Pendidikan Khas

Ying-Ying was my student at the Center. She was a tiny and fragile girl. She wore the thickest glasses. She had no verbal communication skills and was very quiet in class. She’s also adorable. When I hugged her, she sort of melted in my arms. The best word to describe her is the Malay word “manja.” She was 6 years old when she came to the Center.

She wasn’t in the best of health though. Like many children with Down syndrome, she was born with a congenital heart defect. When she was a baby, she underwent a major heart operation, which left a long scar that started from the front of her chest, across her shoulder and all the way to her back.

Learning wise, she was the slowest in the class. She didn’t know any of the alphabets and was not able to  differentiate between the different colors or shapes. With some help, she did managed to complete 8-piece puzzles. She was happy and slightly timid in class.

Occasionally, her dad gave me rides to and from the Center. It was in her car that I caught a glimpse of her very playful and cheeky self. She demanded her way with her maid and according to her dad, she’s the queen of the house.

When her parents took her to register for Standard 1 (1st grade) in a public school that has special education classes, her parents were told that because Ying-Ying was not fully toilet-trained, the school was considering not admitting her. So for the next few months, toilet-training for her was a top priority for both her parents and I.

I left the Center at the end of the school year (after one and a half years at the Center) to prepare to continue my studies in the US. One day, several months later, I received a text message from the assistant teacher at the Center. She informed me that Ying-ying passed away in her sleep. She was 7 years old.

It was sad. It was unexpected. It’s hard to explain what I felt. One of my young students just died.

Looking back, I hope I wasn’t too hard on her when she couldn’t tell “merah” (red) from “biru” (blue), even after several months of going through that. Most of all, I hope that she felt loved in my class.

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It’s been too quiet here for too long. In my absence from this blog,
1) I’ve completed my dissertation proposal,
2) Proposed my research to my dissertation committee, received their approval with some changes required,
3) Made all the required changes,
4) Applied for and accepted into doctoral candidacy (in other words, I’m now a doctoral candidate, before this I’m just a doctoral student),
5) Went back to Malaysia for a 3-week holiday,
6) Applied for and received a new student visa,
7) Applied for and finally received the university’s institutional review board (IRB) approval to conduct my research with human subjects. This was a particular stressful process that took over 2 months of waiting and 2 weeks of providing additional answers to IRB committee’s questions. All the while trying to convince them that the benefits outweigh the risks and that my participants (with developmental disabilities) are capable of giving informed consent.

Now that I’ve received IRB’s approval I can officially start work on my research.

My research purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific type of video-based intervention to teach job skills to adults with developmental disabilities in employment settings. My main interest is the video-based intervention. My sample, adults with developmental disabilities in employment settings, is sort of a sample of convenience.

Sample of convenience? That means it is more convenient to do my research with this particular sample. My university has a program that provides supported employment services to adults with developmental disabilities, so it makes it much easier to find participants and there’s also a pool of support staff that could help me in data collection.

I decided not to do my research with children in schools because it can get very complicated. It’s not easy to get permission to do research in schools, and sometimes teachers do not want the extra work and burden of having graduate students come in and out. It’s also hard to schedule time for research work in a busy classroom schedule.

Even so, right now I am facing another hurdle: I need to get approval from the management of the two stores (a thrift store and a retail store) to conduct my research there. While it may be slightly easier to conduct my research with adult participants in employment settings, it’s still not easy. Actually, nothing is easy.

I’m interested to see if my intervention works. My biggest hope is for my intervention to be very effective very quickly. I mean very very quickly! But once again, nothing is easy…

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I have a kid in my class who likes to seek attention from others. Whenever there is a new face, as in new teacher or observer in the classroom, he will tend not to listen to my instruction. He will refuse to move to the next task. Even with physical prompt, he is very adamant to move. Do you have any form of intervention suggestion for this behaviour? Please do let me know your opinion on how to make him improve this behaviour.

This is tricky and I’ve faced the similar situations before. Whenever a visitor or a parent hung out in my classroom, I felt that at least one of my students would get a little hard to manage. Maybe I was just being super sensitive that if my students did not follow my directions immediately, the visitor may think that I’m a bad teacher. Furthermore, I think kids know that in certain situations (e.g., visitors in the classroom, at the mall with their parents), they can manipulate the adults and get away with it.

