The Division of Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS) held another Career Talk on 31 March in B101. The topic of the lecture was “Autism Spectrum Disorders”, which was given by Janice Chan from the University of California in San Diego and Coast Music Therapy specialist Linda Martin.

Janice Chan holds a MA and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). In addition to being a former special education teacher and behaviour specialist, she conducts autism research at the University of California in San Diego, as well as international training.

Linda Martin holds a MME and is a Music Therapist - Board Certified (MT-BC). She is also a contributing author in “Early Childhood Music Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorders”, conducts international training, and is the founder of Miracle 139 International.

Janice Chan (Left) and Linda Martin (Right)

They started the presentation by going through the objectives of the lecture, which included describing the characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), reviewing videos of ASD and spotting the red flag warnings, and finally observing ASD behaviour in the classroom.

Deficits in Social Interaction as well as restricted repetitive patterns of behaviour, interest or activities were some of the DSM-V diagnostic criteria of ASD. Videos were played throughout the presentation showing the comparisons of children with ASD and those without. It became clear to the audience through the use of these videos, where the signs of ASD in young children were obvious.

Questions from the audience included one from Senior Lecturer Ms Roser Cervera, who told the story of a time her child was playing with another child that suffered with autism, and the other child’s dad was showing signs of stress and aggression that showed through his child’s actions during their play-time. Roser wanted to know what would have been the best way to deal with this situation.  Linda replied that through her experience, it is best to encourage the other parents and praise them while showing understanding for the difficult situation they may be in.

Linda gave an example of her work by getting the audience to sit in a semi-circle and giving a detailed display of music therapy, which was to interact and help with speech with children that suffer with autism.

The lecture finished discussing how society could make life easier for those with ASD and people that have family members with ASD. Also Linda and Janice suggested that we can all learn from one another and if possible you can make yourself feel comfortable around people with ASD by volunteering.

Reporter: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
Photographer: Su Haoyi (SWSA, Year 2)
Editor: Deen He (MPRO)
(with special thanks to the ELC)