UPDATED: From the Parents – Life Afterwards: Hope After Autism

Join us on Thursday, February 4th at 7:00pm for our parents panel:
“Life Afterwards: Hope After Autism”.

This will be a unique opportunity to hear from parents whose children have recovered from autism.

The panel discussion will have seven or more families whose children have completed ABA programs and are now living independently in their communities, in most cases without anyone knowing that they once had an autism diagnosis.

Our families will discuss the particulars of their child’s experience – how they coped, what they did and what they learned.

From the Parents:

B.
B. is an 18-year-old male. He was diagnosed at age 2 years 6 months with moderate/severe autism, and had no communication skills, poor social relatedness, and self-stimulatory behavior. He began ABA treatment at age 3 and continued for 5 years and 25 days through CARD at which point he was considered “recovered”. He received an average of 31 hours of ABA therapy per week as well as speech and occupational therapy for 8 years.

B. first began attending school without support in the 6th grade.

J.M.
J.M. is a 7 year old male and was diagnosed with autism at age 2 1/2. He lost his diagnosis at age 5 1/2. During those three years, J.M. had an ABA program which ranged from 20-35 hours a week in addition of up to 5 hours a week of speech therapy and many bio-medical interventions, including GF/CF diet, B12 injections, chelation and HBOT.

J.M. entered kindergarten without any support nor did the school have any previous knowledge of his former diagnosis.

J.W.
J.W. is a 10 year old boy. He was diagnosed at 3 years, 2 months with Autism (mild to moderate), and exhibited symptoms including not talking, perseverative behaviors, lining up items, opening and closing of doors, little eye contact, defiant and non-compliant behavior, sensory seeking behaviors, sensory resistant behaviors, not potty trained, no interest in others and frequent elopement.

He began speech therapy at 18 months, occupational therapy at 22 months, ACES at 3 years, 9 months and CARD at age 4 with a full time 40 hour per week in home ABA program. After three years of a 40 hour per week ABA program, the hours were gradually reduced until the program ended at 8 years, 8 months.

J.W. first began attending school without support in the last quarter of 1st grade.

E.
E. is an 8 year old boy. He was diagnosed at 2 1/2 years old with Autism, and exhibited symptoms including delayed speech, poor eye contact, and self stimulatory behavior. He began ABA treatment at age 2 1/2 through CUSP starting with a 20 hour a week program working up to a 40 hour program by 3 years.

E. began attending school without support in first grade.

E.
E is a 12- year- old male. He was diagnosed with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder at 26 months and later with Autism at 36 months. E exhibited symptoms including delayed speech; major deficits in communication skills and motor skills, social and emotional development and poor self help skills.

E also had hyper-sensory sensitivities to sound and textures as well as self-stimulating behaviors (hand flapping, toe walking, babbling, “zoning out”) and significant pragmatic language delays. He was essentially non-verbal up until 28 months. Because of my educational background with infants and children, I noticed unusual behaviors in my son as early as 6 months of age.

E began ABA treatment at the age of 3 years through CARD, with the scope of treatment ranging from 30 – 40 hours per week over a 3-year period. As an educator and as a parent on a perpetually long waiting list for services, I armed myself with resources, information and ABA techniques of which I used with E both before and after his CARD treatment. E attended several preschools and a public Kindergarten with a shadow and was “officially” shadow free by 2nd grade.

Because of E’s social and educational improvement he was moved off the “Special Education Roster” by fifth grade and onto a Section 504 plan for his middle school public education. E is now a 7th grade Honor Roll student who is currently enrolled in the school’s GATE program.

A.
A is a 10 year old male. He was diagnosed at 2 years 5 months with autism, and exhibited symptoms including significantly delayed speech (expressive and receptive) and loss of language, no interest in social interaction, self stimulatory behavior – lining up objects, no awareness of safety issues (jumping from very high places, standing on top of play structures, no eye contact [lost eye contact], in his own world).

A. began ABA at 2 years 9 months through Coyne Agency, with a program of 12-14 hours a week for 1 year. At 3 years 8 months, he started with CARD services for 35 to 38 hours a week for over a 5 1/2 year period. He also received speech therapy for 2-4 hours a week and occupational therapy of 2 hours a week for 3 years. A first began attending school without support mid-year in 2nd grade.

L.
L is an 10-year-old female. She was diagnosed at age 2 years 10 months with Autism, and exhibited symptoms including delayed speech, poor social relatedness, and self-stimulatory behavior. She began ABA treatment at age 3.0 through CARD, with scope of treatment ranging from 35-40 hours per week over a three-year period. L first began attending school without support during First Grade.

R.
R is an 8 year old boy who was diagnosed at 2 ½ with autism, and had self stimulatory and sensory integration issues. He began ABA, ST, OT at 3 years of age and twice attended UCLA’s outpatient program at the Neuropsychiatric Institute. ABI has provided his primary behavioral program. This past September, R started attending school without support. He’s in 2nd grade.

Reservations for our event are required due to Sony Pictures parking security.

For more information and to register please call Jennifer Olson at (310) 204-6624 or email Jennifer@bonniezyates.com.

Your Comments and Questions are Welcome