What to do during situations like this? Here are three suggestions:

“Do not feed the lions” (Setting visitor rules)

If your student acts out to gain attention, the visitor’s attention is feeding your little lion cub! You could put in place some rules for visitors coming into your classroom.

With children with special needs, instructional time is very important. So if you do get many visitors, and they tend to interrupt instruction in the classroom, this can seriously reduce the amount of instructional time. Over time, this could affect your students’ academic performance.

So, you may want to inform the classroom visitors to not engage the students during instructional time. This means no funny faces, no chatting, no acknowledging the student’s attention-gaining behavior. Basically, the visitors should keep a neutral face and sit quietly in the corner of the classroom. If they want to engage the students, they can wait till recess time.

As part of my research assistantship, I’ve been in classrooms to observe students and collect data. Some teachers will inform me of their rules at the get go. As a general rule, I have to sit in one corner and not respond to student’s chatting or misbehavior. I have to be like I’m not there.

Noncontingent praise (Increasing positive attention)

If your student is misbehaving to gain attention, you could try noncontingent praise. This means that you put in place a schedule of praise for this student. That is, you say one positive statement to the student every few minutes. You can decide what time intervals work better.

For example, you say something positive (e.g., “Good job sitting down appropriately”, “I appreciate that you’re doing your work”) to your student at approximately every two minutes. But don’t praise him when he’s bouncing off the wall, but as soon as he settles down, quickly say, “I like that you’re sitting in your seat”.

If he does misbehave, try your best to not make it a big deal.

When he is not paying attention to you, you can also praise other students in your classroom for their appropriate behavior. For example, you say, “I really like how Ah-Mei is sitting quietly and doing her work. Great job, Ah-Mei!” Make it a big deal and make sure the target student hears the praise to the other student. And as soon as the target student responds to that and starts doing his work, quickly praise him too, “I see that Ken is also quietly doing his work. Great job, Ken!”

So what you’re doing here is that you’re giving him the attention when he’s being appropriate, and not when he’s being inappropriate. If he really likes the attention, he may increase his appropriate behavior for your attention.

If his behavior improves after some time, you can fade the praise a little. For example, instead of every 2 minutes, you can praise every 4 minutes, and so on.

Token reinforcement (Point sheets)

You could also try giving tokens/stickers to the student for appropriate behavior. You can have a sticker chart with, let’s say, 10 blanks. Inform the student that if he stays in his seat and is appropriate for 3 minutes, he will get a sticker on the chart.

You can set goals together with the student. For example, if the student gets 8 stickers before recess, he gets a reward. The reward does not have to be things, it could be spending time with his favorite teacher or listening to his favorite music during free time.

You can also have weekly goals and rewards, or even monthly goals and better rewards. Make sure that the rewards are things or activities that your student really likes. Remember to save the best reward, your student’s favorite, for good behavior on the day that visitors will be in your classroom.

It is important that you set achievable goals for the student. Start with lower achievable goals so that the student is successful in getting the rewards. As he starts getting the idea that good behavior will lead to a sticker/token, which leads to a reward, then you can raise the standard, and make it slightly harder to achieve the goal, and so on.

These two interventions, noncontingent praise and token reinforcement, you’ll have to put in place early, and hopefully by the next time you get a visitor, the intervention will be effective in keeping your student on-task.

My very first question and answer session! Thank you, Anu, for the question. If you do try these suggestions, let me know how it goes. You can also modify the interventions to fit your student and your classroom.

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Since I read the news about the caged boy of Sanglang, I’ve been wanting to write something concerning him. Initially, I was overwhelmed by this case: a 15-year-old boy locked up for his safety; a non-verbal boy who does not recognize his family.

What can I do about it?
There’s nothing I can do about it.

But I kept thinking about this case. I finally realized that it is my responsibility to put some thought into this case.

Isn’t that what I came to the US for?
To learn how to help children, like Azri, back home.

Even if I cannot come up with an intervention that will fix everything for him, I should at least come up with some initial steps to understand his situation. And hopefully from that, develop some intervention ideas that might improve his quality of life. Being locked up in a cage and tied to the house is no way to live.

First of all, it is difficult to come up with ideas when my only guide is a news article that is 300+ words long. I’ll have to make assumptions and guesses along the way.

I suspect Azri has severe mental retardation, perhaps severe autism too. Some initial questions that I have for the family are:

• Tell me about his childhood.
• What does he like to do?
• What is his favorite food? Favorite music? Favorite tv show? Favorite person to be with?
• What is his daily routine like?
• What can he do independently?
• What makes him happy?
• What upsets him?
• Does he try to communicate?
• How does he communicate? Gesture? Make sounds?

