Service Available At REACh

1. Parents Support Group

This support group is specially organised for parents of children with autism to meet and develop a closer friendship. They can then support and assist each other. This is also where the parents get together to discuss the progress of their children and organise social activities or outings for their children.

2. Respite Care

Respite care provides an opportunity for parents to take temporary charge of another family’s autistic child so that the child’s own parents may have a break or holiday. It promotes understanding and support for each other’s child. We also organise outings for the children and each child is put under the charge of another parent. This exchange enables the parents to support and help each other so that they can have some time to themselves knowing that their child is safe with the other family.

3. Diagnostic and Developmental Assessments

We provide free diagnostic and developmental assessments for the children. Diagnostic assessment is used to verify if the child is autistic and identifies the spectrum of the disorder. Developmental assessment is carried out to ascertain the developmental stage of the child.

4. Consultation and Counselling Services

We provide counselling for parents and family members of children with autism. The counselling is specifically designed for parents and family members to discuss problems or issues they are facing when handling their autistic child.

5. Buddy System

Under the buddy system, we have children and teenagers from the mainstream schools come to our centre during the school holidays to be a buddy to our children. They spend time with our children, teaching and coaching them in their academic work and also play together so as to encourage interaction and communication. By allowing them to spend time together with our children with autism, we hope to cultivate empathetic feelings among normal children and teenagers so that they will grow up to be kind and caring adults. 

6. Training

We organize training sessions for parents, volunteers, teachers, medical students and the general public. We conduct awareness seminars on autism for organisations on their request. In-house training is conducted throughout the year by inviting professionals and experts to run seminars and workshops so that everyone will be equipped with sufficient knowledge and skills to help the children with autism. We also provide a half-day clinical exposure for medical students from the Penang Medical College as part of their professional training requirement in psychiatry, and training placement for psychology students and special education teachers from other universities.

7. Resources (Library)

Our library has resources that include printed and audio-visual materials on autism. The library also has many story books and educational reading materials to encourage a reading culture among the children with autism. These are provided for the use of the children with autism and their families. We also use the library as a training ground where the children work as librarians for a minimum salary.

8. Awareness Campaigns

We organize exhibitions, roadshows and workshops that promote awareness of autism for the families of children with autism, teachers, students and the general public. Awareness can lead to earlier diagnosis and intervention for the child. Awareness promotes more understanding towards these children and thus gives them the opportunity to be included into schools and society.

9. Research and Publications

Research serves to update treatment and intervention methods for children with autism. Data collected over the years of practice can be rationalised, put on strong scientific foundations and disseminated to help other caring groups all over the world. We have developed some training modules such as the Group Occupational Therapy Manual; Sensory Integration Manual; Community Living Skills Manual; Independent Living Skills Manual; Music Therapy Manual; Play Therapy Manual; Art Therapy Manual; and Neuro-Feedback Manual.