Cory's autism recovery success story
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Cory was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 3 1/2 at Froedtert Hospital in Wisconsin. Once he was diagnosed with autism we were off looking for the right program to enter him into to help him in his recovery. We were told that the earlier you get a child diagnosed and get them into treatment the better success they will have in their recovery process.
We started in December 2001 and went into the Wisconsin Early Autism Project (WEAP) program, where they do Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy. It was tough on Cory at first, because he did not really have any eye contact, communicate, understand or speak at the time. Thus, ending up in many temper tantrums of frustration occurring. Although, within a few months and much prayer we were starting to see progress.
The program is pretty intense for both the child and parents, but believe me is well worth it in the long run. We learned so much! Cory was receiving about 40 hours of ABA therapy a week and we as parents were being trained as well on how to incorporate the ABA programs and techniques into our everyday lives to help him generalize everything he would learn into life long knowledge.
Shortly after Cory was diagnosed we also started him into Music Therapy with Music Therapy Service of Waukesha County, LLC. Cory really enjoys this and they have taught him many things too. They do this through the use of a variety of different musical instruments.
We were with WEAP about three years when state cuts in tax funding went into effect and left parents scrambling to try to figure out other means to try to continue their child's therapies needs.
In December 2004 we entered into the phase they now call "Post Intensive" and went the "Family Directed" model of continuing the ABA therapy for Cory. Where we the parents are the ones doing all the recruiting, training and monitoring of the employees/therapists we would now have working with our child.
Cory had been progressing well all the way along within the three years with WEAP, but we wanting to check out some other interventions that we had heard other parents talk about that had helped their children get another jump start into their recovery process.
So we decided in January 2005 to go a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor to find out about the intervention of chelation and other DAN protocols/interventions to start Cory on.
We did start Cory on the chelation process in January 2005 and needed to start getting nutrition supplements down him as well, to help put back in the good minerals that the chelation would take out, as the chelation process of TD-DMPS every other day to help clean him out of toxins and metals that may still be in his system from the well baby shots that had Mercury/Thermasol in them. You see, after Cory had his well baby shots at a year of age he was saying a few words and then after a week after his MRR shot all talking stopped and he seemed to drift further away into his own world. So, after talking with many parents who experienced this same thing, we found many had turned to chelation to get the metals, primarily the mercury/thermasol out of their children and had much success in this doing so.
Since January 2005 we have been getting excellent results in only a month on the program and still at this time. He started within one month to speak in sentences as opposed to single words or small phrases with better spontaneous speech and eye contact. He was showing understanding of much more of what he was talking about and more aware of his surroundings. He now speaks pretty fluently without being prompted, even arguing with us on why he can't have things his way all the time. This has been and is continuing to be a great journey in his recovery process from autism!
In February we completed a amino-acid urine test on Cory and found that he was lacking many amino-acids in his body that help create the amino-acid glutathione, which we were told by the DAN doctor that many of autistic children are found to be low on amino-acids. So base on Cory's urine test the doctor prescribed an amino-acid blend for Cory to take to help supplement his body for where he was low.
Then in April 2005 the DAN doctor had us start Cory on TMG and vitamin B12 shots, which at first we believe the vitamin B12 shots sent Cory into heavy stims where he could not focus at school or at home. So the doctor told us to cut the dosage in half and slowly work back up to the correct dosage for Cory's weight and this seemed to work. Again, we saw another jump in his speech, eye contact, understanding and awareness of his surroundings.
Also, in April 2005 we started Vision Therapy through the Vision Therapy Center, Inc. in Brookfield WI. We did this to help with the eye fatigue Cory was having where he would rub them all the time and to help strengthen his eyes through vision therapy so that he would not need glasses. This has been very successful in helping Cory's eye fatigue to go away and him not needing glasses anymore.
In May 2005, after having some bad service with some other ABA Autism providers under the family directed program, we decided to change therapy providers to PACE Autism Services, LLC (Heidi Heyman). We are very happy with the ideas and programs that she has helped us work through with Cory.
June 2005 came and Cory was doing really well with all his therapies and we spoke to a mother of another autistic boy who had went into Mild Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy at Dr. Bradstreet's in Florida for 12 one hour dives in 10 days with her son and saw big gains in his speech. So we discussed it further with them since they live fairly close about the possibilities of us finding another family close to go in on buying a Mild Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy Unit and sharing it. By July, we had another family interested and we all purchased the unit and received it the end of July.
We call the Mild Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy Unit the "Spaceship" and refer to it as going for a "Spaceship ride". Cory loves it and we really have seen some amazing progress in Cory's recovery after about 40 one hour dives. We have been in the Hyperbaric Chamber many times since and still continue to see progress.
In August 2005 we decided to have Cory go through Auditory Integration Therapy (AIT) to see if it would help him with his hearing sensory issues. He would always want to have headphones on in places like Disney World, a movie theater, concert, loud restaurants, etc. We found this to be extremely successful in helping Cory to listen better, and lighten the sensory issue on his hearing a bit.
After Cory attended AIT for about seven days, which it goes for 10 consecutive days, he was listening into our conversations that did not include him, and he would actually jump into the conversation with some comment that was applicable to it. For instance, I was sitting in the front seat talking with my husband on how Cory had been just testing me all week long, and Cory jumped up from the back seat and said, "Mom, I like testing!" Now I about wanted to loose my cool with him, but then I was in amazement that it was the first time he had ever listened and jumped into a conversation someone was having with something applicable to say.
