At seventeen months, Daniel’s parents knew that something was wrong. Daniel was not walking, would not point to objects, did not recognize familiar people and was unresponsive to his name.

Soon after, Daniel was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD. His parents immediately began Daniel in weekly, speech and language therapy. Meanwhile, his parents investigated what was available for children like Daniel and came across Applied Behavior Analysis, ABA. They received a recommendation for the Behavioral Intervention Group, BIG and set up an ABA program for Daniel in a matter of weeks.

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When Daniel’s ABA program began he was two and half years old and
non-verbal. Quickly, Daniel began to learn how to communicate through Makaton signing. Meanwhile, the rest of his program focused on basic play skills, interactive skills, imiataive skills followed by speech development.

By three years of age Daniel was using simple sentences to communicate his needs. This then led to social language and soon basic academics and play-dates began. Once Daniel began pre-school with a ‘shadow’ from his home treatment team, programs such as pragramatics and theory of mind were introduced. Daniel soon learned how to manage his own behavior and the skills necessary to make and maintain friendships.

Daniel is now in the sixth grade of a mainstream school without support. He has a close group of friends and excels academically.

Two years ago, Daniel decided to share his diagnosis with his class which has been a positive experience for him and his classmates. Daniel still considers his younger brother, Josh to be his best friend even though, ‘he is sometimes annoying’.

Ryan’s parents found his development confusing. They could not understand why their bright boy would not respond to his name, or plug and unplug his toy radio into the outlets all day long, or become extremely distressed if he did not sit in the car directly behind his mother. Ryan was clearly an intelligent child but his parents could not make sense of the behaviors that were increasingly consuming his days. Not long after Ryan’s second birthday he was diagnosed with ASD.

This completed the puzzle for his parents as they could make some sense of what was wrong, however it open a world of questions as to what to do now.

His parents were told by the psychologist that they would be lucky if Ryan, in his adult life, would be able to work on a computer in a basement. Determined not to accept this to be their son’s future, Ryan’s parent’s looked at everything they could get their hands on to help their son.

After a great deal of research into what was available for children with ASD, his parents came to the conclusion that ABA in conjunction with biomedical intervention would be the best way forward for Ryan. With that in mind, Ryan began his home based ABA program.

Ryan’s program began by initially building Ryan’s social understanding and social communication. The team also targeted skills such as independent eating and dressing in addition to basic play and academic skills.

As Ryan’s social use of language and play skills progressed, play-dates were introduced and Ryan began attending school with support.

Ryan was taught ball skills in order for him to take part in playtime activities and higher level cognitive programs were introduced. Ryan learned that other people may have differing opinions to him and what empathy was. He learned how to make friends.

Ryan today is at a major university, actively taking part in university life and has just recently received a scholarship to the NASA intern program.