Recovering Jonathan!

1 in 68 U.S. children has autism according to the CDC. Parents are given very little hope when their children are diagnosed. Doctors believe that there is no cure but only improvement through Occupational, Speech, ABA and other educational therapies. However, after 8 years of “biomedical” interventions, Jonathan has shown such tremendous progress towards recovery that we have decided to share our experiences with the world. Read his story at the end of this page.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Poor Kaiser!

Jonathan and Vanessa have decided that our dog, pit bull mix named Kaiser, is their new toy. They chase him around the house and then hug him until he gets tired and pulls away :) Poor Kaiser. After about 10 minutes of this, he just goes to his cage to relax.

Jonathan is more curious about playing with toys now. He is not playing with electronic toys anymore. We bought him a small video gameboy and he does not spend more than 1 hour playing

with it. He is now starting to engage more on some pretend play (like pretending he is a doctor and taking Vanessa's temperature) or pretending he is cooking. This is an exciting moment. He is showing some skills that were never developed, so that brings more hope. Yesterday, his ABA therapist told me that she was shocked that he was defiant with her. It is good to see the attitude demonstrated appropriately. We just now have to watch it because he might try to use that too much.

Friday, December 1, 2006

New Hobby!

Jonathan is now interested in helping me mix his supplements. He helps me cut the tablets, crush them in the mortar, then mix them in his banana baby food. I normally cut all the pills for 1 week and organize them in a pill's container. I separate the morning and evening sets. I feel like I am a pharmacist when I prepare his supplements. But I can see the difference, so I am happy to do them.

Jonathan is very curious now. He comes home and immediately asks what I am going to do so he can help. Granted, he is still not as advanced with his play skills as I would like him to be, but just the fact that he wants to imitate is a great improvement. He is also interested in being in the kitchen when we cook. The other thing that surprised me yesterday was that I asked him the names of his teachers (per school) and he told me. First time ever I didn't have to ask him several times and prompt him. Also the names of his friends (he has 1 friend in each school - he is going to 3 schools) and he remembered them too. I am very proud of him. His memory is sticking more and more.

Yesterday we went to the movies to see Happy Feet and he loved it, laughed when appropriate, was upset (a bit only) when the penguin was sad, was scared at a couple of parts but coped well and even pointed out to me that a shark wanted to eat the penguin.