I was really very touched with my students last week. All the incidents happened on the same day.

The 1st student Zac was eagerly waiting for my session & I was so happy to see that. After the session, he gave me a big hug with a flying kiss.

My 2nd student who is 23 years old. His name is Mike. I've been teaching him for the last one year. Now he is trained in pre-vocational, self-help, house management & play skills. Now I'm also teaching him to type his name on the computer with visual cue & manipulate the mouse to play simple interactive games. Moreover he is able to comply to instructions & the aggressive behaviour is reduced tremendously. He is waiting to go for autism school for adults.

 As usal after working, he came for his snack. While he was eating his biscuits, I asked him to give me 1 piece. To our surprise, he fed me the biscuit. All this years he has only fed his mom & not even other family members. I was so touched & loss of words for a minute.

My 3rd boy who is about 3 & half years old. His name is Ken. He is weak in activities which requires auditory processing. To my surprise he was able to label items & do the actions upon my request much better than other days. His use of vocabulary has also improved tremendously. At the end of the session, he too gave me a big hug, sent me off up to door with a flying kiss.

Once the bond is achieved, you can see miracles happening... Together we make it Happen!!

I've just started teaching this boy (Dinesh - not real name) & he is 19 years old. He is non-verbal boy but understands verbal instructions well. He goes to school in the morning & comes back home about 4.30pm. He'll have his snack, shower & he just sits on the sofa or floor cushion & rocks himself.

For the 1st two sessions he was very anxious & did not comply to the instructions. During the 2nd session, he was quite unhappy to work with me. He suddenly got hold of my blouse & was staring at me. I remain calm & waited for him to calm down. His mom was talking to him nicely to let go off the blouse. Finally he let it off & completed the task assigned for him.

He still need to be guided for showering. After working few sessions I realised that he is able to pick up & learn fast. Currently I'm focusing on the following skills such as  simple pre-vocational, house management, self-help & social skills such as simple play. Both of us are trying to know each other better now.

This is my humble request to all parents & care givers. Please engage the children in a meangingful way & do not spoon feed the children. You may assist them when they are not able to do but give them the opportunity to try themselves. Teach them to be independent!! That is very IMPORTANT!!!

After reading Deepa's First experience, I would also like to share mine.

When I joined in as a special educator, I had very little knowledge about autism. The 1st month I was basically observing & learning from the senior teachers. On my 1st day at school I had "culture shock" seeing the students. I was also welcomed by a hard hit on my back.

After 1 month I started to teach SQ under the supervision of my Senior Teacher. He was 9 years old & very adorable boy. However his sensory needs were very high. He loves to bounce on therapy ball, climb, jump, etc. Though he was able to speak, it was not clear. When he was stressed or upset, he'll scream, scratch others & even bite them. We have to redirect him to the modulation area where he'll cover himself with cushions & quilt.

Within couple of weeks my hands were brusied with his scratched marks & one day I was bitten by him. Since the bite was deep, I had to see doctor & take injection. To protect myself, I started using long sleeve blouses & motorbike gloves for my hands. This kind of prevented SQ from scratching me. However he was very clever, he'll find ways to scratch the parts which were not covered.

I was upset & also confused. I went back to my Mentor often to make sure that I was in the right path. She gave me assurance & guided me along.

After couple of months, I came to know that he also scratched me to get my attention. Hence I made sure the PECS file was within his reach & trained him to request for his wants. This minimised the scratching tremendously. Guess what!! I didn't have to use the motorbike gloves!! :)

He was very much benefitted from Structured Teaching. Since he was trained in ABA method, I reinforced him with food or play upon completing about 4 tasks. He loved to eat chips. Hence I introduced the ready made "pepper pappadam". He simply loved it. He'll come to me & ask "I want pappa dom"..

During weekly swimming, he managed to overcome the fear. He'll hold on to me tightly & come to the centre of the pool. The initial stages he'll just go around the pool holding on to the wall & he doesn't like anyone coming near him.

Six months down the road, we had built an excellent bond. I was able to know what he intends to do, or tell. Whenever he was not secured during the outdoor sessions or even in the classroom, he'll come & hug me. Guess due to bond, he showed progress in academics.

With the patience & guidance, I continue to pursue my career as Special Educator. Now I love choosing this as my career. I also had learned lots of things from SQ.. He is also my mentor!! Thank you SQ for making me to understand you & also teach me to understand other kids...

Today I carried out "toothpick construction" for play activity with my student Henry. First I demonstrated a little by sticking toothpicks on fruit chunks & got him to follow my verbal instructions.

