Bill was born in a
reasonably wealthy and educated family. The stars aligned in the sky
perfectly alright, leaving no bad omen for the newborn. But little
did the Flores family know about the shocking turn their lives would
take in the next few months…
As Kimberley and Ryan
– Bill’s mom and dad respectively – geared up to celebrate
their son’s first birthday, Bill started showing some behavioral
signs that were atypical of other children of the same age. He hardly
made eye contacts and mostly gave an expressionless look in social
situations. Soon afterwards, Bill almost ceased to coo.
Their
family doctor could instantly relate all these symptoms to a
developmental delay, most likely autism spectrum disorders, and advised Ryan and Kimberley to immediately
consult a pediatrician.
Turned out, the family
doctor was right.
At the tender age of
23 months, Bill was diagnosed with autism.
Ryan had a friend who worked as a teacher in one of the local special
needs schools. As a staunch advocate of applied behavior analysis (ABA), he convinced Bill’s parents to hire
an ABA therapist for intense, early intervention.
On closely examining
little Bill’s condition, the hired therapist set the learning goals
and started delivering 20 hours of applied
behavior analysis-based intervention a week. The
well-organized intervention quickly reaped big benefits for Bill. His
adaptive behavior improved a great deal with intensive applied
behavior analysis. Best of all, there was a marked progress in
his IQ score at the end of the program.
What was possibly
lacking in Bill’s early intervention regime?
An experienced BCBA
charges $40 on average for an hour of intervention. The high cost is
mainly due to the amount of time and efforts the therapist must put
in to understand the learning goals of the child and then to chalk
out the most effective intervention plan. Now with an app to assist
the therapist, the entire process can speed up considerably. Want to
know about a structured autism apps that can be therapist’s best friend? Click here.