Since his most challenging behavior right now is running away from home, I’ll start from there.

Challenging behavior: Running away from home

There are many questions that his family will have to answer to help me understand his running away behavior. For example:

• When did he start running away from home?
• Where does he normally run to?
• Is there a specific time of the day that he usually runs off?
• Does he always run off if he gets the chance?
• Has there been a time that he didn’t run off when he had the chance? If yes, what was happening then?
• How does he react when he is caught after running off? Does he look upset that he’s caught? Does he look happy?

Without answers to the questions above, here is my best guess as to why he runs away from home:

He is locked in his house all day, so he wants to get out.
But when he runs away from home, he endangers his life;
So, he is locked in the house all day.
It is a vicious cycle.

Without answers to the questions above and having very limited information to guide my intervention, I suggest the following to break the vicious cycle:

1. Instead of locking Azri home the whole day, his family members could take him to a safe and enclosed field, such as a school football field, and let him run, or maybe even run with him. Thirty to 45 minutes of intense running will be good for him. It will burn off some of his extra energy. The exercise might also calm him down, which may help him sleep at night.

and

2. His family members could take him out for a long walk around his kampung (neighborhood) every evening. If there is a place that he seems to like or is always running off to, I suggest walking to and spending some time at that place. Perhaps a walk to a nearby park to watch the kids in the area play. Or a walk to the pasar malam (night market). Or a walk to a nearby grocery store.

If this intervention works, I predict that slowly and surely he will stop running away because he knows that he gets his time out of the house, so he doesn’t need to run off. Eventually, I hope that he will no longer have to be caged in the house and he would be able to freely move around the house without being tied down.

Initially during both the morning run and evening walk, if he has a tendency to run off, a few more people could be involved, so that they can help get a hold of him before he runs off. In time, only one person will need to be with him during the morning runs and evening walks.

Functional communication skills: Picture cards, photos or objects

In a response to Azri’s case, a medical doctor suggested that Azri be provided speech therapy. Since he is still nonverbal at 15 years old, I am doubtful that speech therapy will help.

I would try using picture or photo cards instead. For example, teach him to point to a photo that shows food items, when he wants to eat. Point to a photo of football field, when he wants to go for a run or walk.

If photos or picture cards are too complex, maybe he can learn to use objects. Point to a shoe, when he wants to go out. Point to food items, when he wants to eat. Point to a glass, when he wants to drink.

Self help skills: Toilet training

Lastly, I think it is very important to give toilet training a try. Unless it is a medical condition, most children with developmental disabilities, even those with severe autism and mental retardation, can learn to use the toilet. When I reflect back on the kids at NASOM, I don’t remember any of the teenagers there using adult diapers. And some of them had severe autism too.

The family members can set up a schedule to bring Azri to the toilet every hour or so. In time, they will learn what his toilet routine is like and most accidents will be prevented. If possible, Azri can be taught to go to the toilet on his own. If he likes his walks, maybe he could be taught to first go to the toilet before going out for his walks (positive reinforcement).

Because Azri is only fifteen years old, if he’s not toilet trained now, he will have many years ahead of him where he will be dependent on diapers. Besides being very expensive, diapers are extremely uncomfortable in the hot and humid Malaysian weather. Being toilet trained will greatly improve his quality of life.

Meanwhile, Shah Alam-based Nuri Cergas Sdn Bhd managing director Khusairi Wahijan donated two weeks supply of diapers and RM700 to the family.

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When I read the news regarding the proposal to build a welfare village in Miri, Sarawak, I was disturbed by the concept of a “welfare village”. I realized that, as a society, Malaysia is still rather ignorant about the concept of equity and inclusion when it comes to individuals with disabilities.

The idea of a “welfare village” may have been conceptualized out of good intentions, but a welfare village is an obstacle to Malaysia’s vision of a caring society. Instead of a caring society in which all Malaysians are included in all aspects of society, a centralized welfare village would only serve to further isolate residents of current welfare homes to the outer fringes of society.

The community where the welfare homes should be a part of is not among a larger community of “welfare” residents, but among the general population. Instead of just interacting with each other, residents of welfare homes should be interacting with the rest of society.

The help and support that the residents need should be provided within the community and by the community. The residents of welfare homes do not need new, isolated and separated facilities. They should be sharing necessary facilities with the public, and not among themselves.

