Nick (14/10/06)

Hi, Nick was pretty ok, was abit non complaince
towards the end of the session.

MI: I had opened 1 step, 3 references for lego. He was not
too bad. He just needs to look. Pre writing was getting
better, able to grip the pencil nicely.

EL: Opened some new ones too ie opening, closing. He
was good at his current EL.

RI: He was not really good with Operation + Attributes.
He didnt listen properly ie when i said " shake the small
bottle", he would just get a bottle and shake but not the
small. Even when i prompted him, he still did it. Attention
not so good.

Category: He has mastered toys, furniture and clothes.

Naming: I tried this. I started by asking to tell me
just 1. He could do it with body parts. He needs to understand
he has to tell me.

GKR: He did well with this as he was looking carefully and
picking up the right one.

Function: Opened chair/sitting.

Sequencing: He doesnt have much problem with this.

Compliance: I tried the new programs in compliance. He
did well with the "mastered instructions with door opened"
It was done at the start of the session so maybe he was still
ok. As for the "putting token at 0.5m with distractors", he was good
too except towards the end of the seesion when he would run to his bed
after putting the token.

PLay: He could now put 4 pieces of puzzle. well done

Ivan (13/10/06)

Hi, he was not too bad on Friday. He got all his ticks
to go to the park but he said he doesnt want to go. I
asked him whether want to do anything, he said no so
we spent the last 15 minutes chatting.

Independent work: did 2 easy worksheets today, got
2/10 for the first and 8/10 for the second, not that bad.
He for the 4 square token and chose to play Blokus.

Play: Blokus was not bad, he could spread around the board.

Directing: I made him direct me in playing Blokus. He was
not really good at it, needed prompts.

Toileting: Good, ask to go toilet.

Ettiquette: He tends to miss some step when he said it ie
washing hands, flush the toilet. However, he could do it
when he went to the toilet.

Describing: He did not really want to describe the pictures.
He only did it after some time of persuasion.

Reported speech: He liked this and he was good at it too.
I let him choose who is saying ie "i want to eat ice cream", said William.

Storytelling: This was not good. When i tried doing this, he started
his nonsense, threw things at me, mainly task avoidance. In the end,
we didnt do this.

Beside all these, he was fine.

Updates on Nick (07/10/06)

Hi, Nick was pretty good on Saturday except for times
when he fussed because of programs that are hard for him ie
GKR.

EL: He was doing well for this. I had told dad to make the
pictures for the EL in the program. However, he has difficulty
in pronouncing the the words nicely sometimes.

MI: He was really good with the 2 references point for the lego.
As for his pre- writing (drawing vertical line), i can see that
he is doing better. At least now he tried to make an effort to
draw a vertical line but still needed me to hold his hand and
he was not using much strength.

Function: Great at this, doing sleeping/pillow right now. Needed
prompting at the start but after that he was doing great.

RI: I did give to xxx today. He was not really good, ran to the
other room when he gave the object instead of sitting back to
his chair. However, 1 step + color (ooc) was good.

Preposition: Still not very good at this saying expressively.
The main problem was that he said it to fast and not clear
so i couldnt really hear whether what he said was right. I'm
placing the word "under" as prompt.

Category: He could do it if he was looking carefully.

GKR: He was quite inconsistent with these. There were times
when he could do it really well and times when he kept on
giving the same card when i already said it was not the same.
He needs to look carefully.

Sequencing: Had opened new progam "sequencing completion". He was
pretty good at sequencing the lego but not the puzzles. As for routines
sequencing, he was doing well.

Play: We can start teaching "bedrock bowling" and "slap happy". Air
slammer was good as usual.

that's all.

Ivan Supervision's notes (06/10/06)

These are my supervision notes on Ivan:

Toileting : New program has been opened for this. Make him drink at least 2 litres of water per session (the tumbler), to be finished half an hour before session. As for now, we just have to remind him that that he can
go to toilet anytime during the session when he is drinking. There is
another program which is the steps to toileting. He has to say the steps.

Independent Work: For the square token, we can ask him what he wants first and
write it at the back of the the board cause there are times whereby he chooses
some irrelevant things ie read textbook when he got all 4 square.

Storytelling: For this, we start telling the whole story. We could
ask questions along the way. Give him a tick when we finished the story and
answered the questions nicely. After that, ask him to tell you back the story, now we draw pictures (6 pictures)of the story for him as prompt with words at the pictures ie One day, batman...., next...,last... He is given a tick at the end of this. Then made him say the story again without the pictures. Give him a tick for each picture he says so he will get a total of 8 ticks if he does everything nicely.

Directing: For this, we could get pictures and he is to tell us to draw the same
pictures by giving us direction ie draw a house on the center of the paper.....

