What We Do

Taking care of children with autism is not easy. If there is no support and understanding from the people around, how many parents can persist?

Jason was diagnosed with autism at the age of two, so his mother worried about his growth a lot. Besides, her family members and even her husband denied the fact that Jason had autism. Jason’s mother felt like she needed to face all the challenges alone. “My family doesn’t understand autism. I don’t know who I can talk to,” she said. Despite feeling helpless, Jason’s mother did not give up and tried hard to search for information about autism on the Internet. She then attended some parents’ talks and arranged training courses for Jason. She even quit her job to take good care of Jason.

When Jason was already three years old, he only said simple words or cried to express his needs although he had attended some training courses. Jason’s mother never thought that Jason could learn to say complete sentences in just one month. However, Jason improved a lot on expressing himself after receiving one on one intensive ABA treatment. He has been able to say “I want to eat biscuits” and looked into his therapist’s eyes at the same time. He sometimes said “Mum, I miss you,” and gave a big hug to his mother after class. Jason’s mother was surprised and happy to see Jason’s significant improvement, but other family members believed that Jason’s improvement was not due to the training, it was just because of his natural development while growing up.

Even though Jason’s mother struggled a lot while taking care of Jason and her family also did not understand her efforts, she still insisted on arranging training programmes for Jason. She said, “Jason is my precious son. I want to give all my love to him.”

Jason’s mother was invited to share her perspective on ASD and ABA services with Autism Partnership Foundation (operating in Hong Kong) (APF, HK). Jason is a past beneficiary of APF, HK.