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It is a rather inspiring post.
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In the year of 1995, our family`s life changed forever. Our sons, Doran age 3 years old and Camron age 18 months old, were diagnosed with Autism.
Doran was non-verbal but desperately would try to communicate with us by taking our hand and leading us to what he wanted and sometimes pushing our hand toward the object he wanted. He was not able to do any type of verbal or oral motor imitation. His gross motor and fine motor skills were extremely underdeveloped. Body awareness was poor so imitation skills were poor. He had self- stimulatory behaviors. Play skills were almost non existent. What Doran had going for him was an outgoing personality and awareness of his environment, not usually typical with autism. His social skills were also a great asset for him. He was not afraid to give someone a hug or show him or her something that interested him. He also had good receptive skills and followed instructions well.
Camron was also non-verbal. He rarely would try to communicate. He had no verbal or oral motor imitation skills, poor receptive skills, and very poor imitation skills. I actually had to teach him how to put his palms together instead of the back of his hands to imitate clapping. Awareness of his surroundings was very poor. Transitioning to new environments was very hard. He had obsessive behaviors. He had oral tactile sensitivity so going from baby food to solid foods was extremely hard. It took a year to desensitize him enough to accept a toothbrush. The biggest strength that Camron had was his ability to work puzzles.
We started an ABA program in our home immediately. I became a therapist as well. I originally became a therapist for our sons out of need. Financially we simply couldn`t afford to hire a full team for both sons. It was the best thing I could have done for our sons and their program. We focused on receptive skills, fine motor, imitation, verbal imitation and visual performance skills. It had been suggested by a speech therapist that we start teaching sign language for communication but we refused. We wanted our children to talk and signing would surly lead to silence forever.
After 21/2 years of therapy with many speech therapists and doing verbal imitation during our ABA sessions, little speech had been gained. Doran was able to say "apa" for apple and "opa" for open and "oa ju" for orange juice. Camron was still completely non- verbal. We were told that it was unlikely that either of the boys would talk and if they didn`t talk by the time they were 5 or 6 years old, they wouldn`t talk at all. While this did not deter me from continuing to work on speech I knew I didn`t have much time to get them talking. Doran was 5 years old and Camron was 4 years old. I also knew we needed a communication system. We moved to a school district that implemented the Picture Exchange Communication System or PECS. I thought this would be a sufficient way to communicate and they wouldn`t have to just grunt or point or whine for what they wanted. This was used for the next two years, however, what they were able to communicate to me was limited to the pictures. Camron had a total of 6 pictures that he used for his wants and needs and was still completely non-verbal and struggling with all receptive skills. Doran had a four-page book that took way too much effort and time to find all the pictures he wanted to communicate to me. His verbal imitation skills had improved and he desperately tried to talk to me with a lot of gibber jabber I couldn`t understand. It broke my heart to know he wanted so badly to talk but just could make his mouth work. The label that professionals had given for both of the boys was Apraxia. Most speech therapist that worked with my sons had not seen such severe cases.
Four and half years after we started our ABA program, we made a decision I never thought I would make. After hearing about Dr. Partington, Dr. Sundberg and Dr. Carbone and their work with autistic children using sign and the main focus on communication, I knew this is what my sons were desperately missing in their ABA program. I was extremely hesitant about using sign though. Their fine motor skills were so poor, I just didn`t think they were able to use their hands to sign. I had never bought into signing, but with the boys at ages 7 and 6 and not talking, I knew I had nothing to lose at this point. I had heard too many times that once they get to 5 or 6 years old, they would not talk. I attended a conference by Dr. Carbone in January of 2000 and immediately implemented sign language. I bought the book on Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills or the ABLLS. I adjusted their ABA program to reflect where the boys were at developmentally in their communication skills and the other skill areas the book addresses. Two weeks after starting signs, the PECS pictures were gone. Both boys learned new signs at consistent rate. Camron`s rate of learning receptive skills skyrocketed. I found a speech therapist that specialized in apraxia and was able to teach the boys how to make their mouth work. The boys were enrolled in a school that had a class that used ABA and the work of Sundberg and Partington, with Dr. Carbone as consultant. The class taught sign and communication as the main focus. I also continued their home program after school and on the weekend. I threw myself into learning everything I could about communication. I filled my sons` day with communicating to me with their signs. I continued to be a therapist for them and run both programs. They got nothing for free. Their fine motor skills actually improved due to their signing.
