Miles has always been a sweet, happy little boy, but his parents were concerned early on when they noticed he wasn’t meeting many of his developmental milestones. At 18 months old, Miles still wasn’t talking, so his doctor referred him to Early Intervention services at Kids Who Count.
“We were fortunate to immediately begin working with Linda Lange, Child Development Specialist, and she helped us learn new ways of encouraging Miles to play, interact, and communicate,” Miles’ mother, Kohleen said. “As Linda worked with Miles, she very gently and tactfully helped us become aware of some behaviors that indicated Miles was at risk for autism.”
By the time Miles was turning 2, he was already working with autism specialists at Kids Who Count and was also participating in a playgroup there. He worked with Annie Buck, Occupational Therapist, who was “fantastic in helping Miles develop many new skills.”
With encouragement from the Kids Who Count staff, the family made the decision to pursue getting an official autism diagnosis for Miles, and after evaluations, he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
“Because of the support we had been receiving from Kids Who Count staff, we were prepared for the diagnosis,” Kohleen said. “We were relieved to have official answers and to move forward and start getting Miles the additional help he needed.”
Last year Miles was also able to work with Koaly Killpack, Child Development Specialist, and as a parent, Kohleen was able to get the additional support she needed through visits from Karen Fairchild, Social Worker, and through Kids Who Count’s “fantastic” parent support group.
Miles was also able to start receiving Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy through Kids Who Count’s new Autism Program. “He has been working with Emily Morgan, RBT, who Miles absolutely ADORES,” Kohleen said.
“Miles is responding so well to ABA therapy and continues to make rapid progress,” she said. “We are so grateful that Kids Who Count was able to expand their services and start providing ABA therapy. There is such a great need!”
“Early Intervention has been absolutely key for Miles and our family,” Kohleen said. “Miles started signing words and then moved on to speaking and is now able to form three- to four-word sentences. Miles has improved in how he interacts with his peers, and we learned skills on how to help Miles transition more smoothly from one activity to another. We even got help with teaching Miles to eat a meal using utensils.”
“Without Early Intervention services from Kids Who Count, Miles definitely would not have made the rapid progress he has,” she said. “We are very optimistic that Miles and our family have a happy and bright future ahead of us!”
We now offer ABA therapy and other services such as speech, physical, and occupational therapy for autism. If you have concerns about your child’s development or have an autism diagnosis, don’t wait, contact us today.