Rather than spending money building new facilities in a welfare village, the Sarawak state government should consider upgrading current public facilities to allow easy access by all individuals with disabilities. In addition, the staff of these facilities should be trained to provide necessary supports to enable the residents of welfare homes to fully benefit from these services.

The aged, the single mothers, the orphans, the individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities, and other “needy” groups are part of what makes the Malaysian society whole. The Malaysian government should work towards an inclusive caring society where neighbors care for each other, and the weak among us are not shipped off to a distant location where they become “out of sight, out of mind” and most of all, out of our hearts.

Friday April 18, 2008
Sarawak plans to have ‘welfare village’
By STEPHEN THEN

MIRI: A pioneer plan has been mooted in Sarawak to construct a “welfare village” - where all welfare organisations and charitable homes would be housed in one big centralised location - so that inmates would be able to live as one society instead of being isolated as is the case now.

Miri City, the oil capital of Sarawak, has been earmarked to be the first urban centre to have such a welfare village.

A plan is now being drawn up by the Miri Resident’s Office on the structure and layout for this welfare village.

Miri Resident Ose Murang said the plan would be submitted to the State Cabinet for consideration and approval.

“At present, these welfare homes are scattered all over the place, with inmates living isolated from the community and the rest of society.

“We want to construct a centralised village where all these welfare homes can be located in one common welfare village (different buildings but in same zone).

“This welfare village would have the necessary facilities for sports, skills training and physical rehabilitation that the inmates from all the various different homes could share.

“This concept would enable the inmates from the different welfare homes to live as one big community, interact with each other and help each other as support groups.

“This centralised welfare village would also enable more efficient administration and management of the homes, enable family members of the inmates to visit regularly and enable the authorities to manage and monitor the progress of these homes in a coodinated manner,” he said on Friday.

Murang on Friday discussed the proposed plan with Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam and sought his advice and opinions.

If the welfare village is approved, it would be the first of its kind in state and country.

At present, welfare homes that cater to the blind, the handicapped, the old folks, orphans, accident victims, psychiatric patients, single mothers, abused women and other needy groups are located all over the cities and towns in Sarawak.

Each of them operate independently, and many of them do not have adequate facilities to train inmates in skills-acquisition or physical rehabilitation.

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The United Nations has designated April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day, and today is the first World Autism Awareness Day.

Since I’m in the field of special education and autism was the disorder that sort of changed my career path and led me to where I am today…which is sitting in my room in a foreign land with the gianomous task of getting a dissertation done, plus all the stress, pressure, and guilt (when I’m doing something else other than the tasks that will get me to the finish line) thrown in, I thought I’ll post something about autism today.

This semester, I’m sitting-in in a semester-long doctoral seminar on Autism Spectrum Disorder. I’m not actually taking the class, but I thought I’ll just sit-in during the class and catch up on the latest research in the area of autism. The great thing about sitting-in is that it costs me nothing and I don’t have to work on any assignment, I just needed the professor’s ok for me to unofficially join the class. The bad thing about sitting-in is that because I don’t have to do anything, I really don’t do anything and sometimes I don’t even concentrate during the class, my mind just wanders off to the list of things I need to get done later. Anyway, here’s something I got from the class:

Six Myths of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)(Sicile-Kira, 2004):

1. Everyone with an ASD has a special, extraordinary talent (the Rain Man Myth).

I’ve taught a number of students with autism and I’ve only met one boy who was talented in architectural line drawings. He could reproduce detailed line drawings by following a photograph of the building. Other than him, I don’t remember any other exceptional talents.

2. Everyone who has an ASD is a genius.
3. Everyone who has an ASD has mental retardation.

All the students with autism that I know of are on a continuum of “smartness”. Some can read, write, do math; some can’t recognize ABC or 123; and the rest are in the middle. I have not met an exceptional academic talent, but I’ve read books about (and by) individuals with autism who are professors and professionals in different fields.

4. Everyone who has a symptom of an ASD has an ASD.

Just because a person hates situations where s/he has to engage in small talk or s/he finds social interactions difficult, that does not make the person autistic.

5. Symptoms of ASD cannot improve.

If that is true, I’m doomed. Thankfully, that’s not true and lots of research have shown that individuals with autism can learn the skills they need to function in this world. And if you start intensive intervention early enough, the outcome will be much better.

