Ashley's Progress - April 1996 through February 1997

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Quotes from volunteers' journals:

"I told Gary that I was going to write about our 'unremarkable session' -- If you consider it 'unremarkable' for an autistic child to interact, make normal eye contact, laugh at silliness, give hugs and kisses, give directions, follow directions and answer questions! ... She is fun, affectionate, easy to be with, bossy, funny, loving, patient and wonderful"

"It is so tremendous to see all of the progress she is making in a week! She is making strides of a month in a week!"

Ashley has made more tremendous moves toward/with us in the last 2 months. It is obvious to her parents and volunteers that she is creative, fun-loving, communicative and very intelligent. Maybe even more so than any other 6 year-old. You couldn't actually go into a classroom and pick her out as autistic. There is life in her face! Her words and sentences now have a purpose, rather than imitation. She is using words to really communicate. Her self help skills have soared. Ashley now brushes her own teeth, washes and combs her hair, takes care of most of her own bathroom needs, dresses herself and is using her fork and spoon. I feel so grateful for the differences in my littlest girl. She can tell us what she needs and wants, and if we don't understand, she explains it to us!

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There has been amazing growth since Ashley's bio was posted in August 1998. She is now having short conversations with us, her list of words is in the thousands, and the number of sentences that she spoke this month alone is well over 1000!

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Ashley before our SonRise program:

1. Almost non-existent eye contact.
2. Gazed at her hands for long periods.
3. Disconnected from her environment.
4. Never played with siblings.
5. Did not understand many commands.
6. Spoke words fairly often, but many times inappropriately and never retained any.
7. Hid behind furniture when strangers entered the house.
8. Jumped up and down for hours, while waving her arms.
9. Did not write, spell, or draw pictures with meaning.
10. We believed her to be reading but she never actually showed us that she was.

Ashley after 6 months in the playroom:

1. Speaks thousands of words. Retains all of them!
2. Has spoken over a thousand sentences this month alone.
3. Names most objects. If she does not know the name, she will point or bring your hand to the object in order to learn the name. (Like Helen Keller)
4. Ashley jokes and kids and has a wonderful sense of humor.
5. She expresses her feelings.
6. Eye contact is tremendous. 80% of the time she will look into our eyes upon request and looks at us when she is talking to us most of the time.
7. It is very easy to get her attention and hold it. Also, it is much easier to turn her attention from ism’s.
8. Ashley reads many words.
9. Knows over 50 songs.
10. Knows her numbers through 300 and probably higher.
11. Counts to 300 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
12. Writes and says the alphabet, upper and lower case.
13. Knows her colors.
14. Plays pretend games like tea party and pretends to be her favorite Disney characters.
15. Asks for her books by name.
16. Draws beautiful pictures of people (and ducks!) many are drawn with all of their features.
17. Plays with her brother and sister.
18. Instead of hiding when strangers enter the house, Ashley now tells them "Go play" while sometimes taking their hand to lead them to her playroom.
19. Knows the names of all of her volunteers and asks for them by name.
20. She points to objects.
21. Knows over 30 different animals and the sounds they make.
22. Ashley knows and names over 30 different body parts.
23. Ashley has written more than 150 words, many of them every day. She probably knows how to spell many more as she surprises us daily.
24. Ashley would much rather be with people now than be alone! She seeks our attention at every turn.
    

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