Coversation: Can move the a more natural setting whereby he can ask whatever he wants
but must be appropriate (relevant) with the content.

Reported speech : We can check all the examples at the primary school grammar book.
This is how it is done, for example, 'Help!', shouted Mary. He has to say Mary shouted for help. All these are done written down. He just has to say and we
wrote it down.

Blokus: new program opened. He has to move the tiles all over the board now.

Updates on Nick's session (30/09/06)

Hey all, Nick was pretty good today, quite ok
with the new programs too.

MI:did lego with the 2 reference point, he was so much better
now. I also did pre writing skill (drawing vertical line).
He needed prompts for this and he doesn't really hold the
pencil correctly but he's ok with me holding his hand and
draw the line.

EL: I had opened new words for this program ie laughing,
looking, smelling, thinking. I had also told dad to
get the pictures of some of the words on the tracking form.

RI: I did the out of room 'give to xxx'. He was really
good for the 1st two trials, gave the objects to his
daddy/mummy and came back to sit down. But the following
trials, he ran around the room so had to cut the trials.

Operation + Obj: Opened new program 'touch xxx', not bad for this.
I also did this out of chair too.

GKR: He was not really good with the SD 'Find the same' so i actually
promted him by saying ie 'Find the furniture'. He could do this and then
i emphasized it's the same and asked him to 'Find the same'

Preposition: Doing expressively now. I placed the words 'on' and
'under' as prompt. Also he tends to say it fast so sometimes i couldnt
really hear whether he was saying 'on' or 'under'.

Play: His dad had bought the SLAP HAPPY. I tried playing it with him, he
was pretty good at it, could slap the right colour and seems to enjoy it too.

That's all
cheers

Teaching Interaction (TI)

The 5 steps of Teaching interaction (TI):

1)Labeling and Initiation-skill should be clearly defined, always used age appropriate language. Conversational style should match the student's ability and level of understanding. It must be clearly defined too

2)Rationale- Do not ever give the rote rationale ie If we want to teach him to play with friends, don't ever say that it's fun to play with friends cause it is not a strong rationale. He will most likely think it's more fun playing alone. Always give the rationale that he really needs.

3)Describing and Demonstration- know the task analysis steps, have to make sure the students understand the steps by making him reiterate or one can demonstrate it. One can also use descrimination training to see whether the kid can discriminate between the good and the bad demonstration. Remember not to ask the kid any questions in this stage, always just tell them the answer in order not to confuse them.

4)Practice- The kid can start doing it, slowly shape the kid's action

5)Feedback- provide feedback after the practice, make it more positive and if the kid is not good enough, we can make him practice again.

6)Consequences (optional)- a reinforcer but most often we don't really need it cause by knowing the skill, it's already an intrinsic motivation.

Ivan update and some questions regarding on the new programs (29/09/06)

This is an update on Ivan to my fellow therapists and my program supervisor:

Hey all, Ivan was not really good today. He didnt get to
go to the park and only got the 4 blue tokens once.

Easy worksheets: He was not doing it correctly so he got to trace
the line. And for tracing the line, he didnt do it nicely too (didnt
trace it on the line). So i made him do it over and over again. And
everytime he traced the line, i would ask him whether it's nice to
do it. He would say it's not nice and he didnt like tracing it. Hence,
i gave him the rationale that it would be better to do the sums correctly
so that you don't have to trace the line as a punishment and able to
get the tokens to choose what you want. He was able to understand this
but somehow still didnt trace nicely. After a really long time of tracing,
i told him that i would give him a chance to try the worksheet again.
He did better this time round getting 3 correct but still have to do
another cause only 3 correct. And finally i had some really simple
sums for him to do ie 1+2, 1+3. He got 7 right this time round. But
he was quite stressed by then as he really didnt want to do the tracing.
After he got his 4 tokens, he didnt want to do the worksheet when i
told him to.

Conversation: went really well today. This is his most preferred programs now as compared to all other work programs.

Directing: pretty good with this, able to direct me and saying it slowly at the same time

Storytelling: He was able to start with one day, and then. written prompt went well with it.

Following instructions: so much better compared to easy worksheet. He was able to get 6/8.


Questions:
1) Should i make sure that he really trace it nicely then he can stop doing
it? Cause it seems that he can't really do it nicely even with only a
curve

2)How long do i let him play with the reinforcers if he got all the 4 tokens?
Is it going to be real short like for normal DDT or we can develop
his interest with the reinforcer?

3)How do we take data for the easy worksheet? Do i only give a + if he got
all 10 correct? If that's the case, his data will always be -

4)What should i do if he say he doesnt want to do the easy worksheet? He
did this today. I feel that we should increase his success rate by
giving him real easy questions first and slowly build up

5) For storytelling, do i have to finish the whole story first in
order for him to tell me or can i ask him some questions along the
way?

