Adulthood : ABA Therapist as my very first job (phew!)

Hi! It's been a long time since I posted an entry. Busy gila! Tapi sekarang dah free! Because it's TERM BREAK (my company has this term break where we take a week of break every 4 months)! Wohoo. Since the beginning of my working life, ramai orang tanya what do I do as an ABA Therapist, why I chose this field, & most frequently: TAK CHALLENGING KE??? - working with special needs kids. So here I go!💪😼

First & foremostly, lemme tell you what ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) is in general: behavioural principle (we mostly use positive reinforcements) to increase a certain wanted behaviour. Contohnya, kalau kita nak budak tu rajin belajar, kita reward dia everytime dia belajar. Everytime we reward the behaviour, the behaviour will increase, in sya Allah. So basically, my work is to 'teach' kids with autism a certain skill sets according to their priorities. 1 therapist will have their own kid, at least 2 kids per therapist (I have 3 lovely kids), and the session is conducted 1:1 (1 therapist and 1 kid at a time, sorry kalau complicated. Do ask me if you wanna know more heheh). AUTISM TU MACAMANA???😳  Yasssss I always get this question too. To be honest, before I join this field pun I tak berapa faham autism ni macamana. I just know the basic symptoms je. Kalau google maksud pun belum tentu faham 100% until you get to work with them 1 on 1. I've been working for a year plus already, & I wouldn't say I am a good therapist yet, but I can say I've learnt so many new things about autism. Saya share yang mana saya tahu je okay! Autism ni bukan symptom yang senang nak detect macam down syndrome tu. Appearance wise, they look just like normal kid. How different are they from normal kids? Some ada yang tak boleh bercakap or limited words (non verbal), some boleh bercakap (verbal). Most of them tak boleh accept bila ada changes in their life, even slight changes pun -  this would be a trigger for a tantrum/behaviour. For example, my boy wouldn't use different toilet bila nak pee pee. He will insist on using the same exact toilet where he usually does his business. Another symptom is lacking in eye contact. Bila panggil or sembang, dia buat taktau or dia respond tapi mata ke tempat lain. My boy will sometimes look at the wall while talking to me. Maybe the wall is more interesting than my face (?) 😭  Huhuhu. & There are sooo many more symptoms on autism, pls Google if you wanna know more. Tapi the symptoms tak semestinya ada dekat semua budak autism. 'Each kid is different in their own way', this is the most accurate quote to describe them sebab setiap budak tu ada symptom yang berbeza. Kalau nak lagi faham, tengok lah video anak celebrity macam Zarina Zainuddin and Fynn Jamal, kan selalu share pasal anak diorang dekat social media.

Why did I choose this field?
Actually, masa ambil degree Psychology tu memang tak ada hala tuju lagi nak kerja as apa. Some people study for the sake of their career, macam dah tahu dah nak kerja apa and pilih related course. But not me. I'm the chill type of person, like okay dah ambil Psychology, taktau nak kerja apa, tapi whatever la, just finish what I start (tapi kena bersungguh sungguh lah ye), & percaya rezeki datang kemudian. Eventho tak ada hala tuju, tapi I've always have this ambition, nak cari kerja yang dapat extra pahala (hehehe goodie goodie nya dia ni😷), macam acah kan bila cakap macamni. But it's true, I want to get involved in a career that lets me help those in need & collect deeds along the way, in sya Allah (May Allah bless!). So here I am! I am glad to be part of the kids' life changer 😊
P/S: I also love children, so that makes me enjoy my job too.

Challenging tak? OF COURSE LA!
This is the most frequent question I've got. Gila ke tak challenging. I barely babysit normal kids before. Ada la 3-4 kali (?), and now I suddenly work with special needs kids. But actually... semua kerja pun challenging. This job is challenging in its own way. Bila budak ada behaviour, taknak dengar cakap, menjerit, menangis and so on. I used to work with this kid, bila dia taknak buat kerja, dia ignore je your existence. Dia just duduk dekat meja, diam & kept on saying 'Nope'. Haha. Sabar jelah. Tapi lepas tunjuk dia yang saya ada coklat favourite dia, terus laju buat kerja. Kena kreatif la cari strategy bila budak taknak dengar cakap, gotta try to win them over. Bila kata challenging ni, bukan la maksudnya setiap masa challenging, stress. Tak pun. Once in a while la. Sama macam kerja lain, in fact, I think banyak je kerja lain yang lagi stressful. Alhamdulillah, I can say most of the time I enjoy working with my kids. Lagi lagi bila dah ada that strong bond between me & my kids. Rasa macam...alaaa sayangnya dekat diorang ni💓!!!! Lagi lagi bila diorang panggil my name "AMIRAAAAH!", "IT'S AMIRAH!", "AMIRAH, I'M HERE!", "AMIRAH, COME!", "A-MI-RAH" (my non verbal kids, hehe). Uhhh meltz gila okay😍. Tak nampak pun ada flaws dekat diorang ni, they're perfect.

 

In the last paragraph, I would talk a little bit about my kids. I am working with 3 kids at the moment, and used to work with another one before she moved to a different country😭. One of them is nonverbal; He's my first kid when I first joined, tak pernah or probably jarang dengar dia cakap apa apa. But over the time, he started to verbalise little by little, & he can even pronounce my name "A-MI-RAH" (am so proud 💗). His improvements = my reward in my job. The rest of my kids are verbal kids. Aiyo, so cute okay. The one I used to work with, serious best. I wouldn't mind at all to travel all the way to her house (paling jauh antara semua budak yang saya ada), sebab session dia sangat chill! Menari lagu Frozen, berlakon princess, all the girly stuff. Oh man I miss her!!!! The only kid who calls me "Teacher Mirah", the only princess I (we) have. I (we) miss you. Another kid I have been working with is also my first kid since I first joined. Man, I tell you he's the most manja kid I ever had. It took me a long time to have this superb rapport with him, and all the effort I made to win his heart = worth it! I almost gave up with this one okay, but ya know, like I said, I like to finish what I started. I meant finish as in, I will make him love me in the end!!! I love you little boy! And last but not least, I have this mat saleh boy, very charming. He is so active and creative. Everytime his session, kena fikir nak selamatkan siapa or nak jadi character apa - sebab dia suka pretend play, he loves to be a superhero (but now he's more into scary stuff - we're meant to be I guess). I am smiling while writing this paragraph, sebab terbayang dalam kepala muka diorang ni, and gelagat diorang. Comelnya lah. I know the kids won't be able to read and understand this but if only they could, I really want to tell them that they mean so much to me. They taught me to be patient, loving, accepting differences, and so so so many more. Thank you kiddos🏆.


I guess this is the end of the entry. Thanks for your time! Please let me know if you have any questions or any suggestion for the next entry! XX💄