This spring, a FIVE training team -- Helen McCabe, Patricia Wright, Jessie Tian Jiang and Karen McCabe -- provided training in Daqing and Changchun, two cities in Northeast China, a region where we have increasingly built connections and partnerships. Working with teachers over 10 days at two very different programs, we met wonderful, dedicated staff. Teachers were eager to learn and made evident progress in just a few short days. Specifically, the trainings focused on using evidence-based instructional strategies in group settings, due to the teacher-student ratio that means most of each child’s day is spent in a classroom with approximately 10 children. Modeling small group instruction to teachers at both programs was a very effective way for them to understand new methods of instruction.

Due to work schedules, FIVE’s team of volunteers cannot always be in China. However, we have continued to make use of technology to provide information and instruction to parents and teachers. In Augus t, Helen McCabe , Five’s ED, was invited by ALSOLife to give a talk via Wechat , the Chinese messaging and social media app. ALSOLife is a Chinese organization focused on awareness, advocacy and intervention for children with autism. ALSOLife broadcast this talk to dozens of WeChat groups simultaneously, many of whom have 500 members each. Thus, the talk was available to thousands of parents and teachers of children with autism. Helen was one of a series of monthly speakers providing information and awareness, and her topic was “Suggestions for Promoting Independent Skills at Home.” The following month, Helen gave a more targeted training to teachers at Stars’ Wings Autism Center in Huanghua, Cangzhou. In collaboration with the director of Stars’ Wings, she designed a training on the importance of taking data while implementing intervention based on applied behavior analysis. The teachers were very motivated to learn more and, at the end, had numerous questions about implementation, showing their enthusiasm to immediately practice what they had learned. This training has been followed up by ongoing consultation to teachers via WeChat.