I’ve also read books on dietary interventions (e.g. gluten-free and casein-free) that documented mind-blowing results. However, empirical research do not support those findings and dietary interventions has been relegated as “Interventions That are not Recommended” (Umbarger, 2007).

Honestly, I wish it was as simple as just removing all wheat and milk products from a child’s diet, and that child with autism will immediately show improvements. In addition, dietary interventions are not easy to implement, it’s a total upheaval to the family’s routine. If a family comes to me and tells me that they want to implement a dietary intervention, I would be supportive but I’ll warned them that it’s not yet evidence-based and that they will have to be prepared to make the drastic changes and stick to the new diet for at least one year before deciding to stay on or stop the diet. No half-hearted effort allowed here.

6. People with ASDs have no emotions and do not get attached to others.

I remember a student with autism who did not show much emotions and she sort of looked as if she’s not aware of what’s happening around her but she loved it when I put my arm around her shoulder. I remember another student with autism who looked very aware of what’s happening around her and she totally hates it when I just sit close to her. And she’ll let me know her displeasure by giving my arm a tight slap.

I’ve read a book where the guy with autism, Joe, was suspicious that his lover is seeing someone else. Joe would noticed everything: if his lover, who worked at home, said that he (yes, it’s a he) went out for jog in the afternoon and that’s the reason he didn’t answer Joe’s call, Joe would know immediately whether it’s the truth or not because he remembers the exact placement of his partner’s running shoes in the morning before he went to work. And when Joe related his suspicions to another friend, Joe broke down and cried. I think that’s so normal.

So, they do form attachments to other people and have a wide range of emotions but they may not show those emotions in the same way that non-autistic people do.

Lastly, CNN reports that there are 35 million people with ASD in the world today. That’s more than the population of Malaysia!

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I have completed my comprehensive exam and I am in the midst of getting my dissertation proposal ready.

My dissertation will be on the use of a video-based intervention to teach job skills to adults/youths with developmental disabilities working in community settings. I am rather psyched with this topic. I like it because the video part of the intervention allows me some room for creativity. The rest of the dissertation research, however, is one tightly controlled scientific process, which can be very dry and unexciting.

I am also writing up my qualifying project (QP) for publication. Even though I’ve passed the qualifying project many semesters ago, it never seems to get done.  I’ve written two versions of the Introduction: one when I initially proposed the QP, another when I defended the QP. Now I have to write a third version for publication. I’ve also analyzed and reanalyzed the data multiple times. And depending of the final data analysis, I would have to rewrite the Methods section again.

I am sick of still working on the QP, but I have to persevere on. It’s important to be a first author of a journal article: good for the CV. But still, I’m so sick of it.

With all these urgent and important documents to write and rewrite, I’ve somewhat lost my motivation to update this blog consistently. But I’ll try my best.

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One of my first initiatives at the tuition center for children with Down’s syndrome was to teach the students, who have already mastered the alphabets, to read in Bahasa Malaysia (BM: the national language of Malaysia). Because BM is a phonetic language, it was relatively easy to teach. With the recommendations from another special education teacher, I bought a beginner systematic BM reading book and started one-on-one reading lessons with three of my students. As with any new initiatives, the students looked rather confused when I started the first few lessons with them.

“b, a, ba” (blur looks)
“k, a, ka” (more blur looks)

Slowly the students began to pick it up.

Khalid was my poster student. He quickly learned to read in BM and he loved to read aloud. So sometimes at the end of the tuition session, I would strategically hand him a storybook and he would be reading aloud when parents came in to pick up their children. The parents were delighted, so was I.

My other students, however, did not progress as quickly. The biggest obstacle that I faced was their speech difficulties as many individuals with Down syndrome have speech and language problems. My students could not articulate some of the sounds correctly, and I did not know how to remediate the problems. When their “ta” sounded like “sa” and vice versa, I wasn’t sure if they made recognition mistakes or they had problems articulating the different sounds. I tried to look for books at the UM library, unfortunately I could not find any books that were helpful.

One of my students, Suresh, was attending speech therapy provided at a government hospital. However, the provision was limited to only one therapy session per month.

Unlike the US, Malaysia does not have strong special education law to provide our children with disabilities the needed individualized special education and related services.

I am doubtful that once a month speech therapy is helpful at all. And his mom was not allowed in the therapy room during the monthly therapy session. I am not sure if the “no parents allowed” was a hospital policy or if it was because Suresh tended to misbehave when his mom was around. Either way, that was unfortunate because if his mom was allowed to observe the sessions, she could continue the therapy exercises at home or even teach me some of the tricks of the speech therapy trade.