As Ivan is an much older ASD kid (14 yrs old), we are doing teaching interaction (TI) instead of Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT)

I got my FOURTH kid!!

Ok, this entry was a bit late cause i was out of town and only got back today. I got a new kid called Derek. He is around 5 years old, using PICTURE EXCHANGE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM (PECS) to communicate. He is under lots of COMMUNICATION TEMPTATION(CT) too. Basically, his main program is to teach him to speak and communicate. We are trying to find out the words that he knows so that we can teach him to say those words and use it. Beside words, we are also teaching him to make sounds. This is important as it progresses into saying words and statements. He is a smart kid and i know that he will be doing well. I'll write more about his program when i start teaching him=)

Nick's new program

Nick has a new program. It's triple retrieval(TR). He has been doing double retrieval(DR) out of chair now and this TR is done in the chair. In the chair means that he does not have to move out of his chair to get the objects. So what's exactly DR ot TR? For double retrieval, it actually means that the kids have to listen to the 2 objects that i want and get it for me For example: I would say "Get me spiderman and batman". The kids have to pay attention and get it according to the what i say first. AS for TR, it basically means to get 3 objects so that also means that the kids have to pay real attention and remember it in order.

You must be wondering what the real function of DR and TR is. Imagine this: what would happen to you if there's no order in your life? I think it'll be chaotic. Also, we need to follow a certain order to do things. Just take wearing shoes for example, we cant wear the shoes first and then wear the socks. And in our normal daily life, we also needs to listen to lots of instructions, remember them and do it.

In a nutshell, DR and TR teache the ASD kids to be attentive and train their memory and also teach them to do things in order=)

So let's talk about how Nick fair for his DR and TR. He did pretty well for DR. He used to be really bad at this. He would just grab the first object without waiting for me to finish what i said. And if i stopped him, he would scratch me. This is how bad he was at the beginning. But now, he'll wait for me to finish saying my statement. TR was not that good now cause it's a new program and he has to listen and remember 3 objects now. This may be hard as he needs to pay real attention. I'm prompting him quite a lot now. I would say the 1st object first and when he touched the 1st object, i would then say the 2nd and the 3rd objects. He did pretty well with this prompt. Hopefully, i'll be able to fade the prompt soon=)

The difference between ABA and normal teaching

So what's the difference between using ABA approach and normal teaching? ABA approaches are sometime also called Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT). This is also the approach i use to teach my ASD kids. Ok, let me talk about DTT for a little bit first.

DTT:
1)breaking a skill into smaller parts
2)teaching a sub skill one at a time until it's mastered
3)provide concentrated teaching
4)provide prompts when the kids are unable to do it and to
increase their success rate. Fade prompt when necessary.
5)reinforcers are a must in these teaching

In DTT, it involves many trials, with each trial having a beginning and an end. It follows the ABC models, each concists of a (A) an antecedent which can be an instruction or a request, (B)a behaviour which is the response from the kid and (C)a consequence which can be a feedback ranging from positive to negative.

Now that you know DTT, let me give an example of DTT and normal teaching and you can compare and see the difference.

Scenerio 1
Teacher ask the kid to do a sum of 10 questions.
Teacher:Ok, let's do all these questions
Child:(look at teacher and start doing the question)
Child completed 3 questions.
Teacher: ok, let's do the rest.
Child continues doing it.
Child finally finshes all 10 questions
Child: I'm done
Teacher:(mark the questions)not bad, you got only 2 wrong, let do another 10 questions (look at the kid and smile).
This pattern carries on....

Before i carry on the 2nd scenerio, i just want you to think what will be the child reaction after doing 30 questions? Would he feel motivated? would he carry on doing the questions or be restless after 30 minutes?

Scenerio 2
Teacher: ok, today we are going to do some questions. Lets do the first question for me first.
Child does the questions.
Teacher:(marks the 2 questions)Well done, you got both of them right. Are you ready to get more right, smart kid? Let's do the next 2.
Child carries on.
Teacher:(marks and child got 1 wrong) Not bad this time, i know you tried(teacher goes through the question he did wrong)
Teacher:Ok, the next question is a hard one, lets do it together this time round
Child and teacher do the question together and do it right.
Teacher: Well, see it's not that difficult after all. Ok, you do the next one on you own.
Child does the question. This pattern carries on until he finishes 10 questions.
Teacher: Excellent job, you've done all the questions and you did really well. You can have a ten minutes break .

Can you spot the difference between scenerio 1 and 2? Which one is normal teaching and which is using ABA?

