An AutismPro Case Study
AutismPro Helps Parent and Professional Team Collaborate Effectively
Three days after our daughter Lily's third birthday, she was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism. We'd been told before that it was a possibility, but that didn't make the news any easier to accept.
Lily Emberley
|
"Less than a year ago, Lily had just ten words in her vocabulary. Now, she can speak in sentences and ask for help when she needs it. She's even using imaginary play, which she could never do before."
Erin Emberley, Kingston, Ontario
|
Our daughter is beautiful and charming. She loves to dance and play with toys. She has tea parties with her bears. She loves fingerpaints and climbing, and she's just as curious and bright as any other child. She's the breath in our being.
Lily has difficulty gathering words and mastering social skills, but you would never know this by just looking at her. When we received the diagnosis, we were afraid and felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. We wondered if we had done something wrong and if it was something she could die from. We didn't know where to begin.
Lily was placed on a waiting list for the IBI (Intensive Behavioral Intervention) program and other services, but the thought of having to wait was excruciating. The small door of opportunity to make a real difference in our daughter's development was shrinking every day. She needed help right away, not two years down the road.
Through the services of Pathways for Children and Youth, we heard about a new technology called AutismPro designed to help children with autism. Together, we started using AutismPro in July of 2006.
We found the program easy to navigate and accessing all the different features was a breeze. It's extremely useful and educational. The learning objectives and activities AutismPro recommended for Lily were at our fingertips. If we were unsure how something was supposed to work, there were videos that showed us clearly what to do.
Most of all, AutismPro helped coordinate all the people working with our daughter, including her occupational therapist, speech and language pathologist, the Oakwood Daycare, Community Living, and all the other specialists and family members who spend time with her. It ensures that everyone knows what Lily's current goals are.
The most exciting change we've seen in Lily is her improvement in speech and eye contact. For the first time since she was born, I can speak with my little girl and I can watch her take toys and pretend they are something else, like when she pretends that a marker is a flute.
She now says, "Good morning, Mommy," every day. It brings tears to my eyes and a smile to my lips. The best advice I can give educators and clinicians who work with children with autism is to get AutismPro.
Erin Emberley, Parent
