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=)