Seeking Interview Research Volunteers

Dear parents,

The Monash University - Sunway Campus is conducting research in the area of autism. It would be great if you are willing to participate in this research project to contact them directly. We do hope to increase research in the area of autism in Malaysia and now we have an opportunity to contribute.

For more information, please refer to the flyer attached.

Warm regards,
Jochebed Isaacs
Director, Early Autism Project Malaysia  

. . . . .

Volunteer to be a Participant in a Student Research Study

Well-Being of Mothers of Children with Autism in Malaysia

Hello, I am an Honours student at Monash University, Sunway Campus conducting a research project for my thesis. I am looking to interview mothers with a child with autism, in hopes of exploring their experiences of raising a child with autism in Malaysia.  The interviews will also explore the challenges faced and what has helped support mothers. Participation will include the mother completing a brief demographic questionnaire and a 60-90 minutes interview with the mother that will be audio-recorded with prior approval from the participant.  Participation is fully voluntary.

**You will receive a RM30 book voucher in appreciation of your time **

Requirements for Participation -- Mothers with a child diagnosed with autism by a mental health professional; Fluent in the English language; Mothers who have lived in Malaysia for the majority of their lives and are raising their child with autism in Malaysia

If you are interested to participate or to inquire about the study, please contact:

Jeanette Liaw @ 012-2219319 [jhlia5@student.monash.edu] 

or

Dr. Karen Jennifer Golden @ 017-3883892 [karen.golden@monash.edu]

Teaching Your Child Assertive Skills

Another aspect of learning to Socialize for children with autism, is knowing how to be assertive when the situation requires them to. This article provides a good overview on how to teach your child such skills. 

. . . . . 

Assertiveness training for children is an often overlooked skill. In special education, we place emphasis on teaching children to cooperate with adults. Behavior intervention plans are often focused on teaching children to conform to a teacher or parent's behavior expectations. Individual Education Programs usually focus on teaching academic skills by rewarding improved performance. With all the attention being focused on teaching children to do what adults want them to do, the importance of teaching children to be assertive and stand up for their own preferences is sometimes overlooked. Even though assertiveness is an important life skill, many children go through special education programs without learning it. Instead, they may be programmed to become passive adults who simply comply with authority figures. This can place them at risk for being taken advantage of in life or living in ways that may be contrary to their personal goals and desires.

It is important for children to learn to stand up for themselves and communicate with other children in adults in positive ways. They need the self-confidence and communication skills that will enable them to:

• Express their preferences without being disrespectful or displaying inappropriate behavior
• Stand up for themselves without being aggressive;
• Avoid being exploited or even abused;
• Understand when adult or peer requests are inappropriate and how to appropriately resist those requests; and
• Live according to their own personal values and beliefs. 

Learning assertiveness skills is especially helpful in reducing aggression. Children are often aggressive because they do not have the skills necessary to resolve disagreements peaceably. If they do not learn assertiveness skills, they may have difficulty developing positive relationships into adulthood. Further, children who do not learn assertiveness may become overly submissive and may be targeted by bullies or abusers. Children must learn that they must say "no" to other children or adults who try to hurt them or talk them into doing things that are not dangerous for them. Children must understand that it is expected for them to take up for themselves, say "no," or even walk away from a child or adult who makes them feel threatened.

Role-Play Strategies to Teach Children Assertiveness Skills:

1. Teach your child how to say "no" in a firm voice while looking into the other person's eyes.
2. Show your child how to express his preferences. "No, I am not going with you."
3. Model for your child how to respond when another child tries to take his property. "No, you can't have this toy. I'm using it. You can have it when I'm done with it."
4. Demonstrate "I" messages. State the feeling, the condition, and why. For example, "I feel angry when you call me names because I don't like it, and you need to stop."
5. Teach your child to explain to a bully what he will do if the behavior doesn't stop. "If you don't stop calling me names, I will tell the teacher." 

Important Points to Share with Your Child:

Although children should be encouraged to work out minor problems himself, if your child feels as if he is afraid, in danger, or is physically threatened he needs to report the problem to an adult right away. Instruct your child to talk with his teacher, the counselor, or the principal. He should also tell you whenever a dangerous situation exists with bullies or adults.

Role playing situations with your child will help build the confidence he needs to deal with situations that require assertiveness. Allow your child to help you come up with role play scenarios. Have him share real or realistic imaginary situations that may occur.

It is also important to teach your child that assertiveness doesn't mean that he will or should get his way all of the time. Explain that it is important to let other children have their way to build positive give and take relationships with friends.

By Ann Logsdon

This article is taken from LearningDisabilities.com 

Teaching Your Child to Read Facial Expressions.

Children with Autism often have a hard time figuring out what others are thinking and feeling and they struggle with reading facial expressions. There are a number of reasons, one simply being that individuals on the spectrum often don’t look at faces. When they look at faces, they may not understand the emotions that are connected with each expression.

