A World Surrounded by Love
Alda Alice Manuel Sawimbo
Many of us could have thousands of questions about the world of the autistic children, but how many of us know about a space for them in Macao?
Macau Child Development Association (MCDA) is a small place that can be described as a home for the autistic children. It assists around 60 children with learning difficulties, such as autism. The center was created by the parents and the citizens who are worried about the future of those autistic kids.
“Each kid, coming for the first time to our center, doesn’t regard the place as their second home immediately, because they feel it as a strange place,” said Mary Wong, a trained interventionist teacher, teaching a small group of kids that are behind the grade level of the healthy kids at the same age.
In order to make the kids quickly adapted to their new home, the staff at the center use all possible ways of communications and therapies to make the kids feel better.
The facilities in the center can also help to give the kids a warm atmosphere with a sense of security. The center consists of two main facilities with classrooms and a main playground, especially designed for autistic and disabled children, on which all the kids can freely enjoy themselves. There are also therapy rooms with art tools for them to exhibit their creativity.
“After some time, they start getting adapted and it is great to see the children love to come here,” said Wong.
Wong’s colleague Andrea Calderon also shares the same thought. Calderon, 22, is an assistant teacher of MCDA, who learned how to interact with the kids through her autistic brother.
“One of my inspiring moments is when I see the smiles on the children’s faces”, said Andrea Calderon.
Calderon has developed her own style to handle the children. She follows a technique called the reinforcement strategy. In order to be successful, she has to know what the children really like, such as a toy or a game.
During reinforcement strategy, the kids have to choose what they really like. For the autistic kids, they might not follow the instructions since they might have sensory issues and feel very uncomfortable in certain environment or activities. Therefore the teacher needs to work on de-sensitizing them first and introduce the activity slowly.
“Autistic kids are not alike. They are all unique individuals because they all behave in different ways,” said Wong. “The most important thing is to know their needs and from there we can design programs to support them.”
Teaching autistic kids is not easy but Wong and Calderon will not give up.
“We don’t stop when we see improvement and we’ll look for more areas to support them,” said Wong. “Giving children equal opportunity and interacting with them are what we are doing.”