OK, scenerio 2 is using ABA. It uses DTT, folows the ABC model. It always start with an instruction, follows by the childs' behaviour or response then end with a feedback depending on the childs' actions. Also, unlike the normal teaching whereby the kid keeps doing the questions, DTT is broken down into smaller part, also prompts are given to help the child so they he can do it and be motivated. The child is also being praised for the tasks that he has done. And after all the questions, he is being reinforced unlike normal teaching where he has to do more questions.

In a way, in many teaching environment, most people are using normal teaching to teach the child but they don't realise it that it's not effective and the child will not be motivated. Who would be if you have to do so many boring tasks and not get rewarded? What i want to say is, DTT is a much more effective and it not only can be used to teach ASD kids effectively but also regular kids as they would understand the concept of rewarding and praises better.

So next time, always not to forget to praise you kid when they did something right and reward them accordingly. Too often, we tend to remember the bad stuffs and not the good=)

Johnny, the super off task(OT) king!!

All of the sessions went pretty well this week except for one session with Johnny. He was super off task (OT). This means that he was not paying attention to me whe i told him to do something. He would basically look everywhere instead of my direction and the tasks he had to do. I couldnt believe it that he could do it for like almost haif of the session (which is 1.5 hours). I tried enforcement prompting, holding his hand to get the taks done, also trying to get his attention back but it didnt help. He just totally ignored me. This is the first time that i feel so helpless. I've tried almost everything but i just couldnt get his attention. In fact, he had pretty strong reinforcer and by right he shouldnt have OT. Maybe it was one of those days that he just feel happy being in his own world and completely shut down on others. Haha, come to think of it, it's quite possible cause i tend to do this too when i just want to be left alone. I just hope that this does not happen to often with me cause i'm really at my wits end.

As for Nick, he was good at the preposition and attributes programs now. It's really great that he is quite a fast learner and he is also the easiest to teach among the 3 kids that i have. He is not really that high functioning as compared to Johnny but he is super compliance which makes programs really easy to teach. Johnny was actually quite high functioning, just that he still cant talk but i'm going into that. As for Ivan, he was quite low for his age but it doesnt matter cause whatever their age, whether they are low or high, they are also smart in my eyes. I know that they can learn and are willing to learn which is the good thing=)

Can ABA really treat autism?

I was reading a blog from Susansenator and there was a comment saying that ABA does not work, it does not treat autism. What the person say actually kind of make sense too. He came out with some questions that really make me wonder whether i'm doing the right things for all these ASD kids. Why do we have to teach them eye contact? Do that really feel happy when they are smiling? Is pacing up and down really that bad?
Actually when i really think of all these questions, all the answers are a big NO.

We teach ASD kids eye contact so that we will know that they are looking at us instead of rejecting us. In a way, we are making our lives easier working with ASD kids. And i don't think that pacing up and down is wrong, it's just that it's not good for us as we will get disturb by them. In actual fact, we are trying to make these ASD kids blend into our society, conform to our social norms. So they are of no difference as compared to us. The objective or the main motive of ABA to treat autism is to make them indistinguishable from regular kids. By saying that, it does not mean that they have recovered (in fact there is still no cure for autism). All i can say is that they can behave the same as regular kids and act like regular kids but i really have no idea whether they are happy. So, should we really use ABA to treat them to become indistinguishable or should we just leave them alone? (i think they will in fact be more happy). I really don't have the answer. Can someone tell me? Till now, i'll still practice ABA and treat them cause i really want them to be treated like regular kids.

De-structuring was quite a fun program to do

I did this new program, De-structuring with Johnny today. This program is basically to make the whole therapy session less structured. Initially, Johnny's sessions were always very structured as he was a really rigid boy. However, from this month onwards, we are going to de-structuring the whole therapy session. This is very important as we all know that in real life, it's not that structured.

Normally, his session would be held in his room but for today, i brought him out to the garden and did some programs there. In fact, i was bringing him in and out of his room to the garden (it was good exercise for him and me). Unexpectedly, he was pretty ok with it. It was quite fun too as it was more natural in a way (that we moved around in the house). It was also so funny to see him getting all his tokens when he rushed into his room to get his reinforcer.

Beside de-structuring, i also did the 'pointing program' whereby he has to see where i'm pointing at get the objects for me. He was pretty good at that too. Awesome!! Hope that he will be able to maintain or even improve when we start to de-structure more=)

Some new programs for Ivan and Nick

I had therapist sessions with Ivan and Nick yesterday and today. You must have read that they were both doing well at the clinic last month, hence they have some new programs for the therpy.