In the end, I conceded defeat. The students’ speech difficulties were beyond my expertise. The two students needed intensive speech therapy. I needed a speech language pathologist (SLP) to guide me as to how to best teach my students to read.

What would I do differently now?

I would probably require the parents to ask the SLP if I could consult with him or her regarding my student’s reading problems. Some collaboration between the SLP and the special education teacher would be beneficial for the student.

I should also consider not being held back by the students’ articulation, but push for recognition and comprehension. I would also find ways to assess whether the students recognize and understand the words, even though they may not articulate the word clearly.

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The first time I met Jamie was when he came with his parents to visit my classroom. He was five years old and his parents were considering sending him to the Center (a tuition center for children with Down Syndrome). Jamie walked slowly around the classroom with his hands grasped behind his back. He had the demeanor of a school headmaster/principal. His sharp eyes were observing and evaluating every little thing that went on in the room. I guess the class got Jamie’s and his parents’ approval because he joined the class the next day.

Everything went smoothly on his first day. He was an independent child who did not cling to his mom when she dropped him off. I do not recall any significant problem behavior on his first day. When the class was over, his mom came to pick him up. As soon as he left, a mother of another student, with a rather terrified look, rushed into the room. She questioned me if Jamie was really joining the class and when I said yes, she told me the whole story. Apparently, Jamie had quite a reputation at the early intervention center that most of the kids in my classroom had attended or were still attending. According to her, Jamie would push or hit other children at the other place, and her daughter was scared of him. She requested that I keep Jamie a safe distance from her daughter. That was quite surprising to me since I did not observe any aggression while he was in the class.

Few days later, I had my first glimpse of him pushing another student. Later, I noticed that he only pushed or hit at the end of class when all the mothers came up to pick up their kids. And as soon as it happened, there would be a big commotion in the room: his mother would rush to reprimand him, the mother of the victim would rush to comfort her child, and the other mothers would watch in horror. As the mothers watched, they probably told themselves to remind this Cikgu (teacher) to keep a careful watch over their children.

It was tricky at first. When he pushed, everyone would watch to see how I would handle the situation. It was obvious that he only pushed the other children when the mothers were in the room, and he gained lots of attention from doing that. The expected course of action was for me to punish or reprimand him and then have him say “sorry” to the other child. Even at that time, I dislike doing that. It felt so contrived and I could see in his face, the triumphant grin of having gained all the attention in the room.

Eventually, Jamie stopped pushing. I do not remember if I did anything specific to reduce and eventually eliminate the pushing. It could be the positive attention that the assistant teacher and I poured on the students, so he did not have to misbehave to gain our attention. Aside from his end-of-class aggression, he was a sweet boy the rest of the time. He was attentive and very helpful. He loved to be the leader and be put in charge of keeping the toys and whatever tasks I gave him. He was also bossy with the other kids, but he got along well with them. Even the little girl, who was supposedly scared of him, was fine sitting next to him in class. He did not hit her and she showed no signs of fear.

When Jamie entered standard one (first grade), he stopped coming to the Center. One day I received a call from his mom. She told me that Jamie wanted to talk to me and she handed the phone to him and he proceeded to “talk” to me. Since he did not have good verbal skills, I had no idea what he was saying. But it was really sweet of him to remember his Cikgu.

Now that I know a little more, what could I have done differently or the same:
1. The positive attention (catch them being good) is a good move. Pay attention to the kids when they are being good instead of paying negative attention (e.g., scolding/reprimanding) only when they misbehave.
2. I would make sure that the other kids are a safe distance from Jamie at the end of the class. And I would request the other mothers that when they go in to pick up their kids, to first go over and say something nice to Jamie, even if it is just giving him a pat on his head. This way he gets the attention before he pushes, and that may prevent the pushing behavior.
3. If he does manage to push another child, I would also request the other mothers to not react to that but to just pick up their child and leave, while I would take him out of the classroom to another room till the other kids have left. This way he would not get any attention from the mothers when he misbehaved. I would only tell him once that what he did was wrong and we would sit quietly in another room.
4. I should also have social skills lessons during the class. The assistant teacher and I could model to the kids appropriate and inappropriate classroom behaviors. Teach them which is good and which is bad. Then we could model the behaviors again and have the kids judge the behaviors. Lastly, if they were able to, I would have the kids show me the good and the bad behavior. Hmmm, maybe not the bad behavior….

