Where to Start?!?

Dalton is not your typical child, but of course his parents are not the typical parents either. His parents have gone over and beyond to not only help Dalton, but help other Dalton's around York County. My name is Lesslie and I have "indirectly" joined the Herron family! :-) I ran Dalton's program in 2007, and am now lead therapist for him through SCEAP. (South Carolina Early Autism Project). Dalton is an energetic little boy who keeps everyone who knows him on his toes! :-) I am going to be doing my best to keep everyone up to date on Dalton's therapy life and the accomplishments he is making. Brigitte, his mom, will also be posting about life with Dalton and other fun Dalton stories.
In our teaching time (ABA) we have focused on teaching him language, social and motor skills for the past 2 years. He is in an intesive program which means he gets 40 hours a week of ABA therapy. We base all of our teaching of his ABLLS (Assessment of Basica Language and Learning Skills). The ABLLS is an assessment tool that breaks down key skills that a child needs to learn to communicate and interact with their world effectively and then we take those skills and design specific programs to teach Dalton. We track his progress so we know what he has “mastered” and what we need to work on next. When you are typing this, it sounds so mundane and complicated! But, we make it fun. We reward him for learning and attending to us and he gets fun things like jumping on a trampoline, video, or his Wiggles guitar. It’s tailored to the child!! In between your “teaching time” you are working within his natural environment teaching him how to play with toys, use a video game, play outside and other typical fun things children do! Brigitte and Strait have a pool in their back yard and we incorporate this into our therapy. Afterall, he is a kid!! The big thing with Dalton is keeping him highly motivated and interested. He is so full of energy that he gets bored if you don’t keep the reinforcers high and keep him moving. He is“nonverbal”, but BELIEVE me you KNOW what Dalton wants! We will be working this summer on teaching him language: receptive and expressive skills. Over the pat 6 months, Dalton has finally started to imitate vocalizations. Dalont loves the computer, so I manipulated the program http://www.starfall.com/ to help get him interested in talking and sounds. Then we simply systematically paired all noises with reinforcement and after a few months it worked! He got it! He will now say /a/, /b/, /d/, /f/, /l/, /m/, /o/, /p/, and /t/ after you prompt him to. He will ask for apple, pop, and up (for jump) when prompted. We are SO excited about this huge accomplishment in his life! It has taken all people involved in his life to make this huge milestone possible!
Our home program is up and running and as soon as I get around to it, I will take pictures and try to explain some of the strategies we use in each picture. I am new to blogging, so please bare with me! :-) I have worked with several kids and I know as parents you are often left to your own devices after doctor's tell you your child is diagnosed with "Autism" or some other similiar disorder. I am sure it can be overwhelming and then you hear about ABA and start trying to figure all this out on your own. This website is meant to help you get an understanding of what we do with Dalton and hopefully how you can incorporate some of the same things into your child's life. We want people to know how effective these programs can be if implemented correctly. EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT= and we can't stress this enough! Just as every child is different, every program needs to be different! Please feel free to post questions, comments ,or words of encouragement! :-)

To all of you have donated money, materials, time, and encouragement to keep this organization afloat. You have no idea how many lives in York County, South Carolina you have touched! This organization truly gives back to its community and is here to assit families, agencies, organizations, and schools who help children affected by this disorder. 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with Autism. So, it affects someone we know indirectly or directly! This organization is making a difference in these chidlren and families lives. Your donations made all of this possible. They often refer to Autism as a puzzle because no one knows what causes Autism and sometimes its a "puzzle" to figure out these kids. The great thing about a puzzle is that as you slowly start to put the pieces together you get to see the beautiful picture it makes. You are now a piece of the puzzle- you have contributed to this beautiful picture that is not only Dalton's life but the lives of children all around York County. This blog site is for you, so you can see what your support is doing in one child's life: Here is Dalton Life of Therapy!