Finally we made a robot. Upon completion he said "I don't know what is this?" Then I replied saying "Does this look like a robot?" Immediately he replied "Oh yes! it looks like a robot." I started off with 1st verbal cue as "This is head" & then I asked "what is this?" pointing to the hand. He was able to answer spontaneously for all the other parts. He was also very excited about the robot. After labelling the body parts, he got to eat the fruit chunks. This time, he said "I have ate the head, it's gone into my tummy!" There was big smile when he label each body part again while eating it. He was very expressive throughout the activity. Mum was extremely suprised to see him talking spontaneously & the way he enjoyed eating the fruits.

Henry is a 6 year old boy. Only over the last 2 months he has progressed to speak in sentences. I must say this activity had created lots of opportunities for him to talk expressively. Moreover this activity is good for both receptive & expressive communication. Parents may try this with your kids. This activity was adapted from the book "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun".

This multisensory activity is usually a big hit at any time, especially with siblings or group buddies. Who can make the funniest construction?
Materials needed:
Box of toothpicks
Food chunks such as grapes, berries, pieces of banana, apple, melon or cucumber. OR
Cubes of cheese, tofu, marshmallows.

What your child can do
Stick toothpicks into food chunks to construct houses, scaffolding, robots, people, monsters, space ships & other creations.

Benefits of the activity
Constructing creatures and objects improves pincer skills, translation movement, hand dexterity and bilateral coordination.
Manipulating the materials improves tactile perception.

Last year I taught a 12 year old boy. He was able to talk a few words but the pronounciation was not clear.He used to have lots of behavioural issues too. I would like to share two main issues with you.

1) He had the habit of drinking water from his water bottle. At times, he would force himself to drink and later vomit it out. Otherwise he'd run to the wash basin and pour the water. Or play with the tap water. He was very fast and it was difficult to chase him.

My psychologist suggested this method.

I kept the water bottle out of his reach. He was good in PECS (picture exchange communication system). Hence each time he wanted to drink water, he had to ask for it using the PECS. I would pour a little water in a cup and keep the bottle away. This practice stopped him from forcing himself to finish the water and also playing with tap water.

2) Whenever he was stressed or frustrated he'd pull my blouse/shirt. On the certain days he would hit my head with his head... That's extremely painful... I'd find myself in the twilight zone for a few seconds! :( Then I'd ask him "what do you want?" He used to show me his hands. When I ask him "Do you want a squeeze?" He'll reply saying "yes".

Though I taught him to ask nicely, he was unable to do it. Then I took a photograph of a hand squeeze and included it in his PECS file. The file was always within his reach. Since I knew his moods, each time he was about to pull my blouse I'd immediately redirect him to take the photo and it to me. Then I say "You want a squeeze!" and reinforce it by giving him a hand squeeze for 10 counts. If he wanted more, he just had to ask for it. After 2 months he stopped pulling my blouse and began to request for a squeeze appropriately. Finally my blouses were spared from him!

My student who is a non-verbal kid transits using picture symbols. However she used to bend and fold the laminated pictures. Hence I pasted it on a corrugated board. This prevented her from bending or folding.

Alternatively, you may also paste the picture(s) on a hard cardboard if you can't find a corrugated board.

Structured play clearly defines the number of times the child needs to play with a clear start and finish.

Materials needed:
- 4 or 5 boxes or baskets
- 4 or 5 towels/scarfs
- 4 or 5 different toys
- "Finished" box

Place a toy in a box covered with a scarf. Do this for each toy. The teacher or parent presents one box at a time. Demonstrate to child and say "Peek-a-Boo!" while removing the scarf. Th child gets to play with the toy and get the child to keep whole box with things in the "Finished" box.

If the child is verbal, get him/her to say "Peek-a-Boo" and unveil the scarf for subsequent boxes. Continue this until all the boxes are unveiled. Once all the boxes are kept in the "Finished" box the activity is over.

This activity clearly shows the child
a. What to do
b. How many to do
c. Where to keep the things when the game is over

Teaching the child organization skills is very important. Upon completion of a task/play item, keep the materials in the "Finished" box or back into shelf/drawer.

I've introduced balloon volleyball during play time. Teacher hits the balloon to the child and vice versa. During this activity the child showed very good eye contact. This activity also improves bilateral hand skills - ability to perform smooth, refined movements that requires use of both hands, coordination of arms.

You may adjust the level of difficulty by having the child sit in a long-sitting position with the legs stretched out in before him. He can also kneel or stand as he gets stronger.

You may then get the child to crawl under a table and then hit the balloon.

Some extensions: Have the child kick the balloon or ball while standing in order to improve balance during a one-leg stance. This skill is needed in pulling up pants.

Kids simply love playing this game. You may try it out. Have fun!