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I just want to brief you on our daughter prior to being accepted for the Autism Scholarship AIM Program.
Tags: Anxiety; Autism; Fear; Sleeping;
I just want to brief you on our daughter prior to being accepted for the Autism Scholarship AIM Program. Makenna just turned 4 years old in March. She had minimal speech. three or four word parrot sentences. meaning she would usually repeat what you said. She had extreme anxiety when we would go to places not familiar to her. You could see fear in her face, she would freeze or scream and cry until we left the area. For her sleeping habits, Makenna would almost always wake up in the middle of the night and wander the house. We had to put a baby gate up in the the hallway to prevent her from roaming the house. On the nights she did sleep she would whimper in her sleep always waking myself or my wife. Doctors were adamant about giving drugs her to control her anxiety but my wife and I feel that was not what she needed.
We were introduced to EMC² by a relative whose family is on The AIM Program and explained some of the positive changes that they were experiencing. We were more than willing to try something that would have positive effects for Makenna. On March 29 she was introduced to the program. I would have to say about two weeks in, my wife and I noticed her sleeping through the night and well into the morning. On average she is now sleeping 12-13 hours of sound sleep!
Then about a week later we heard her talking in her sleep. With the few words she was saying it seemed she was playing with her older sister. During the day we have a worker that comes to our house to teach Makenna counting and introduce her to new words with pictures. The worker has tried on several occasions prior to get Makenna into a play group with other kids but ended up leaving every time. About 5 weeks into the program we figured we'd try again. The changes in Makenna now are just way over our heads! I can't believe what's happening. The first time she spent a full day in a group with other kids for a whole afternoon. She did not interact with the other kids but she was there for the whole time. A week later she started to play with a boy in the group.
We just recently moved and we had our friends over that helped out after we finished. Whenever there were people in our house, even for her third birthday. she would go to her room away from everyone. This time around she stayed with us and talked up a storm. Her vocabulary has grown daily as well. She seems to be retaining what her worker is teaching her. My friend was surprised he said he never heard her talk so much and couldn't believe that she was interacting with everyone.
Last week on Thursday she had said her ear hurts and said "doctor.” I could get our doctor to confirm this, she never enjoyed going and would always cry and scream. Our doctor was amazed at Makenna's composure. She allowed the doctor to check her ears and throat and prescribed some antibiotics. That's another surprise, Makenna ALWAYS spit out anything we tried to give her when it came to medicine. She is taking her antibiotics with no hesitation. Every day we see new things with her.
This is absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much for giving this opportunity for our daughter. We've seen some amazing things in the past 6 weeks and hope it continues for many more to come!"
Thanks a million,
Dwayne, Amanda, Madison & Makenna
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