December of 2003, 3 years after starting sign, Doran was 10 years old and Camron was 9. They each had well over 100 signs. I held up a Christmas decoration and asked Doran "Who is this?" His answer was a confident and only slightly garbled "Santa Clause". I was shocked at how clear his answer was. He had been getting better at his verbalizations but this was the clearest yet. He hadn`t even tried to say Santa Clause in a year. Camron in the mean time had worked very hard at being able to say new sounds. He had learned his vowel sounds, but consonants had been much harder. He had the "m" sound but it took another year to get a "b" sound. During that year of trying to get that "b" sound I wondered if I was doing the right thing by making Camron say sounds that seemed obvious he was just not capable of making. "How cruel" I thought, " to insist on him making a sound he just was not able to make." I even discussed with the speech therapist that maybe I should just stop speech therapy and live with the fact that he would not talk. School personnel were skeptical and even Camron`s Dad had doubts that he would ever be able to figure it out. I decided to ignore my own doubts and just keep going. Soon after that, Camron learned the "b" sound. I think about this all of the time. What if I had given up at that point? He was able to make several short syllable sounds like "moo, boo, ma, ba," etc. He could even sing an approximation of the ABC song, substituting sounds he couldn`t say with other sounds. Camron learned other consonant sounds like the "n" and "p". One day while I was working with Camron in a therapy session he said "ee ba" (green ball), as a request for the green ball that was on the table. I was in disbelief. He spontaneously used the sounds he could say that sounded most like green ball. Soon after that he learned to say the "k" sound on his own. I was teaching him the sign for "frog" and he said "ock". The more words he was able to put together with his newly learned sounds, the easier it got for him to say words. The more he wanted to talk and make his needs and wants and opinions known the better he got at learning new sounds and words.
January of 2004 Camron is 10 and Doran is 11. Doran uses sign with less than half of his talking now. He still has articulation issues that is being worked on and continues to have to use sign if he cannot be understood. Doran has been in an ABA program for eight and half years now. He can ask, "where are you going?" when I leave the house. If he wants to know what something is he`ll ask, " what is it?" if he can`t find something he wants he asks, "where is the ______?" He tells me what he had for lunch at school and what he wants for dinner. He can tell me a few highlights of what he did at school that day. He is reading, adding, counting, singing, helping cook foods, and talking more and more every day. Camron talks in full sentences now. He can say, " I want video on" "I want chicken nuggets and spaghetti sauce" and many other sentences. He can imitate or at least make an effort to imitate anything we ask him to. He can say just about every letter in the alphabet song now and sings along with all his videos. He can verbally spell many of his 150 plus spelling words. He too still has articulation issues that we work on consistently. I continue to be a therapist with both sons and run both of their programs. They prefer me to work with them than any of the therapist. I always try to learn as much about what the boys need to learn as the consultant and teachers know at their schools. I am in constant touch with both of the boys` teachers to keep their home program and their school program flowing along with each other. We exchange ideas and any progress the boys have made so that both the home program and school program function at it`s optimum. This has paid off in big ways. Doran learned to write independently due to the teacher and I being able to combine our efforts to come up with an easy and reinforcing way to teach writing. He recently wrote the word "cat" and brought it down stairs to show me.
When I started my sons ABA program 8 years ago, I didn`t know what to expect. I certainly wasn`t looking ahead 8 years. Both boys have a lot to learn. We will continue our ABA program as long as the boys need it. I don`t know what the future holds for Doran and Camron. Four years ago I didn`t know if Camron would ever talk and he is now talking. No one can predict your child`s future. I have learned that now. What I can predict is that I will never give up on my sons. I will continue to learn and teach my sons until…….
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发表于 2004-2-9 23:45:17
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