Selah began her journey with ABA therapy when she was diagnosed with autism at three years of age. Her father's search for ABA providers brought her to Life Skills Autism Academy (LSAA). Here's her motivating story.
"Some of the warning signs that we noticed with Selah; a lack of eye contact, she stopped responding to her name, and she started to go into a shell" remembers her father Torian, when asked what warning signs led him to Selah's early diagnosis.
"She would go into rooms that no one else was in" Torian says, as he felt that he was losing a key member of his family. This pushed him to ask the question, ‘What can we do now… to make her life better?'
Selah's Journey With EIBI
EIBI therapy, short for Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention, is therapy based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that is provided to clients aged 1.5 to 5 years of age.
As with all initial clients, a part of the onboarding process is to meet with a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst (BCBA) to get to know each child so that their therapy can be personalized with their needs. Then, the BCBA will discuss their recommendation with the families, and the personalized therapy plan is created and agreed upon.
Selah began her recommended Center-Based ABA therapy sessions of 40 hours per week at LSAA. Due to her age, Selah was performing EIBI therapy and her family began seeing progression within her first week of therapy in her communication skills. Selah went from not even attempting to speak, to verbalizing a handful of words.
The biggest change that Selah's Behavioral Technician (BT), Nicholas, had seen is her work ethic and willingness to try things that are not easy. "We've gone from not even knowing that she knows her letters, all the way to finally finding out that she can read," recalls Nicholas about Selah's progression in ABA therapy.
Selah also became quite familiar with a communication device at LSAA called the LAMP Program, which uses a plethora of pictures, letters, and symbols to describe emotions, choose words, and create sentences. Selah is able to respond through that device as another outlet for her communication.
"ABA Therapy helped [Selah] by teaching her to construct words into full on sentences so that we can communicate with her" says her father.
The Behavioral Technician's adaptability to Selah's learning style and building with her strengths is the catalyst of her success in ABA Therapy.
"To see where she's at now, where she's giving eye contact, where she's playing with a little brother who she used to avoid before. Where she is sitting down at family dinners… she has now become part of the family again" conveys Selah's father in his experience with ABA Therapy.
Three years after her autism diagnosis, Torian, describes his daughter as a fun-loving and energetic little girl. To Selah's father, without ABA therapy, he wasn't confident that his daughter would be an affectionate and present member within their family.
Life Skills Autism Academy is growing with locations throughout multiple states as a highly-specialized, center-based treatment program designed for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As leading experts in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), our commitment to success is for our clinicians to develop one-on-one programs for each of our clients that is as unique as the child it is intended for.
To speak with a specialist about starting ABA therapy, please contact us at 888-975-4557. You may also request more information here.