Noah

When three year old Noah began speech and occupational therapy at Heartspring Pediatric Services in August 2007, he had no way to tell his parents what he wanted other than pointing and whining. He was unable to dress himself and lacked certain fine motor skills.

Diagnosed with autism in 2007, Noah comes to Heartspring twice a week to work with speech-language pathologist Diane Gough and occupational therapist Mimi French. Because Noah is basically non-verbal, Gough uses a total communication approach during his speech therapy sessions. “We needed to teach him symbolic communication,” said Gough. “When someone has no words to use, giving them another system to communicate with allows them to become a much better communicator and it usually relieves a lot of frustration they have had when people don't understand them.” Additionally he is utilizing a series of pictures or photographs call the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to let others know what he wants or needs. He can now use a sentence strip that says I want ____. Gough has also added other sentences like I see ____ and I like ____. “Noah is beginning to use a lot more vocalizations when he uses his communication systems,” said Gough. “He has even said several words. That's when we do the happy dance around here.”

In occupational therapy with French, Noah has made great strides in learning how to put on his clothes independently after taking off his pajamas. Noah started using a picture schedule to help him know what activities to expect during the session and to help him with transitions. When a task is completed, Noah pulls the card off of the Velcro board and places it in the “all done bucket”. “Initially Noah was completely dependent in taking his jammies off and putting his clothes on,” said French. “Now, after several weeks of mom and me helping, slowly decreasing assistance and ignoring his behaviors, he has achieved the goal of independence with taking jammies off. We clap and bring out a favorite puzzle when the task is completed. It is sure rewarding to see Noah’s proud smile.”

Noah’s mom, Teresa, grins when she observes his success. She is excited to see his increased usage of signs at home and therapy. “He’s picking up more signs,” she said. “When we started he could only retain one sign. Now he has several.” She attributes much of his progress to the dedication of his Heartspring therapists.