Children’s Friendship Training Ong Sing Yee PhD in Educational Psychology University Putra Malaysia Dr. Ong Sing Yee (kb, pa) PhD in Educational Psychology
About Myself, Dr Ong Sing Yee • Registered & Licensed Counselor • PhD (Educational Psychology) • Master in Counseling The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) (UCLA)School-Based Certified Provider Certified PREPARE/ ENRICH Facilitator (Couple Counseling Assessment) Certified Soul Collage (USA) Facilitator Sexuality Education Trainer (Taiwan) National Service Trainer - Character Building
Dilemma of High Functioning Children with Autism ✓While children with ASD desire friends, they have difficulty making and maintaining them (Feldhaus et al., 2015). ✓They are more prone to experience increased social isolation, increased social anxiety, and feelings of despair, as Schiltz et al. (2021) reported in a recent study
What and Why Children’s Friendship Training in Malaysia? ▪ A parent assisted evidence based intervention introduced by Professor Fred Frankel and his team from UCLA, USA since 1980. ▪ There are limited friendship skills introduced in the MOE syllabus when these children need to spend at least 40% of their time in a year at school. ▪ Less than 25% of parents with an autistic kid use parent-mediated interventions (Barnett, 2018). ▪ In Malaysia, parents of children with ASD still lack awareness regarding intervention for their children with ASD (Chu et al., 2020).
What will Parent and Child learn ? ▪ Conversational skill ▪ Resisting teasing skill ▪ Avoiding physical fight skill ▪ Slipping in skill ▪ Good sportsmanship skill ▪ Good host behaviour skill ▪ Taking rejection skill ▪ Respect towards adults skill ▪ Managing competition skill
Methods Used During the Children’s Session ▪Modelling ▪Rehearsal ▪Performance Feedback ▪Homework Assignments ▪Parent coaching ▪Done through indoor activities and outdoor activities.
What will happen? Parents Children Homework assignment review Report of previous homework session Discussion of session hand-out Didactic presentation & children’s behavioural rehearsal Parent homework assignment Coach play practice of new skills Reunion of parent and child
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? • High functioning children with special needs age 7 to 12 years old • Can understand & speak English fluently • Currently attending formal education • Know how to play games that has rules. • Can differentiate winning and loosing • Do not have friends/ play dates • One of the parent can attend the sessions.
RESEARCH RESULTS IN MALAYSIA Communication Cooperation Assertion Responsibility Engagement Self control Disengagement Behaviours Conflict Behaviours
Parents’ Testimonial “My child used to be passive in making friends. After this, he know how to express himself, joining in other friends in games, even be the host or guest of his friends.” Mother of 8 year old boy with Asperger Syndrome “Before this, my son rarely speaks. He used to be teased and bully in school. After this, he is more confident. He can express himself very well. He starts to initiate to get to know new friends.” Mother of 8 year old boy with Asperger Syndrome “This has improved my child’s communication skill. Now, he know how to receive and answer phone call. This program also empower we as parents to learn the skills together with our children. I also learnt the fact that I have special child in public.” Mother of 9 year old boy with ASD
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