Elakiya’s first encounter with people with special needs at Christian Outreach to the Handicapped (COH) – autism for 2 years. She taught daily living skills, created opportunities for and encouraged socialisation (social skills), recreation and adaptive skills. She also prepared IEPs and the general curriculum for her class according to the skills and abilities of her students.

She then move on to be a Behavioral Therapist where she performed both home based and School Shadowing. She also later accumulated more experience in APSN which is of a classroom setting for children with Autism.

Apart from that, Elakiya volunteered for One Child One Skill (OCOS) program multiple times. During the OCOS program, she had the opportunity to work with individuals with autism.