Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Original post in T&T Guardian Newspaper, Nov 19, 2018

Khadine Ali-Rajah is the first ever psychologist to be certified in Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) in T&T. A branch of behavioural psychology, ABA is a research-based form of therapy which focuses on using positive strategies to change behaviour, and certified ABA therapists are in high demand worldwide.
Ali-Rajah said therapists who pass the exam on their first try, as she did, are offered high salaries by clinics abroad, as this is a prestigious achievement. In order to become certified in ABA, therapists have to have a Masters Degree and undergo 1,500 hours of supervision by a licensed therapist. She decided to open her own business, Jigsaw Therapeutical Services, so that she could provide the benefits of therapy to her patients.
Ali-Rajah said she was originally drawn to the field of psychology because she wanted to work with special needs children, and decided to focus on ABA when she worked with children with autism at a special education centre. “I was trying to figure out what’s the best way to reach and teach kids with autism because I saw amazing potential. I found that ABA is one of the most recommended therapies for kids on the spectrum and we don’t have it here.”
ABA can be used to teach children with developmental delays, and focuses on using positive strategies like reinforcement to break skills down into bite-size tasks, which can then be mastered easily. It is proven to have aided children on the autistic spectrum acquire necessary skills. “Kids on the spectrum face a lot of barriers to learning because of their deficit in social and communication skills, so we’re trying to help bridge those gaps. There’s a misconception that you send your child to a behavioural therapist because they’re behaving bad or having tantrums. We look at all types of behaviour including prerequisite skills for learning, communication and autonomy. Every child on the spectrum is different, so our assessments are quite detailed, we look at all the developmental milestones, where the deficits and the strengths are and we use that in their programme to develop an individualized plan.”
The therapist said she has had to educate practitioners in T&T on the service which she offers and opened her business because she was unable to find employment in existing clinics. “A lot of psychologists have recommended kids to us. They think ABA is perfect for certain issues that their kids are having, but if you don’t know it exists then you don’t know. I think there will be a greater need for more ABA therapists once people become aware of the therapy.”
Ali-Rajah said therapy is vital and valuable. “I’ve said it before that a lot of parents have to quit their jobs because they have to homeschool their kids and these are people that you could have in the system helping the economy. Also there are children on the Spectrum who are high-functioning that are getting kicked out of primary schools because they don’t have the training and the services and these are people who could contribute so much to the country in the future and people are not seeing that right now. So while it does seem like a strain to have to pay for an office and so on through public service, I think it is valuable because then the parents could go back to work and the kids could enter into the work place when they grow up and have the support they need.”
She has expanded the business into two locations. “The nice thing about ABA is that you can hire ABA instructors. It’s $400 an hour to work with me and $180 an hour to work with an instructor, someone who has their first degree and trained in ABA that is actually supervised by me, so it’s cheaper that way. Getting therapy here is very expensive and it’s not available in the public service. You can’t go to a registered public clinic and get occupational therapy or speech therapy, and if you are getting it, it’s very limited and minimal. If you see someone once a month and your child needs to see a therapist weekly, what really is the impact?”