Inspirational Stories

Elliot

When I met Elliot he was 4 ½ years old. His parents brought him into our clinic for an intial interview and skills assessment. After discussing the basic nature of our program for a while, Elliot’s parents gave me a history about what they had been through with him up until that point. Elliot had already received several years of extensive therapeutic and educational intervention. His parents brought him to private speech and occupational therapy sessions regularly and he had received early intervention at home as well as a full year of special education in a public school. His parents brought him to our program as a last “hope” that he could possible learn basic communication skills and become closer in terms of skill levels to other children his own age. They were frustrated that even though other programs were claiming that he was making progress, he could not even communicate on a basic level. To make matter worse, Elliot also hurt himself often in social situations. He hit his face and head feverishly when others tried to interact with him and he also hit his head on hard surfaces out of frustration.
After only 8 hours of treatment, Elliot started to ask for things he wanted by saying their names. He started asking for “bubbles” and several other favorite toys. Also, his head hitting and banging subsided substantially. Over the course of the next 6 months, Elliot learned hundreds of new words and many new concepts. He continues to improve and is currently working on improving his reading skills.

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