Autism Paper 1: Identifying and Profiling Autistic Learning & Behavioural Difficulties in Children, Aug/2010

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 1: Identifying and Profiling Autistic Learning & Behavioural Difficulties in Children

Highlights: Understanding, identifying and profiling autistic learning and behavioural difficulties using an informal rating scale based on the structuralist model (cognition-conation-affect) that includes deficits in the nervous and sensory systems that is designed and trialed by the authors for ready use by readers.

About The Authors:
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 Specialist's 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.

Norman Kiak Nam KEE, a former secondary school teacher, is a lecturer with the Early Childhood and Special Needs Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Prior to this current appointment, he was a specialist writer/project leader with the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS), Ministry of Education, to develop the Dynamic Mathematics Series (a computer-based learning software) whose Jungle Survival with Quadratic Equations (a CD-ROM) has won three international awards in 1997: the Macromedia People's Choice Award for Educational Multimedia in San Francisco, USA; the International Digital Media Award for Best Educational CD-ROM Overall in Toronto, Canada; and the International Digital Media Award for Best Educational CD-ROM in K-12 Category in Toronto, Canada. Later, he left the CDIS to join Singapore Polytechnic to set up and maintain its e-learning infra-structure.

A former Ministry of Education scholar (1993) at the SEAMEO Regional Education Centre for Science and Mathematics (RECSAM), Penang, Malaysia, Mr Kee was an evaluation panel committee member at the National Infocomm Competency Centre (NICC), Singapore, from 2003-2006, contributing to the development of professional certification in IT education. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD research study on autism spectrum disorders at the National Institute of Education.

Mr Norman Kee is married with three sons.

Mohamad Shaifudin Bin Md Yusof is an Allied Educator (Learning & Behaviour Support) with the Ministry of Education working with children with special needs in a mainstream primary school. Prior to joining the Ministry of Education, Mr Shaifudin was a Special Education Teacher at a special school. He believes strongly in including learners with diverse abilities in mainstream school and has been working extensively with learners on the autism spectrum for several years. He works closely with parents of children with special needs to strengthen the homeschool partnership and to ensure continuous learning for the children.

With his primary training in the field of biomedical science, Mr Shaifudin is keen on learning and exploring the biological and neurological causes that impedes learning for pupils with for learners with learning or developmental disabilities.

Currently an M.Ed (Special Education) candidate at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, researching on the effect of dolphin-assisted therapy on children with moderate autism, Mr Shaifudin is an alumnus of Central Queensland University and James Cook University in the field of Biomedical Science and Education respectively.