A public health workshop called Teaching children with ASD Self-regulation was successfully held at 6-8 pm on October27th, in the basement of a church at 410 Goldhawk trail, Scarborough. It was organized by the Canadian Chinese Autism Awakening Center (CAAC), which is a non-profit organization, aimed at enhancing awareness of Autism and creating a better life for the increasing number of Canadian Chinese autistic kids. In total, around 30 families sharing autistic concerns participated in the activity. Both the organizer and the staff were volunteers.
The presenter was Carol Zhang, a board certified behavioral analyst, as well as a special education teacher in Toronto District School Board ,with more than 12 years of experience working with children with ASD. She introduced the term of self-regulation, and the zones of regulation, as well as the five-point scale. She also taught parents how to know the emotional needs of children with ASD, as well as how to self-regulate and address their emotional concerns.
“It will definitely make a difference for our kids. The workshop gives us tips to get information about our kids’ emotional demands and how to help them with self-regulation.” Most of the participants said. They also expressed their great appreciation towards CAAC and looked forward to more activities that are practical and beneficial to be organized in the future.
In order to get parents better involved in the workshop, free childminding and a variety of activities were provided for the children who were brought to the workshop, including family massage training, craft, drawing, telling stories and music tasting. All the activities were so well organized that all the parents and kids who participated were extremely engaged.
Actually, the workshop is one of the series workshops that CAAC is organizing in terms of ABA behavior. The following one called positive reinforcement is going to be held on November 24th. Apart from workshops, CAAC is also organizing a range of activities, including remote teaching, soccer club and music training.
“CAAC is trying with all of its efforts to help Canadian Chinese children with ASD, however, the lack of funding is still our biggest barrier at this stage. We are still working hard on fundraising now, hopefully government as well as other charity agencies would liketo come and join us to provide for more possibilities for these fragile families and children.”, said Helen, one of the founders of CAAC, “Despite the fact that we are short of funds, we are still attempting to provide various activities as well as refreshments for the parents and kids, hoping they all enjoy and benefit from our efforts.”
The presenter and staff (volunteers)：
Activities for kids and part of parents
story telling drawing
Family massage training craft
Music tasting