Ivan has a new program for his behaviour. Normally, he likes to touch anything or open any things that he can reach. He is quite impulsive in a way. So for this program, i'm teaching him to control himself and not get distractors by all the things that surround him. To start with, i just placed something that he like in front of him. However before i started that, i actually preempt him by telling him that i was going to place something in front of him and he was not supposed to touch it for 15 seconds. This is just the beginning for this program, gradually we will start increasing the number of distractors, altering the environment. He was able to stop himself from touching the items that i placed yesterday. Pretty good to start with. You must be wondering why are we teaching him this, what is the function behind this? Basically this is to teach him to control his behaviour as it will be quite destructive sometime if he needs to touch anything that he can find, also we are teaching him to be in focus and not get distracted by other things. This is extremely important as there are lots of things that need attention in order to do it ie sitting for an examination (how is he able to sit for 2 hours if he gets distractor easily, he will most probably not be able to finish his paper)

Another new program is "Recounting events". Ivan tends to get disoriented. He does not really know how to organise events. Sometimes when i was talking to him, the events often got disorganised and i would have no idea whether the event is going to take place or had taken place. He did pretty well for this but still not that solid. I asked him to recall the CDs that we listened to in order. He was able to do so when i laid out the CDs. However when i asked him without laying out the CDs, he was not able to do so. However, i can see that he has improved quite a bit fron the first day i saw him. ABA does help if one uses the right approach=)

As for Nick, i did "Preposition" of on/under. He doesnt really know them so i had to prompt him quite alot by having the word 'on' and 'under' on the chair and under the chair. He was able to put the items on the chair and under the chair with the help of the words. But when i remove both the words, he was not really good at it. So instead of removing both the words, i left one of the word 'on' on the chair, he was good at this and slowly i tried to fade my prompt. Hopefully, he will learn them in few more sessions cause there are so much for him to learn.

I also did "Attributes" big/small as he had mastered wet/dry. He was unsure about this too hence lots of prompting for this program. As one can expect, he was fussing for like 5 minutes during the session mainly because he gets frustrated when he was not able to do something or when he was not able to earn his tokens to have his reinforcer. One more new program under RI (1 step + colour out of chair). I'm suppose to give him instruction and he has to follow and do it ie Can you give me the "red" lego? (There are actually lots of other color and objects that have the same color, hence he needs to listen carefully in order to get the rght one). For this, he has to leave his chair, get it, sit back on his chair and give me the object. He did excellently with this one, smart kid=)

The Autistic ABA Therapist

I was searching for some ABA information when i came across this on the internet:
The Autistic ABA Therapist

This is a short clip about a lady who has autism and instead of getting help from others, she is actually a ABA therapist helping other kids with autism. Salute to her!! After watching this short clip, i just feel that i want to be a real good ABA therapist helping all these ASD kids. This is the least i can do=)

Techincal Skill For ABA

I realised that there are still so many skills for me to learn after this morning staff training on ABA. We had a kid today for training. He is able to match word to picture and match picture to word ie he was able to match the word 'ball' to the picture 'ball. However, the interesting thing is that he was not able to match word to object or object to the word. Isnt this interesting? Is there such a different between 2D and 3D (real objects). i don't think that there will be any difference for a regular person but definitely for an ASD kid, especially this kid.

So we have to think of a way to teach him to match picture to object and object to picture first. In fact, the real problem that he couldnt match them was because he was not paying much attention when there were objects and picture but once there was
words, he was able to do so. To start with, we had to intersperse the words and the picture and gradually built up his momentum to make him pay attention and after that. Bang!! He was able to do it.

I learnt so much things from this staff training. I learned that task analysis is really important. One has to find out what the real reason is in order to tackle the problem. We cant just help the kid blindly without knowing the situation and problem. Also, there are so many skills in ABA that i need to learn to be really good. I still have a long way to go but i know that i'm getting better as days go by. Yeah!!

Yeah, I scored a hat trick this time round!!

Johnny was awesome at clinic today. The consultant was quite satisfied with his progress this month eventhough his VI (verbal imitation) is not improving. Also, the consultant was saying that our pacing this time round is so much better compared to last month clinic. We would not rush Johnny and pace our time nicely. Basically, we were in control this time round instead of Johnny controlling us like last month. Johnny's mum seems quited pleased too about the progress. She was saying that Johnny was so much better behaved now and fuss much less. She mentioned that previously Johnny would always fuss at the zoo when he saw a tram passing but few days ago when he was in the zoo, he did not fuss and even sat on the tram. Awesome!!

Some new programs that Johnny has:
1)Operation (just like what Nick has)

2)De-structuring: This is the interesting one. His previous programs and therapy sessions were actually quite strctured but next month, we are going to make it less structured. I'm going to have therapy session in different rooms and also doing more out of chair tasks. He will also be moving around in the house doing tasks. I like this one cause this is something i've never done before. I would predict that there will most probably be more fussing as Johnny is actually quite a rigid boy.

