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A New Opportunity
Joe's story
Our son is five years old and has been undergoing ABA for
14 months.
The improvements we have seen since, in every area of his
life, have been nothing short of miraculous.
Prior to starting ABA, he had practically no speech and no
eye contact. He had very few receptive language skills. He
had very limited play skills and indulged in repetitive self-stimulatory
behaviour whenever he wasn't being supervised or redirected
to another activity.
Whilst he was aware of other people to some degree, he had
no social skills whatsoever. Even though approaching his fourth
birthday, he was still unable to be toilet-trained. He was
also unable to dress, wash or feed himself.
Behaviourally, he was incredibly impulsive, with no concept
of appropriate times or places for activities. He wanted to
do what he wanted to do, whenever and wherever he wanted and
would scream the house down if he couldn't. The strain on
our family was indescribable.
Now we have a child who, though a long way from blending in
with his peers, has made significant progress in all of the
areas previously mentioned. He has been attending a mainstream
Pre-School two mornings a week with one of his therapists,
where he participates in all areas of the curriculum, and
our goal for next year will be to extend him to three mornings
in preparation for school the following year. Fourteen months
ago this was a dream that we would never have expected to
reach.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that he's the same child.
He is affectionate and interacts readily with other children
and adults. He can communicate his needs and feelings, and
understands most of what is said to him. In contrast to his
behaviour before commencing ABA, we feel that ABA has given
us, and will continue to give, more and more of our 'real
son' and I think that is the hope of every parent whose child
has ASD.
Karen and Simon
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