Autism Paper 4: Counselling Children with Autistic Learning & Behavioural Difficulties, Sep/2010

AUTISM: Practical Tips on Teaching Children with Mild/Moderate Autism in Mainstream Schools

This is a series of ten papers written by three experienced special education professionals who have worked directly with individuals with autistic learning and behavioural difficulties. Presented in an easy readable style, the authors have provided essential know what, know why and know how when teaching children with mild/moderate autism in mainstream schools.

Beginning with defining autism, identifying and profiling autistic learning and behavioural difficulties through planning lessons, conducting learning/behavioural support activities, counselling, intervening through video games/drawings/peer support, parental involvement to teaching mathematical concepts, operations and applications, the authors hope to share with their readers the practical tips on how they can go about teaching these exceptional children.

Paper 4: Counselling Children with Autistic Learning & Behavioural Difficulties

Highlights: Basic know what and know why of autistic learning and behavioural difficulties are explained basing on the three primary and six secondary behavioural potentials listed in the structuralist model. In addition, three basic principles for working with children/adolescents with autism, twelve guiding principles on counseling, five ready-to-use handy tools for counsellors working such clients, and an example of how the counseling approach works (based on the cognitive behavioural therapy model).

About The Author:
Dr Noel Chia Kok Hwee is an assistant professor with the Early Childhood and Special Needs Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Currently, he is the only board certified educational therapist registered with the American Association of Educational Therapists outside the United States. Besides, he is also a registered professional counsellor with the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors, Perth, Western Australia. In addition, he is also a board certified diplomate (Special Education) with the American Academy of Special Education Professionals and the first Singaporean diplomate (Measurement Techniques in Distance Education) of the London-based Association of European Correspondence Schools. He sits on the Educational Standards Collaborative Committee of the International Association of Counsellors & Therapists and the International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Association – both based in Pennsylvania, USA. In Singapore, he sits as a member on the MCYS Advisory Board/Discharge Committee.

Dr Chia has published numerous papers in both local and overseas refereed and non-refereed academic journals and articles in professional magazines and periodicals for general readership as well as authored, co-authored and edited a series of monographs and books. In addition, he is also one of the two coordinating editors for the Journal of Reading & Literacy – the flagship publication of the Society for Reading & Literacy, Singapore, as well as the Journal of the Reading Specialist – the official publication of the Reading Specialists’ Association (Singapore).

Dr Chia, a former Japan Air Line scholar (Asian Studies) at the Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, holds two fellowships – one in literacy awarded by the College of Preceptors, UK, and the other in dyslexia awarded by the College of Teachers, UK. Recently, he has been awarded the Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship by the National Library Board, Singapore, to study the growth of imagination in Singapore children’s literature in English: 1965-2005. Dr Chia is an alumnus of three Australian universities – Edith Cowan University, the University of Southern Queensland and the University of Western Australia. He is married with a daughter.