Lovely Lily
Lily makes BIG progress with Speech Therapy!
Meet Lillian. “Lily” started speech therapy services with Easter Seals of South Carolina in December of 2012 when she was 2 years old. At the time, Lily was nonverbal, did not communicate with her family, and had delays in all areas of speech-language development. Lily did not initiate interaction with people nor play alongside other children and adults. It was also difficult to determine what Lily understood and/or was aware of in her surroundings. Her speech therapist started with traditional speech therapy, as well as using signs, to help Lily communicate her wants and needs.
In February of 2013, Lily was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). At that point, Lily was making progress with her understanding of language, demonstrating an understanding of common objects, actions, body parts, categories, etc., however her expressive language was still significantly delayed. She still was not imitating or spontaneously saying words or using signs. Simple voice-output devices were also unsuccessful. Her parents were essentially guessing what she wanted and using trial and error to figure it out. Lily would throw tantrums that could last hours, without her family knowing why, as a result. It was at this time her therapist and parents decided it was time to try something else.
In March of 2013, her speech therapist started introducing pictures as a means of communication. Lily immediately started showing interest in the pictures and began using the pictures independently during therapy and at home. Unfortunately, Lily’s use of pictures plateaued. So, in October of that year, her therapist attended training for the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). The training helped her therapist and mom how to effectively teach picture exchange, as well as how to advance Lily’s use of them. After virtually starting over, Lily steadily progressed through Phases I, II, III and IV of the program. She had progressed to independently bringing a sentence strip to her therapist or parent, requesting a desired food, toy and/or activity, with a sentence such as, “I want bubbles.”
Her therapist has continued treating Lily, who is now 4, and is currently working on discriminating attributes such as colors, sizes, shapes and amounts. Lily is able to independently construct and exchange a 3-4 word sentence, such as, “I want big blue glitter pen,” with another person. She knows and/or uses more than 200 PECS independently, uses the PECS to communicate with therapists, parents, family and teachers, and is close to moving on to Phase V. This phase will help teach Lily how to use her PECS to answer questions. She will eventually learn how to spontaneously comment on her environment in the final phase. Throughout her process of learning PECS, Lily has learned how to initiate interaction with peers and adults, and she will even sit and play alongside other children and adults.
For her family, Lily’s progress has made communication easier and less frustrating. For the most part, they no longer have to guess what she wants. Lily is a happier child and her tantrums have decreased in frequency and duration. Therapy has also given Lily a platform through which she can show the people around her how much she knows and of what she is capable. Like many children with ASD, the reality is that Lily may never be able to communicate verbally, yet she has shown that she is able to be an effective and independent communicator, and that she is not finished learning.
