 
Matthew’s response has been overwhelming. Within the first month, Matthew was imitating "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", and had 5 words. Every two weeks his language started to double! By Christmas, Matthew said “I want cookies”. We applied ABA therapy into every aspect of our life. We potty trained Matthew by 3 ½ years old using ABA therapy techniques. Matthew has been gaining and closing in the communication gap.
Even after Matthew started talking we still had lots to teach him. Social skills, fine motor skills, gross motor and academic skills. We had to help Matthew learn to learn from others and his natural environment. Matthew had to learn to imitate not only language but appropriate play skills. I soon learned that every moment was a "teachable moment".
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We have hit some plateaus in therapy, and didn’t know which way to go. I always went back to the basic ABA therapy, discrete trials, prompting and reinforcement. We have networked with other parents and have gone to every FEAT-NT conference we could afford. Our goal was for Matthew to go into a typical 1st grade with very little support.
Matthew is 6 ½ and we still do ABA therapy with Matthew. We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us. Matthew learns things in a different way than other children; but he can still learn. Every lesson must be broken down into little steps that he can learn one at a time. Social skills are also hard for children with Autism. New social situations arise and in each new situation, Matthew must learn what is acceptable behavior. We teach this to Matthew with repeated drills and creative role play at home and out in the community. But we are encouraged now that he is making progress to overcome his condition (Autism).
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I don’t know what we would have done without the love and support of our friends and therapists. The money we have received has been well spent. We can see our efforts everyday in Matthew's progress.
I quit having those dreams of my son drowning. I still worry about him. A LOT! But if we hadn’t started ABA therapy when we did, Matthew might have left our world forever.
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Thank you for all your support. |
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