There are a lot of ways to teach your child to read facial expressions, but before we start, it is very important to consider where to begin your instructions. Some children with autism will be able to read basic expressions, such as happy and sad, but may have difficulty recognizing expressions that display different feelings or more subtle emotions.

Informally assessing your child, by asking him or her to identify facial expressions in pictures and video, may be helpful in determining what your child already knows and where instructions needs to begin.

Breaking Down the Task

If your child could learn to read facial expressions by immersion, they’d already be doing it. So begin first with the basic, then progressively teach more and more complex skills, always building on what has been mastered.

• First, your child learns to recognize and discriminate the facial expressions for the basic emotions: happy, sad, angry, scared. At this point the emphasis is only recognizing the expressions.

• Next understanding the emotions behind the basic facial expression is taught. What does it mean to feel happy, or sad, or angry, or scared? What types of events causes someone to feel angry and how is a person likely to act when he or she is angry. 

• Once your child can recognize basic expressions and understands the emotions behind them, they are ready to begin exploring other emotions.

As your child gains a greater understanding of facial expressions their social understanding and communication skills will improve. We need to keep in mind that for many children with autism, learning to read facial expressions can be like learning a foreign language. We don’t expect to land in a foreign country and immediately begin understanding all that is said. We learn it a word or a phrase at a time, and with lots of repetition and practice. The task of learning facial expressions needs to be broken down and taught one expression at a time, with ample opportunities to integrate what’s been learned.

Written By 

Jerusha Jaffery

Consultant, EAP Malaysia

Getting Attention Appropriately

One of the basic skills in socializing, is knowing how to first get someone's attention. Many children with special needs do not know how to do this in a socially appropriate manner. As parents or therapists of the child, there are certain methods we can use to teach them just how this is done. This video shows you how. 

Upcoming Progress Reviews!

We are excited to announce that Progress Reviews have been confirmed from the 19^th to the 30^th of November 2012. During this time, we are pleased to have Dr. Joseph Perron with us again.

EAP's Director Jochebed Isaacs with Dr. Perron on his last visit to Malaysia. 

Each Progress Review will be one and a half hours long with the first 45 minutes being an overlap session and the second 45 minutes being a parent discussion. Parents are encouraged to join the full Progress Review and to submit questions to your Consultants two weeks before the Progress Review. 

My Brain - A Poem by BehaviourBrain

My Brain

Awesome, Not ordinary, Funny.

My brain is in my head and it looks gooey and mushy.

I can read because of my brain.

I couldn’t talk without a brain.

My brain helps me play fun games with friends.

My brain helps me move my muscles.

My brain is as strong as my heart.

My Brain

Gooey, Warm, Smart.

My brain is covered by my skin and my bones.

My brain helps me see anything in the world I want to see.

I could not think with out a brain and I wouldn’t learn anything cool.

My brain helps me talk with family and friends about the 2012 election.

My brain has a brain stem located between the thalamus and the spinal cord.

My brain is as good as my inner organs could ever want to be.

My Brain

Convenient, Nice, Awesome.

My brain is under my forehead.

I can smile because of my brain.

I wouldn’t be able to read without my brain.

I could learn new things from teachers with my brain.

The brain is the control center of my body.

My brain is as awesome as Albert Einstein.

- Behaviorbrain, March 2012

This poem was written by an 11-year old boy who lives life with Aspergers Syndrome. He blogs about his life and learning curves regularly. You can read more about him here. 

Socializing with the Siblings!

For some children with autism, playing (either with toys or another person) can be difficult and it is a skill to be learned. They do not find play reinforcing but instead may choose to engage themselves in more self-stimulatory behaviour rather than appropriate play. Play time can be less structured, requires more flexibility and expectations may not be clear.

As a parent, you may want to have all your children play together, but this can be challenging if your child does not have play skills yet or does not enjoy playing. It is important to identify which level is your child at before you get him to engage with his other siblings in play effectively. If your child does not have any play skills yet, it will be best for the child to start learning how to play with an adult first, learn some interactive games and toy play skills that he may enjoy and language skills is preferred.

Once the above skills are acquired, start engaging your kids together. But start off with a small group, have only another child involved, an adult to facilitate the play and keep it short and structured. Use toys that are of interest of both children.

There are 3 stages of play.  Please refer to our previous blog post to find out more about these Three Stages.

Remember to slowly start fading off once your child can play independently with his siblings. Once he is also comfortable with one sibling, increase number of siblings.

Have fun playing together with your children!

Written by,

Jessica Ganesha

Consultant, EAP Malaysia

Teaching Your Child to "Take Turns" and "Share"

Taking turns and sharing are very important skills for children to have as they begin to socialize with other children and also adults. Be it a typical developing child or a child with special needs, these skills can sometimes be a challenge.