3)Independent play:He is going to be taught more play so that he will not jump or run about in the house when he is free. I'm going to teach him how to occupy himself appropriately.

The above are the new programs that are incorporated into his therapy sessions, beside that he still has the usual 'matching, RI, RL, PVI, VI and NVI'

2 Hits, 1 more to go!!

Today's clinic with Nick went well. He was super compliance, kept wanting to come back to the chair when i asked him to play with the lego on the floor (most probably he knows that he will get his reinforcer only when he works with me on the chair). As usual, if a clinic went well, it also means that there are going to be lots more new programs for him too. And it also means that i've to prepare tons of materials for it too. I'm fine with that as long as the the kids are progressing and improving.

Some of his new programs are "Functions" whereby he has to tell me what are spoon, pillow, blanket, chair used for. There is a new program on "category" too. I think i don't have to tell you guys what category is. Basically, he is going to learn the different categories ie, transport, fruits, clothes, furniture. These are the 2 main new programs that he's going to have next month. And for next month, he will also be taught more on listening to longer receptive instruction (RI) ie Can i have the blue lego that is on the chair VS can i have the red lego under the chair? So RI is to train him to be attentive and listen to the instruction. If he's not paying attention, it's highly unlikely that he can get the thing i want.

There is a prgram on "preposition" too, teaching what is 'under', 'on','beside' and etc. Basically, i'm going to teach him to generalise, to understand and know it when there are being used at different situations or environment with different people.

So as you can see, there are really quite alot of new programs next month. I think that Nick will most probably act out quite abit cause we are starting to push him more these days as we think that he can actually do it with the right teaching methods, breaking the parts down (ABA and Discrete Trial Teaching).

Ok, 2 down, 1 more to go. Just going to keep my fingers cross and hope that Johnny's clinic tomorrow is going to be good too=)

Ivan's clinic went on well=)

Ivan's clinic session went pretty well today. He was so much better compared to last month clinic. I still can remember that he was giggling away and was so shy when he saw strangers in the clinic. Today, he did giggle a bit but definitely lesser as compared to last month and also he was so much compliance. His parents too were pretty happy about how he performed today at clinic. However, eventhough he did improve, i cant really see him passing his PSLE this year. This is actually his third attempt. I just feel that his parents have to wake up and realise that it's impossible for him to pass that unless miracle do happen (i wish it'll happen)

Anyway, after the clinic session, we have a long discussion. More new programs will be added to his current programs. Also, he is going to be taught toileting (ok, it may seem weird to regular people and some may be wondering " what, need to train people to toilet properly". Hey, they are not regular kids and sometime we often take things for granted especially all these simple things)It is going to be a challenge for both me and him but we will definitely succeed. Also, there are going to be program teaching him to be more focus, more attentive and not to get distracted easily. I'm getting so excited just by typing all these programs that i'm going to do next month. Look out for these people!! I'm going to talk more when it comes and let us all see him progress=)

A typical session

Some of you may be wondering how does a normal session with an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) kids goes. You don't have to wonder now cause i'm going to tell you now. This may be different from other therapists who use other techiniques or teaching method. For me, i'm specialise in ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) and in order for ABA to work, the most important thing is to have a strong reinforcers (something that the kids would want it so much that he's willing to listen and work with you to get it). If you do not have any good reinforcers and are not working to establish them, you might as well go home. The reason is that the kids would not be motivated to work for you. This is common sense right? In our life, we are always motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. For example, we work in a job because we know that at the end of the month we will be able to get paid. This is what motivates us. For some, it may be that they enjoys doing the task so much that it is an intrinsic motivation. So in fact, ABA can be applied in every situation not just to ASD kids, i personally feel that it will work as good or even better for regular kids.

Ok, so let tell you how a typical session will be like. It will consist of work and play and CT (communication temptation). I will talk about CT next time. Normally, a play will take up 60% of the session. You must be wondering why I cater such a large amount of time on play. Obviously there are reasons for this. We all know that ASD kids lack the social skills. They would rather be alone than play with others. Often, they have stimming such as flapping of hands, stim on writing, verbal stimming and even spinning. Basically, they don't know how to occupy themselves during their free time so i'm teaching them play so that they will play appropriate instead of stimming.

Also, as they lack the social skill, I'm teaching them social play too so that they can play with others. Social play like catch a tail, catching, finger games, boardgames are all good for teaching social play. The most important thing is to make them enjoy it so much that they want to play it and play with others. One must always remember that it's a play that we are teaching so the objective is always for the kids to like it. If the kids hate it, he will never play the games with others eventhough he knows how to play it.

