt to compromise and stay calm in different situations. She could gradually stay calm and follow different instructions while sitting nicely.

“Recall and retell past events”
Sometimes when parents ask their children to tell what happen to them, children would answer “I don’t know”. Paul had the same problem. Our therapist found out that Paul always forgot what he had done. The therapist therefore played or made art and craft with Paul every day and took a picture of the toy or his work for record. After a while, Paul had to describe the past event by looking at the photo. He gradually could recall and share previous events without looking at the photos.

Chelsea, Tsz Ming, Bradley, Cindy and Paul were invited to present their experience in receiving ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Chelsea, Tsz Ming, Bradley, Cindy and Paul are past beneficiaries of APF, HK.