HONG KONG: Autism is on the rise and there is an acute need to provide more treatment programs in secondary schools, said Michael Tong Chai-fai, associate director of the Institute of Human Communicative Research of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

A joint project by CUHK and the Caritas Rehabilitation Service funded by the Quality Education Fund found that the number of autistic children in Hong Kong is far greater than the figure published by the Education Department Bureau (EDB). In a study conducted earlier this year, Caritas identified 548 students with autism in 255 secondary schools.

"If we extrapolate this number to all 460 secondary schools in the city, there are approximately 989 autistic secondary students, much more than the figure EDB published, 390," said Luke Kit-ling, center supervisor of the Caritas Rehabilitation Service.

To provide treatment for autistic students, CUHK and Caritas have published a handbook to be distributed to all secondary schools in Hong Kong. The handbook gives teachers, social workers and counseling professionals a deeper understanding of the social difficulties faced by young people with autism.

The handbook talks of a method known as ILAUGH, which represents six areas of social skills: initiation of communication; listening with eyes and brain; abstract and inferential thinking; understanding perspective; gestalt processing and understanding the big picture; and humor.

Kathy Lee Yuet-sheung, assistant director of CUHK's Institute of Human Communicative Research, said the six-step method encourages autistic students to observe the complex world around them from multiple perspectives.

"Autistic children often have trouble understanding other's facial expression or tone of voice. ILAUGH helps students reflect on other people's feelings and helps them respond or act more appropriately," she said.

The program was tested on 44 students in 14 secondary schools in the city between November 2007 and June 2008.

A five-point scale was used to measure the social behavior appropriateness among the students before and after sessions of ILAUGH.

Post-training improvements were shown across the board, said Tong.

"The total average score rose from 2.81 to 3.17, representing a 12.8 percent increase," he said. "Parents, teachers and social workers also felt the students had shown great improvements in interpersonal relationships and academic performance."

Chan Kwok-ching, a student guidance officer at the CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School who took part in the program, said ILAUGH can improve the social skills of students, autistic or not.

(HK Edition 08/19/2009 page1)