Every little life is a special present for a family. From the time a baby is born, parents journey through lots of highs and lows, wishing for their child to grow up with a big smile, make great friends, find their own way in a job they love, and create a happy family. However, for parents bringing up a child with ASD, these dreams can sometimes seem far away and hard to reach.
Parents raising children with ASD often encounter extra challenges and experience higher levels of stress compared to other parent groups. Each child with ASD is unique and exhibits various symptoms and degrees of severity, like a lack of interest in social interactions and learning, tantrums, and trouble following instructions. Moms and dads often feel overwhelmed in handling their child’s challenging behaviors, and they often face hurdles in finding effective treatments, which can slow down or impede their child’s progress even more.
To support families with children facing ASD challenges, Autism Partnership has been organizing the APM Educational Project, a project that offers free 5-day APM training for children with ASD, every year since 2020.
This year, we have invited three 5-6 years old children with ASD to join the APM Educational Project 2023. While the three children each present unique challenging behaviors, a common thread among them is difficulty in social interaction and a lack of learning motivation. These shared struggles raise concerns among their parents about how they will integrate into society in the future.
The 5-day school-readiness training program aims to enhance their communication and social skills, as well as their learning motivation. Prior to the training, we have invited a kindergarten teacher to have a lesson with the 3 children, allowing our consultants to identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
Join us as we delve into insights from both mothers and the kindergarten teacher, providing a comprehensive understanding of the children and their unique qualities.
Ming Ming is an outgoing 5 years and 10 months old boy. He was diagnosed with ASD at 4 years old. His mother reported that Ming Ming doesn’t proactively engage in group games with his classmates, making it difficult for him to fit in. Ming Ming’s language development is also slower compared to his peers. Sometimes, he rigidly repeats certain phrases, and he has difficulty expressing his thoughts, which further hinders his social interactions.
His mother hopes to see Ming Ming thrive in a mainstream school, secure employment, and eventually lead an independent life. Her hope is for Ming Ming to refine his ability to articulate thoughts and needs accurately, bolster his intrinsic motivation to learn, and establish a strong foundation for integration into society.
Sum Sum, now 6 and a half years old, was diagnosed with ASD at 2 years old. Despite his strong desire to socialize and make new friends, he faces challenges as he perceives slapping and pushing others as a game, leading to his isolation from peers. Sum Sum also struggles with emotional regulation, often resulting in tantrums when faced with rejection. Sum Sum also displays challenging behaviors, such as not following instructions, rolling on the ground, and screaming in various situations.
Sum Sum’s mother hopes that the 5-day training will lead to improvements in his social skills, his capacity to follow instructions, and his ability to connect with other children.
As a kindergarten teacher in a mainstream school, Ms Wong shared the difficulties she faced in getting Ming Ming, Sum Sum and Hyun Hyun to follow instructions during the first lesson.
Within a standard kindergarten class of over 20 students, Ms. Wong highlighted the challenge of supporting a child with ASD while ensuring the learning and safety of other children. Considering the limited resources in mainstream schools, she suggested that children with ASD should receive 1-on-1 training to acquire foundational learning skills before entering mainstream schools. Ms. Wong believes that this will be more beneficial for their future development.
In the 5-day training, our team of experienced consultants, Mr. Justin Cho, Dr. Yvonne Cheung, and Ms. Christy Lai, have designed a specialized curriculum to meet the unique needs of Ming Ming, Hyun Hyun and Sum Sum.
Stay connected with our social media and website for upcoming videos, offering in-depth insights into the curriculum and highlighting the remarkable progress achieved by the 3 children. Keep an eye out for updates!
B.S. Psychology
Senior Case Supervisor
Ms. Marian Mationg is a registered Psychometrician and holds a degree in Bachelor of Science in Psychology from De La Salle University-Manila. She is currently taking up her Masters in Clinical Psychology from the same university. She has been working with Autism Partnership Manila since 2017 – teaching learners from toddlers to young adults in one-on-one and group settings. While teaching, she was trained and supervised by behavioral consultants of AP while collaborating with other therapists to maximize the progress of our students.
She currently holds the position of Senior Case Supervisor in the organization. In this role, she oversees AP Manila’s programs to ensure the effectiveness of teaching and therapy while regularly providing staff training. She also provides parent training to families and consultations with schools so that their learners may easily generalize the skills that they have been acquiring. She receives ongoing training from our Hong Kong consultant, Kathleen Man (Behavioral Consultant of AP and Clinical Director of AP Manila). Together with our consultant, she is responsible for designing highly individualized goal plans to create well-rounded programs including, but are not limited to, emotional regulation, self-help, social skills, functional academics, and pre-vocational skills for our students, while working closely with their families.
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