A Parent's Guide to Early Intervention: A Comprehensive Model for Children with Special Needs

Do you have a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or related special needs for your child? Are you asking yourself…

What can I do about it?

Where should I seek help?

Should I focus on just specific therapies?

Can I outsource this intervention and not get involved?

How can I get my child out of early intervention programs and back to mainstream schools?

A Parents Guide to Early Intervention will help you navigate the questions above with simple step-by-step processes. The Comprehensive Model for Early Intervention (CMEI) was developed by Alex Liau, who has worked with children with special needs for the past 15 years. Alex has combined his experiences in working with parents in Asia, United States, Australia, and Europe in crafting early intervention plans for children with special needs to teach parents:

1. How to structure the home environment to optimize learning for their children with special needs
2. Simple one-on-one activities (done in a structured manner) to help their children develop good work habits
3. How to transit what is learned in a one-on-one setting to a small-group setting to build “pre-preschool” skills
4. How to generalize what is learned in a small early intervention group setting into a bigger mainstream classroom setting
5. How to build basic social skills for children with special needs to cope with the mainstream school environment
6. What parents can do to help their children with special needs navigate this model successfully

Alex believes that parents play an integral part in the development of a child with special needs. CMEI breaks down the various steps parents can take to oversee and be INVOLVED in their children's intervention plan.

Alex Liauobtained his degree in Psychology at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He has many years of experience working with children exhibiting a wide array of learning and behavior difficulties, with many diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He received training on Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) in Australia and subsequently went to Houston, Texas to receive Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) training under Dr. Steven Gutstein and Dr. Rachel Sheely. He has presented in Australia, Houston, and Singapore and has been invited to participate in interviews by the press in Singapore. Additionally, he has worked with clients from various countries like China, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, and Australia. He has also mentored and trained many therapists throughout his career. His interest in children with special needs started while he was concentrating on Childhood Psychology and pursued a research project on autism and related disorders. The many successful cases he achieves while working intensively with children with ASD made him a firm believer of early intervention and other comprehensive, experimentally proven therapies. Alex has the ability to harness the confidence and self-esteem of these children which in turn enable them to be more receptive to compliance training and regain the ability to learn and progress. Alex resides in Singapore.