Buzzword for this intervention:
Antecedent intervention
Social skills training

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I wrote this statement of purpose in 2002. In some ways, this could be seen as part of my ticket of admission to a doctoral program with full funding.

My first memorable experience as a special education teacher, involved me having to chase after an eight-year-old boy with autism at the bowling alley. Besides having no experience working with exceptional children, this was my first day at the HOUSE (a center for children with special needs). When I saw the boy running off from the group and the other three teachers had their hands full with the other children, I had to go after him on my own. I was unsure of myself: not knowing whether to walk slowly or to run full speed, and wondering whether to call out his name or to keep silent. Hoping not to further excite him, I ran quietly after the boy, as he sped across the bowling alley and then into the lanes. I stopped at the lanes and watched helplessly as he got closer to the bowling pins. Then, to my utter relief, he decided to turn around and walked back towards me. I quickly grabbed his hand and proceeded to lecture him while walking back to the group. All the while I kept my eyes on him, mainly to avoid the stares of the other patrons. This experience would be the first of many unforgettable moments that I would have while teaching exceptional children.

I had just completed my degree in biomedical science at Universiti Putra Malaysia, and was taking a break, when the principal of the HOUSE approached me to help out at the center for a few months. Although I did well in biomedical science, I wanted to interact with people rather than work in a medical laboratory. Thus, I was looking forward to this new and different experience. I entered the HOUSE with little understanding of education of children with disabilities. Among the many challenges of being a teacher to children with special needs, my main struggle was trying to teach the children with autism. They did not seem interested and looked like they would rather be left alone. The principal and the other teachers were just as perplexed by these children. All the while when I was teaching, I kept wondering if I was doing it the right way. Then I came across the manual, Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals, which helped me realized two things: (1) there is hope for children with autism and (2) the intervention will be very intensive.

Now that I knew that there were effective interventions for persons with autism, I was no longer satisfied with just teaching the children, I wanted to teach effectively. I wanted to be sure of my teaching methods, so I decided to apply for a teaching position at a school for autism ran by a national non-profit organization (SOCIETY). The SOCIETY did not turn out as I had expected. Although the SOCIETY had considerable more resources than HOUSE, the outcome of the students was not much different. As a developing country, Malaysia is still under-developed in the field of special education. Schools for children with disabilities, either public or private, lack properly trained teachers, funds, and expertise to provide best practices. It was my desire to have a deeper understanding of autism that led me to pursue graduate studies in special education at University of Malaya (UM).

Pursuing my master degree at UM, afforded me the opportunity to learn more about autism. The lecturers were not specialized in autism, so I had to find information regarding autism on my own. This included ordering books and journal articles from abroad, searching for information on the Internet, and attending a conference on autism in a neighboring country. As research increases in all areas of autism, including neurobiology of autism, my background in biomedical science is an advantage for me. While I may be able to compensate my lack of head knowledge to some extent, I acknowledge that I am lacking in the area of practical training in best practices.

While studying at UM, I took up a teaching position at the CENTER (a tuition center for children with Down syndrome). Even though my interest had always been autism, I took up this position because I would be working there under the guidance of my advisor in UM. He is an experienced and prominent special educator in Malaysia. To my surprise, even in the midst of the students with Down syndrome, I had a student with a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism. As the head teacher, I was responsible for all aspects of teaching and evaluation of the students.

The complexity of autism makes understanding and overcoming it, a challenge for me. I want to work towards, as a book title says, Unraveling the Mystery of Autism. That is why I would like to pursue doctoral study in special education. As there are many aspects to interventions for autism, I hope to specialize in behavioral intervention, in areas such as positive behavior support, functional behavioral assessment, and applied behavior analysis. I see a need for better teacher preparation program to train special education teachers in my country. It is time to develop curricula that are effective in the local special education environment.

In Malaysia, there is still a lack of governmental support for persons with disabilities. The burden of caring for exceptional persons falls mainly on the parents. I want to work effectively with families of exceptional children, in areas such as parent education programs and developing effective support structures.

Most importantly, there is a need for greater involvement of the government with regards to individuals with disabilities. I realized that it is impossible for individuals with autism and their families to achieve quality of life without the support of the government and community. The advocacy for equal rights and opportunities for individuals with autism would perhaps be my greatest challenge.

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