40% will be work which includes expressive label, receptive label, receptive instruction, material imitation, non verbal imitation, verbal imitation, attributes, describing, in fact the list goes on. It all depends on the kids, no two kids have the same exact programs. The programs are specifically cater to each individual. As for older kids, I'm using teaching interaction. It is totally different from the young kids, they are taught by giving them rationale to make them think of it. Yup, that's the typical session of 3 hours=)

Compliance + No Fussing = Superb Session!! (Session 2&3)

Had Nick on Friday and Saturday, he was awesome. As you can read from the title, he was totally compliance and there was no fussing at all even at his own house on Saturday. I did alot of play programs woth him today. We played the air slammer, remote car, V-smile, dart, soccer. I can dare say that he enjoyed all of the plays.And somehow, i have this feeling that i can connect much better with him. He seems to know that i'm actually there to help him so nowadays, he didnt scratch me as much (actually no more scratching for 3 consecutive sessions)

Another thing i observed about him is that he likes to read alot, especially books with lots of picture. Books and magazines are actually his reinforcers. Behaviour wise, i'm hearing less of "i want to wee wee" these days. I still can recalled that when i first started out, he would keep saying "i want to wee wee" non stop. He would say this when he wanted to avoid the tasks or when he become stressed. However, these days when he said that, he really meant going to wee wee and not to avoid the task. I really like the feeling when these kids actually don't mind you being there for them and in fact, enjoys my accompany. Yeah=)

AS for now, i just want to enjoy my session with every kids that i have. ABA is really a good method, i can see that it really works on these kids. My only wish for them is that they will be indistinguishable from regular kids one day (this is a wish that all people who work with ASD kids have)

Ivan Session 1

Ivan was cool on Friday. He was compliance, had no difficulty listening to me. His reinforcer was actually going to the parks and playing Blokus (a cool boardgame). He got all the ticks to have both reinforcer. As he is a much older kid, I'm trying to develop his interest. He has programs on that

Reading magazine- This is one of it that i'm developing. He seems interested in reading magazine especially on friday as i brought 3 new magazines for him. He even asked me whether he could read it during the weekends. I'm really glad that he enjoys reading it.

Mazes- This is another one of the program in developing interest. He has to go through the maze without touching the boundaries. It may seems easy for regular kid but this is actually quite difficulty for him as he dont really understand that he cannot draw across them.

Word Search- I'm now teaching him to search for only horizontal words. He was pretty good at this on Friday. Keep it up!!

As for his play, i'm teaching him to play Connect4, Monopoly, Scrabble, Blokus. He just have to throw the dice and move for Monopoly. He couldnt really move according to the number on the dice. Sometimes, he may even count the number on the dice wrongly but it's ok cause i know that he will be able to do it someday. As for Connect4, i'm just teaching him to make 4 horizontally and vertically now. He is quite good at it, most probably i can move on to other soon. For now, he just has to get 7 letters for Scrabble.

As i had mentioned earlier, he is studying in a mainstream school. Because of this, i've to teach him how to do some independent work. He has to start immediately, do it quietly, nicely and give it to me when he finishes. If he is able to do all these, he can get all his stars and play his favourite game (Blokus). He was awesome today, managed to get all the stars and played Blokus

we did conversation on Friday too. He has to ask appropriate questions instead of asking questions that he already knew. He was good at this too. In fact, I think that he was really good with all the programs yesterday. Awesome=)

Johnny Session 1

Everything went well today with Johnny. His behaviour and engagement were awesome!! There was no fussing. I did quite a few programs with him

Receptive instruction (RI)- He has to listen to my instruction ie "stand up", "turn around" and "sit down". He has already mastered both "stand up" and "turn around" so i'm teaching him "sit down", in fact i think that he can do pretty well with sitting down. He should have no problem mastering it in few more sessions.

As for play, I'm teaching him to kick the ball into the goal post and roll snake using the playdoh. He was grat at kicking ball into the goal. For playdoh, he tends to play it the wrong way (as in not regular kid would play). He just pressed the playdoh and that's it. So i'm teaching him to roll it into snake. He seems to understand rolling it as he was able to it by himself after a few prompted trials.

Verbal Imitation (VI)- This is a program which he has great difficulty. As he cant speak now, I'm teaching to make some sound. He is able to make "Baa" and "Aaa" but "Eee" is really hard for him and he oftens get fustrated when he couldnt make the "Eee" sound. But the good thing is that i know that he's trying and i believe that he'll definitely make the sound one day. I need to be patient=)

Matching- This is something that he is really good at. I'm teaching him now to match the word to the picture ie the word "bicycle" to the picture "bicycle". He already can match "apple", "chips", "strawberry" and "cap"

Receptive Label (RL)- This is the next step after matching. He has to know the name of the objects. This is actually a form of building his vocabulary. He's quite good with this too (In fact, i believe that ASD kids are actually as smart as regular kids however the only problem is that they lack the social and communication skill to communicate with us).

