ABA therapist shares her life experience

Poster of the talk

In conjunction with the Counseling Wellness Week, a virtual talk titled Life as an ABA Therapist was organised by the Counseling & Guidance Unit (CGU) of UTAR Sungai Long Campus. It took place on 28 May 2022 via Microsoft Teams. Invited to the talk as the speaker was Manesha Puvanaguroo, an ABA therapist from Early Autism Project Malaysia (EAP). The talk aimed to highlight the concept of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), whilst providing a platform for Manesha to share her experience as an ABA therapist.

Manesha kicked started the talk by explaining the reasons she chose Psychology as her major and also explained what ABA actually is. She noted that the main priority of using ABA is to manage a child’s behaviour. From there, she talked extensively about autism, saying, “Autism is a spectrum disorder, with every person being on either end of the spectrum. There are those who are high on the spectrum, and there are those who are low on it.”

Next, Manesha explained the EAP’s principles, which are positive reinforcement and breaking down of skills. “We apply both principles at the same time. When we break down skills for the child to learn, we use both positive and negative reinforcements. For example, if we are teaching a special child a new skill, and he or she does it well, we give them praise or a reward. However, if they are not able to do it even after encouraging them to try again multiple times, there will be no reward,” said Manesha. She stated that the reason for this is because therapists need to help close the gap, meaning that children with special needs have to be assisted in adapting to the real world.

She then shared the different treatments between academically inclined children and non-academically inclined children. For the former, she noted that EAP teaches them academic skills such as English writing and Math lessons. Meanwhile, for the latter, they are taught practical skills related to their interests, such as coffee making, swimming, art, music, etc. She told the attendees that the most challenging part about this is that since every child is different, the therapists have to adapt to their interests to constantly ensure that each child is engaged and motivated.

Manesha giving the talk enthusiastically 

Manesha continued the talk by educating the participants about Interview-Informed synthesised contingency analysis (IISCA), which is used when dealing with children who are high on the autism spectrum, and cannot be taught through ABA. Then, she talked extensively about dealing with verbal and non-verbal children. She said, “For verbal children, we teach them how to speak small words first, while for non-verbal children, we use either pack that contains pictures for the child to use to communicate, or we teach them to use the Let Me Talk App. However, the problem arises when getting them to explain subjective and abstract things, like pain because kids will not understand. Thus to solve this, we write social stories or demonstrations to help them understand these abstract things. Social stories can also help in preparing the kids for any events, for example, going on holiday. It teaches the child the expected proper behaviour.

Finally, Manesha told the participants that to be an ABA therapist, one must be patient and innovative in helping the children overcome their problems. She also expressed her concern about the lack of proper treatment given to special needs children in Malaysia. However, in EAP, there is the Hope Project, which aims to provide scholarships to kids whose families cannot afford to let their kids join the EAP. Lastly, Manesha gave some words of encouragement to the participants, telling them to be passionate and never give up should they wish to be a psychologist.

The session ended with a brief Q&A session and group photo session.

Manesha (second row, middle) posing with participants