What a delight it was to reconnect with one of my former clients, Amanda V. and her son Jaedan. My goal is for each child to reach his or her fullest potential and to be as safe and independent as possible. I met Amanda’s son when he was 3 years old, and completely nonverbal. As one of his early intervention specialists, I was able to help Amanda lay the foundation for the goals she had for her son’s future. Today, Amanda’s sharing her son’s autism story, so tune in and listen!
One of the earliest red flags for Amanda was that Jaedan wouldn’t respond to his name. In fact, he wouldn’t respond to anything, and she worried that he was deaf. He also struggled with certain food textures and had a terrible gag reflex. Soon, Amanda was bouncing between the advice of the occupational therapist and the speech therapist.
ABA therapy is a science. But it’s also an art; and each situation is different. Kids like Amanda’s son need more than an hour here and there with a therapist. They need a comprehensive program to reach their full potential. For twenty hours a week, someone was able to work with Jaedan until he transitioned into public school.
Today he doesn’t even have an IEP, and he plays on the school football team. Early intervention changed his life. I hope this autism story provided some hope and insight into what’s possible with applied behavior analysis.
Our guest for this episode is Amanda V. and she’s a mother of two kids – one of which is a boy with autism. She reached out to me when her son, Jaden, was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old. Amanda and I worked together to help Jaden through an ABA program.