So as you can see, Johnny is really improving and everytime i saw him smile, it really light up my life too=) Tomorrow i'm going to have session with Nick and Ivan, hope that i'll be enjoying the session just like today.

We are afterall the same, why treat them differently

i was quite distressed today when one of my fellow therapists called me and told me about Ivan. He told me that Ivan was not at his usual self during therapy today. There was actually time during the session that Ivan covered his head and was going to cry. When the therapist asked him what happened, he told the therapist that he was bullied in school. His school mates hit his head on the wall and slapped him. I was really quite pissed off when i heard that. How could they do such a thing to Ivan? That's the thing about putting an ASD kid in a mainstream school with the regular kids. The worst thing is that he is in EM3, the place where all the hooligans are. I really feel sad for Ivan. It's really sad that he has ASD and now instead of treating him better, these kids are making fun of him. He is not an "object", he is like one of us, human who needs the love, care and concern from others. Why must we treat them differently? Sometimes, i just cant understand what have this world become. It seems that humans are getting emotionless these days. And what are the teachers in the school doing? I'm just wondering....

Ivan Introduction

Hey, i has one more kid called Ivan (not real name). He is an older kid, hence his behaviour is much more worse than the others. He tends to giggle and laugh for no reason (this is one of the behaviour that i'm tackling, a challenging one though) Also, he will hit and throw things at people sometime. As you can see from his behaviour, he is not really that compliance. And the sad thing about him is that he doesnt have any hobby (as a result, he doesnt know how to spend his own time), so we actually have a program to develop his interest in activities like reading magazine, playing computer, playing boardgame and listening to music. He seems to like reading magazine and Blokus is one his favourite boardgame.

I'm also teaching him how to have a proper conversation with others (cause he tends to ask questions that he already knew and kept repeating it) and also to talk slowly (he tends to talk very fast). He doesnt have much programs yet but i believe that he will definitely improve and learn more things=)

Johnny Session 0

Ok, tomorrow i'll be having session with Johnny (not real name). I saw him today. He was pretty good except for some short period of fussing during the session. He used to cry alot when i first had him but his behaviour is better now even though he still cries occasionally. (As one can see, these kids all behave pretty bad at first but have all improved after the therapy begins). Johnny cant really talk, however he can make some sounds. We teaching him to make some "verbal imitation" ie Aaa, Eee, Baa. This will later lead him to say some proper word. I really hope that one day he will call my name=). Anyway, he's a smart kid. He has learnt quite a few words ie ball, car, playdoh. (once again, this is considered to be easy for a regular kid but not to someone with ASD). Also he has learnt to understand basic instruction like "stand up", "clap hands" and "turn around" Overall, he is improving and less rigid these days. Hope that i'll have a great session with him tomorrow.

Nick Session1

This is actually not nick's first session with me. I have been working with him for about 2 months and i can see that he has actually inproved quite a bit since i first saw him. I still can remember that at our first meeting, he actually was super non compliance. He would not listen to the instruction that i gave to him and he also scratched me too. However, his complaince now is defintely so much better now. He has no problem listen to me and scratches me less too.

I did a few programs with him today and taught him to play quite a few games. He likes the remote control car. He is now able to make the car move forward and backward. I'm impressed!! Ok, you may think it's an easy task but definitely not when the kid is autistic. So it's really nice to see that he enjoyed doing it. He was doing pretty good with the air slammer too, able to slam the disc to the goal ( basically, the plays are broken down into small parts so that these kids can learn it step by step. remember that they are not our regular kids so special attention and patient are needed to teach them and it's not always easy)

I was surprised today that he could say "What is it?" when i asked him something that he didn't know. It's such a wonderful feeling. I literally smile when he said that without me prompting (in ABA, we did quite a lots of prompting especially for programs in which the kids have difficulty).

I also did "operation + object" ie give xxx, shake xxx. He was super good with that. The function of this program is basically for him to listen attentively so that he can get the object and do the action. Overall, the session went on super well!! Keep it up Nick=)

All about the kids

This blog is totally about my sessions with the kids that i'm working with. I'm working as a child therapist dealing with autistic kids. I use ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) technique to help them on their social skill, communication skill. You will definitely know more about the approach and how i use ABA on the kids as time goes by.I'm going to update every session that i had with them, telling you guys about the progress and maybe my thoughts and feeling after each session. Basically, it's like a journey to see how they have grown (and also me) through all the programs that i have with them. Remember that this is a learning process. I'm learning alot from them too, these kids are teaching me so many things every session