My son was diagnose with autism when he was 21 months old, by a doctor in genetics who specialized in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Even though I am a Speech and Language Pathologist, who also specializes in ASD, I wasn’t in denial, but knew the long road that was waiting ahead for us, but my husband at the time was in denial. Due to, I took my son to a Neurologist. Oh my, wasn’t I nervous to hear again what I already knew. When we got to the doctor’s office, I thought he would tell me that my son’s ASD was mild (as always looking for hope). The first thing he tells me is: “as soon as I saw him I knew he had autism”. Then, he explained to me why and how he knew it. After all the explanation he tells me that my son’s autism is moderate, and when he turns 5 years old if he still not talking and the progress is low, it may increase to a severe or even a profound autism. I was stun, couldn’t move a muscle. But he also gave me hope, he told me: “but if you start right away working 24/7 with him, he will progress. If he progress, from moderate we can go to mild”. That made me optimistic, and have faith again. However, he mentioned something that caught my attention and also found it odd and strange at the moment. The neurologist said: “buy him an iPad”, “the iPad will teach him numerous things, it will get his attention, since kids with the condition love technology, and he will learn”. My reaction was “WHAT?!”, “Buy him what?!, An iPad, for him to get all hook up on it like a zombie”. But my husband and I follow his recommendation and we did bought him the iPad (I think we didn’t pay the car bill that month, just to get him his iPad). When he grabbed that iPad for the first time, oh my God, we couldn’t believe our eyes, and what we were seeing. My son was touching, playing, moving; well in other words using the iPad as a pro. He was acting like he always had one, but it was his first one. After a month my son’s attention, eye contact towards an activity or task improved sky rocket. We were amazed to observe how much he had learned through a small screen. He was pairing common objects, producing the phonemic sound of letters, reading the words by the letter sounds, watching nursery rhyme video songs, babbling the song and dancing following the rhythm (with this big smile on his face). Thanks to technology my son was improving in less than a year. Six months have pass since his last appointment with the neurologist, it was time for his follow-up appointment. Nerves took hold of me again. But oh my, oh my!, for my surprise. The Neurologist was happy and impressed of how much my son was progressing in a short period of six months. Even though, he was still moderate because he was still not speaking, his eye contact, attention to objects, activities and people had improved immensely. He said: “WOW!, look at him with the iPad”, “Didn’t I told you how much it would help him”, “Keep it up, he is doing great and improving by the minute”. When I got home, I started crying but of happiness, finally I was able to see light at the end of the tunnel. My son just turned 3 years old, and when they turn 3 years, there is a switch that clicks on their brain and they start producing more approximation of words until they are able to produce the whole word correctly. Finally my son is saying words, responds to me, and maintains joint attention towards me when talking and playing whit him. My son has improved and keeps improving thanks to technology, teachers, therapists and all the people who have helped him. As a Speech and Language Pathologist, I recommend all this things to my patient’s parents. I tell them “if you can buy them an iPad, it would help them improve and progress in a way you will never imagine.” they react the same as I did. But I explained and even show them videos of my son’s improvement. Then they’re reaction is other. When you work on this field, you must have compassion, love, and patience. Is something you’re born with, not something that can be taught at school. You must have it in you, in order to dedicate your life into this field. But when you can compare and walk on your patients and their parent’s shoes since I’ve been in the same situation, well that’s another story. Is another way of love, and compassion towards what you do daily. You stop looking at your profession as just a job that you go Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. It becomes part of your life, since your living the same situation at home as your patients. I must say that part of my son’s and patient’s progress is due to technology.
amandla
2087
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