Autistic son turns father's life around
By Park Jin-hai
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Han Sang-min
Han Sang-min, CEO of Seoul ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) Institute, is often referred to as Korea’s Augusto Odone, the father who found Lorenzo's Oil after a relentless search for a cure for his son’s rare genetic disorder. Since finding his youngest child showing symptoms of autism at 28 months old, Han’s life has changed drastically.
“At the time when I heard my child’s autism diagnosis nine years ago, the developmental disorder was hardly a recognized concept. Few people knew about the disorder and when I searched on the web I could find what little information there was about it, not to mention known treatments for it,” Han said during an interview with The Korea Times. “Feeling at a loss, without knowing what to do, I made up my mind to find useful information myself and it has completely changed the course of my life.”
ABA, an applied form of behavior analysis, uses a great deal of positive reinforcement in order to increase desirable behaviors and improve the skills of children and adults with behavioral disorders including autism.
In 2011 he quit the English institute he has been running for many years and enrolled in an ABA course at Daegu Cyber University. After studying three years and completing 1,500 hours of supervised behavior analysis fieldwork, he became an internationally certified Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), the 14th person with such certification in Korea. And now he is head of two ABA research and therapy centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.
He says although people’s recognition and perceptions of autism have increased over the years, thanks partly to the 2005 film “Marathon,” still there aren’t many specialists to provide help for children with autism.
It is a burgeoning study area now in Korea, yet his center in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, has 30 children waiting for ABA therapy.
The reason he says is that the profession is hard. “Upon the children whose linguistic skills are limited and often hit and scratch, ABA therapists repeatedly teach positive behaviors. I think that is why this study area has so few specialists. But it is also a great reward to see children make a little progress and reduce socially undesired behaviors and their parents being overjoyed by that little improvement.”
As a father of an autistic child himself, Han says he often advises parents to focus on short-term goals. “To those worrying parents, I say they should set short-term goals. If they foresee, say, what their children would be like when they became adults, the thought itself could make them helpless. I say focus on the short-term little goals, a year ahead at the longest, and do their best for now.”