The program started with our multidisciplinary team spending time with Marion to understand Adam's needs and baselining a set of Specific, Measurable and achievable goals to develop Adam's skills.

Between week 1 and week 2, the team put together a week-by-week plan for the next 3 months - each week targeted towards developing a micro-skill. All relevant strategies were added to the program plan and a catalogue of resources identified and sourced.

At the end of week 2, Marion had an exact idea of what she would be focusing on each week (for the next 12 weeks).

The team created a detailed sensory profile for Adam. His sensory seeking vs sensitive inputs were identified and documented in a Sensory plan.

Going forward, this plan would be a crucial life-long tool for the family to minimise distractions and motivate Adam to learn more. 

Adam's day (and the time Marion spent with him) were planned using a productivity strategy called Block-Scheduling. This allowed Marion to embed and implement simple strategies throughout the day, while doing typical day to day chores (like meals, bath time, bedtime, etc).

This helped create opportunities for Marion to develop Adam's skills as part of a natural setting.

It may seem like a ton of work, but Marion never needed to spend any extra time creating these opportunities for Adam. The objective was to plan scenarios within daily activities for Adam to try and initiate communication (verbal or gestural).

That week, Adam learnt the "power" of communication. If he can get to ask for something, he gets it. This was a huge win for the team.

Now that Adam was able to make basic verbal requests, it was time to teach him some 'turn-taking' skills. It's quite opposite of creating an abundance of opportunities (Week 5). Because this week, Adam learnt to wait for his turn to speak and to ask for things.

It was now time to build up Adam's word-bank. Adam already knew some words, but it was now essential to give him further ammunition to develop his expressive language skills.

This was achieved using a combination of sign-language, visuals and modeling verbal gestures. In the coming weeks, Marion and our team will prepare Adam to have appropriate social interactions.  

The team was now focused on improving Adam's social interaction skills - a key part of which involved sequencing his requests and ideas into constructive conversations. This was achieved using a variety of tools, including but not limited to social stories and video modeling.

At this point, Adam's focus seemed to take a dip. Far too many skills acquired in a really short time seemed to overwhelm him a bit. The team needed to adjust the plan that week - changing the plan to help Adam settle down, focus and complete a task (as opposed to learning another skill) paid off.

In subsequent weeks, Adam would use this skill to complete a non-preferred activity first, before engaging in a preferred one.

This week, Marion focused on exposing Adam to guide social situations. Simple situations (such as greeting a stranger, saying "hello" to a friend, raising his hand at school and asking a grandparent for help) were carefully engineered in non-familiar settings outside the home. Adam was now ready to have basic social interactions!

This is the part where it all came together for Marion, Adam and the rest of the family. The team has had a great run so far. Adam is now making "small sentences".

But it was not the time to get complacent, else Adam would regress in his skills quickly. The focus for Week 11 was to cement these skills into Adam's daily habits. This was the most intense of all weeks for Adam.

Understandably, its never possible to prepare Adam for all possible social situations. So how could he adapt to unfamiliarity? Generalization is the answer. During the final week, the team prepared Marion and Adam with essential resources and long-term skills for future.

For the last 5 years, Marion has never been able to leave Adam with someone else (including his father). Everytime she attempted, Adam would get into a meltdown triggered by separation anxiety.

But this week was different - Marion would go on a date-night with her husband. Here's how she felt (looking gorgeous in a cocktail dress)

Adam and Marion still have a long road ahead - and not an easy one. But they are well prepared. Marion feels like she is in control - she can identify opportunities in Adam and implement strategies on her own. This also sets her up in a fine position to advocate for her child's needs. 

With help from Autism 360™ team, Marion has achieved something amazing for Adam and we're excited about what the future has in store for them.