Curriculum for KAA Resource and Educational Centre

Programmes offered at KAA Educational Centre

The Centre provides a range of programmes such as Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH), Sensory Integration (S.I) Therapy, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and Pre-Vocational training. ABA, TEACCH and S.I are for children of all ages from 4 years onwards. PECS is for children who are non-verbal. The pre-vocational training programme is for those aged 14 years old and above.

A) Educational Programmes

The educational sessions are mainly one-to-one teaching for each child for two hours each day. There are 4 sessions a day, i.e. from 8am to 10am, 10am to 12noon, 1pm to 3pm and 3pm to 5pm, that is two sessions in the morning and two sessions in the afternoon. The routine activities in the morning will be the same as those in the afternoon. At present, there are 34 students aged between 4 to 13 years old attending these educational sessions.

The programmes being used at the centre can be briefly summarized as below:

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) – ABA focuses on teaching small, measurable units of behaviour systematically. Each skill from relatively simple responses like looking at others to complex acts like spontaneous communication and social interaction – is broken down into small steps, and taught to the child until he/she masters it.

Treatment & Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) – This programme is to train students to do tasks or activities independently. Structured teaching is an important priority. Organizing the physical environment, developing schedules and work systems, making expectations clear and explicit, and using visual materials have been effective ways of developing skills and allowing people with autism to use these skills independent of direct adult prompting and cuing. These measures are beneficial for students with autism who are frequently held back by their inability to work independently in a variety of situations.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) – PECS is a simple and unique

alternative training package which is developed for use in children with autism and other social communication deficits. This method does not require complex and expensive materials but basically uses pictures. The children are trained to communicate with adults by showing picture cards of objects to indicate what they want. PECS is introduced to children to help them acquire functional communication skills. The speech development is not the primary purpose of using PECS, but it can happen as a result of the use of PECS.

Fine Motor Skills – The training for these skills focuses primarily on the child’s ability to use his/her hands constructively. This involves eye-hand coordination. The child must coordinate what he/she sees with what he/she does with his hands.

Academic Skills – The skills are for reading, writing and arithmetic (or mathematics). Once mastered, they open the doors to greater independence in our society.

Social Skills – The aim is to train the autistic child to be able to interact with other children and adults.

Self-help Skills – The aim is to train the child in activities of daily living e.g. eating using a spoon and a fork, drinking from a cup, toileting, washing, dressing and grooming. Once mastered, the autistic person can be independent to look after his/her daily basic needs.

B) Sensory Integration (S.I) Programmes

For a child who lacks concentration, is unable to focus, cannot sit still and is hyperactive, Sensory Integration Therapy ( brushing and massaging his/her whole body) is used until he/she is able to sit still

, is less hyperactive and able to concentrate or focus on other activities.

Sensory Integration (SI) is a normal neurological process of organizing sensations for use in everyday life. We use sensations to survive, learn and function smoothly. Dysfunction in Sensory Integration (DSI), also called Sensory Integration Dysfunction, occurs when the brain inefficiently processes the sensations coming from a person’s own body and his/her environment. Most autistic children suffer from S.I Dysfunction in varying degrees from very severe to less severe. We have many senses, and the most common one are the five senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and touching. These are called “far senses”. The less familiar are the “near” senses – sometimes called the “hidden” senses, because we are not aware of them, cannot control or directly observe them.

For S.I dysfunction, the concern is mainly with 3 “hidden” senses:

The tactile sense – processing information about touch, which is received primarily through the skin.
The vestibular sense – Processing information about movement, gravity and balance, which is received through the inner ear
The proprioceptive sense – processing information about body position and body parts, which is received through the muscles, ligaments and joints.

KAA Sensory Integration programme was set up in April 2008. This programme is set up to improve the efficiency of the brain of autistic children to process the sensations which directly will improve motor coordination, muscular control, voluntary movement, learning ability and concentration. S.I. programme is carried out in 4 sessions that is from 8am to 10am, 10am to 12noon, 1pm to 3pm and 3pm to 5pm. The activities for each student are different. The teachers guide the students to do their activities depending on their personal programme set by the SI trainer. About 6 students do different S.I. activities during one session under the guidance of 3 teachers.

KAA Sensory Integration programme provides the following activities:

S.I. Equipment	Objectives
Linear Glider	for relaxing and calming
Bolster Swing	for balancing and to be more alert
Steep Board	to improve focusing
Roller Board	to improve learning
Trampoline	to improve eye and hand coordination
Giant Spinning Top	to build up muscle tones
Flexion Swing	to improve attention and to calm down
See-Saw, Rocker, Balance Beam, River Stones, Twin Walker	to improve body balancing
Maze Balance Board	to improve body balancing and eye-hand coordination
Heavy Work, Hotdog Roll & Body Compression	to improve body senses
Silent Yoga	to relax the body
Exercise ball	to increase body tolerance movement
Table Work	to improve IQ function, e.g IQ puzzle, brain puzzle, camouflage and Tangram

C) Pre-Vocational Training

KAA Pre-Vocational programme was started on 2 January 2008. The main objective of this programme is to enable young adults to acquire the necessary vocational skills to prepare them for an independent and meaningful life in adulthood.
These are two sessions. The morning session is from 8am to 12noon while the afternoon session is from 1pm to 5pm. Both sessions run from Monday to Friday. Currently there are 6 students aged between 14 to 18 years old undergoing the training programme.

The Pre-Vocational Training includes the following activities:

Training in Social skills - This involves greetings and social interaction which usually revolves around general topics.

Training in Domestic skills - This includes sweeping, mopping, doing laundry, washing crockery, cleaning the toilet, cooking, etc.

Training in Art & Craft - Students who have the potential are encouraged to produce crafts for commercial purposes such as cards, sand bottles or ornaments such as bead bracelets.

Training in Functional academic skills - The high functioning students are taught comprehension or composition, to use a dictionary, a calendar or a calculator, to learn the values and concept of money and mathematics. The low functioning students are taught the basic skills of recognizing or writing their names.

Treatment and Educational of Autism and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) - This programme focuses on the following approaches such as: (i) to promote independent working skill, (ii) to develop good working habit in a structured and appropriate manner and (iii) to emphasize areas of strengths and interests.

Office skills - The high functioning students are taught to fold and count brochures, cards and pamphlets and learn basic office skills such as laminating, sealing envelopes, stapling, filling, photstating, etc.

Self care - This involves personal hygiene and grooming.

Cooking skills - The students are taught to prepare simple food such as frying vegetables, eggs, nuggets

and potato wedges. This activity is carried out at least once a week for the high functioning students.