At 5 years old our son started developing some words, they were not clear but they were definitely there and if you listened you could understand what he was saying, or reading as was more common.
He sat with me one night and read an entire Thomas book. There were only approx 4 words that he did not know in the entire book, which is quite good from where we started. He still could not hold a conversation and I would never consider him verbal by any means, but he was gradually learning the ability to read out loud some of what he had appeared to be reading to himself in the past.
What we did find disturbing was that almost all progress appeared to be made at home with almost no progress being shown at school. They didn’t see the progress at all, and the few times they did it was weeks behind what we were seeing. We found one of the most disturbing issues for us was that we all know that he learns best when he is taught using ABA which we do. However, in school, the amount of ABA that can be used is limited when he is in the classroom, even tho one of his EA’s is ABA trained. The largest part of that is because of what is involved in play-based ABA.
As we approached the summer my wife and I decided on working with our son over the summer to see just how much we could accomplish and then when we returned to school in the fall we would watch closely to see what progress they make on their end. If necessary we would have to have a meeting to discuss why they were not able to make the progress we were and how to correct it.
It may seem a bit harsh to those of you who don’t have autistic children however when you do you learn to understand your children’s needs and how to adapt to get them to learn what they need as they grow. And you also learn that as a parent of a special needs child, if you do not actively advocate for your child, no one else will. That is a sad reality.
I should also mention (and will discuss it in the future as well) one thing we ended up figuring out as the years have gone by, is that the bond and compatibility between the EA and the child is mind-blowingly important. Those who do not bond with your child or who are not completely compatible will not have near as much success in their work with them.
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