Isaac’s Success Story
“Isaac” 7 years old
Isaac came to KGH in the middle of second grade. Referred by his school social worker and given an educational diagnosis of autism, Isaac displayed challenging behaviors when he didn’t want to do something. In addition, he did not follow classroom routines.
At home, Isaac was inflexible and rigid in his play and thinking. He would often fight with his younger brother. He ate only certain types of food from the same green plate.
Isaac’s parents were worn out. Their score on the Parent Stress Index scale was extremely high. They often disagreed on how to parent their son.
Isaac received 20 hours per week of ABA therapy, along with twice-weekly speech therapy to address social pragmatic language and feeding therapy. Isaac also received weekly occupational therapy for sensory processing and gross and fine motor skills.
We taught Isaac flexibility in his play and thinking—which helped tremendously. After two months of therapy, we added sibling sessions to his treatment. This helped Isaac and his brother learn how to better interact, and generalized Isaac’s new flexibility skills.
Isaac’s KGH Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) conducted monthly school observations and provided updates and recommendations to help Isaac carry new skills from home to school. She also worked closely with speech therapy to ensure consistency in programming for eating more of a variety of foods.
The BCBA supported Isaac’s parents too, providing parent training in their home each week. This helped to support, educate and empower their parenting skills and confidence.
They also received family psychotherapy to address concerns having a child with autism places on a marriage.
Isaac remains in regular education with support services—such as speech therapy and social work—at school. He comes to KGH three times a week for our After-School Enrichment program. He also attends Superflex 101, KGH Super Sports and We Thinkers!
His parents’ stress index scale score now falls within the high end of the average stress range. Today, Isaac and his brother have only typical sibling fights. 🙂