In order to teach your child these skills, use strategies such as “Social Stories” or “Video Modelling”. (In our previous blogs regarding toilet training there is a video on how social stories are done). Make it simple and short. For example:

Title: Sharing

Page 1: This is Jane

Page2:  Jane shares her toys and food

Page3:  Jane can share (Have pictures of items ranging for most desired to least desired items)

Page 4: Wow look Jane is sharing

Page 5: (name of friend) is happy when Jane shares

Page 6: Mummy and Daddy are so happy Jane is sharing

Page 7: Hooray!!!

The same story can also be used when we want to teach our child to take turns too.  As for video modelling, record a scenario of someone sharing items with peers or siblings. The video can be similar to the flow of the social story.

Be sure to also have a reinforce prepared to give the child the child can successfully share or take turns.  This reinforce should be something strong and the child desires for.

Next have a list of items that can be used to teach the child to share/take turns.  Always start with items that are not the child’s favourite. The reason why this is done is because the attachment that the child has towards the item is not strong enough and it will be easier for the child to start getting use to the concept.

Then start practising. It is always easier to practice with an adult first and then slowly to move on to peers or siblings. First read the social story or watch the video model. Immediately after that practice with the child. Remember to reinforce if the child after practising. As you are reinforcing your child remember to say how good he/she shared/took turns so the child knows he is being reinforced for these skills.

Written by

Jessica Ganesha

Consultant, EAP Malaysia

Peer Play: Stages of Play

There are gold ships,

There are silver ships,

But there are no ships,

Like friendships.

Finding friends, making friends and keeping friends are skills that I didn’t learn at school like how I learned math and writing. Yet, they are probably some of the most important life skills. Most children learn how to make friends on their own. However, for our children who are on the autism spectrum, making friends can be a daunting task. Therefore, many of the skills that are required in making friends, such as turn taking, sharing and negotiating, must be explicitly taught to our children who lack social skills. In a nutshell, this is how we teach our children social interaction in our program.

1.    First, teach to enjoy adult’s company.

2.    Use 1:1 learning sessions to teach:

-        Social skills(turn-taking, sharing, waiting, etc…)

-        Cooperation (respond consistently to adult’s instructions)

-        Self-regulation (Coping with not getting his/her way)

-        Play skills (interactive games, toys and imaginative play)

3.    The child’s social interest should increase, then teach child to play with other    

       children… now let’s start PEER PLAY!

Remember that even though our children can play with adults, they may not know how to play with other children because playing with children is more difficult than playing with adults (we help, we persevere and we reinforce!) Therefore, regular peer plays allow our children to practice the skills that they have learned in the 1:1 sessions.

Before starting peer play, it is important to keep in mind that there are different stages of play. One of the most common mistakes is to force our children to interact and talk to each other on the first play date. This pressure often hinders socialization. Below are the three stages of play and the initial goals to target during peer play.

Parallel Play - Involves limited social participation in which a child plays near other children with similar materials, but does not try to influence their behavior (start with parallel play even though child can do cooperative play with adults).

Associative Play - Involves social interaction in which the children engage in separate activities, but they interact by exchanging toys and commenting on one another’s behavior.

Cooperative Play -  Involves social interaction that is more advanced type in which children orient toward a common goal.

Initial goal for peer play is for both children to HAVE FUN! We want children to stay together (peer play usually occurs in 1 enclosed room)‏. We also want to find opportunities to generalize mastered play and social skills from 1:1 sessions (and later language skills as well). We want both children to feel comfortable and not pressured: Language is NOT an initial goal… it is common for children to talk less around new peers. Once the initial goals are met, we can gradually increase the frequency of peer play and establish new goals.

Good friends are hard to find. When we organize peer play for our children, we help them find, make and keep friends!

Written by, 

Gan Huey SIen

Senior Consultant, EAP Malaysia

Social Skills.

 

Watching neurotypical developing children, it is amazing how easily they seem to pick up social skills. For our children with autism though it just does not come naturally. From imitation to eye contact to engaging with parents, siblings or friends, to sharing and turn-taking, the social skills list can tend to be quite overwhelming. 

This month at EAP, we hope to provide a basic outline of how we teach our children basic Social Skills. We usually recommend starting with an adult (adults tend to be more predictable than children) on a one-to-one basis (when we do it individually there is more opportunity for the child to attend and for us to focus completely on that child). 

We will be highlighting how to teach your child to take turns and to share, to initiate and respond to greetings, to get people’s attention APPROPRIATELY, to read gestures and facial expressions, assertiveness, initiating short conversation and learning to interact with another child. 

Do note that our articles are just a highlight or an overview and as clinicians, we always individualise each programme to the child’s level, we break down the skill so it’s easy to catch and we always provide sufficient opportunity to learn. Social Skills do take a long time to learn and our children need repeated opportunities to practice and then to generalize. It is so rewarding though when you see your child start to look at you in the eye, tap your arm to get your attention or point out something to you. 

All the best and please do not hesitate to email us at autismmalaysia@gmail.com or contact us by telephone at 2094 0421 if you have any enquiries or would like further training in this area. 

Jochebed Isaacs

Director, EAP Malaysia.