That same night at home it happened again. I was talking with my husband in the kitchen about sneaking tomatoes into Cory's new "Taster's Choice" Program we were doing during therapy, and Cory was eating dinner at the kitchen table, and jumped up and said, "No mom, I don't like tomatoes! My husband and I were both pretty surprised and happy about how well he was starting to listen and understand conversations.
When Cory started school in September 2005 he was able to stay in his class and attend class 90% to 95% of the time, up from 25% if the time, where he was being taught outside the classroom environment in a resource room. Also in years past, he use to always have high temper tantrums during Specially Designed Phy-ed class and now is taking most of his direction very nicely and sometimes unassisted. I think AIT helped much in helping him to be able to achieve this.
Cory has now entered into 3rd grade in September 2006, and is still showing significant progress in all areas. The school is looking to start to back off his aide slowly so that Cory is not so reliant on them being right there next to him and for him to be able to start paying more attention to what the teacher is saying, along with the rest of the students in the class. At this point Cory has been in the mild hyperbaric chamber approximately 180 times, since we purchased it in July 2005.
We still have a ways to go before we would consider Cory fully recovered, but we have been very successful in getting him where he is today. We have really learned not to take even the littlest steps for granted. We are so thankful to God for leading us to these interventions and helping in Cory's recovery process. We continue to pray and be thankful for all that we have. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. God Bless everyone!
Read more at:
Reference: http://www.machkovich.com/Cory/AutismRecovery/index.htm
We started in December 2001 and went into the Wisconsin Early Autism Project (WEAP) program, where they do Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy. It was tough on Cory at first, because he did not really have any eye contact, communicate, understand or speak at the time. Thus, ending up in many temper tantrums of frustration occurring. Although, within a few months and much prayer we were starting to see progress.
The program is pretty intense for both the child and parents, but believe me is well worth it in the long run. We learned so much! Cory was receiving about 40 hours of ABA therapy a week and we as parents were being trained as well on how to incorporate the ABA programs and techniques into our everyday lives to help him generalize everything he would learn into life long knowledge.
Shortly after Cory was diagnosed we also started him into Music Therapy with Music Therapy Service of Waukesha County, LLC. Cory really enjoys this and they have taught him many things too. They do this through the use of a variety of different musical instruments.
We were with WEAP about three years when state cuts in tax funding went into effect and left parents scrambling to try to figure out other means to try to continue their child's therapies needs.
In December 2004 we entered into the phase they now call "Post Intensive" and went the "Family Directed" model of continuing the ABA therapy for Cory. Where we the parents are the ones doing all the recruiting, training and monitoring of the employees/therapists we would now have working with our child.
Cory had been progressing well all the way along within the three years with WEAP, but we wanting to check out some other interventions that we had heard other parents talk about that had helped their children get another jump start into their recovery process.
So we decided in January 2005 to go a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor to find out about the intervention of chelation and other DAN protocols/interventions to start Cory on.
We did start Cory on the chelation process in January 2005 and needed to start getting nutrition supplements down him as well, to help put back in the good minerals that the chelation would take out, as the chelation process of TD-DMPS every other day to help clean him out of toxins and metals that may still be in his system from the well baby shots that had Mercury/Thermasol in them. You see, after Cory had his well baby shots at a year of age he was saying a few words and then after a week after his MRR shot all talking stopped and he seemed to drift further away into his own world. So, after talking with many parents who experienced this same thing, we found many had turned to chelation to get the metals, primarily the mercury/thermasol out of their children and had much success in this doing so.
Since January 2005 we have been getting excellent results in only a month on the program and still at this time. He started within one month to speak in sentences as opposed to single words or small phrases with better spontaneous speech and eye contact. He was showing understanding of much more of what he was talking about and more aware of his surroundings. He now speaks pretty fluently without being prompted, even arguing with us on why he can't have things his way all the time. This has been and is continuing to be a great journey in his recovery process from autism!
In February we completed a amino-acid urine test on Cory and found that he was lacking many amino-acids in his body that help create the amino-acid glutathione, which we were told by the DAN doctor that many of autistic children are found to be low on amino-acids. So base on Cory's urine test the doctor prescribed an amino-acid blend for Cory to take to help supplement his body for where he was low.
Then in April 2005 the DAN doctor had us start Cory on TMG and vitamin B12 shots, which at first we believe the vitamin B12 shots sent Cory into heavy stims where he could not focus at school or at home. So the doctor told us to cut the dosage in half and slowly work back up to the correct dosage for Cory's weight and this seemed to work. Again, we saw another jump in his speech, eye contact, understanding and awareness of his surroundings.
Also, in April 2005 we started Vision Therapy through the Vision Therapy Center, Inc. in Brookfield WI. We did this to help with the eye fatigue Cory was having where he would rub them all the time and to help strengthen his eyes through vision therapy so that he would not need glasses. This has been very successful in helping Cory's eye fatigue to go away and him not needing glasses anymore.
In May 2005, after having some bad service with some other ABA Autism providers under the family directed program, we decided to change therapy providers to PACE Autism Services, LLC (Heidi Heyman). We are very happy with the ideas and programs that she has helped us work through with Cory.
June 2005 came and Cory was doing really well with all his therapies and we spoke to a mother of another autistic boy who had went into Mild Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy at Dr. Bradstreet's in Florida for 12 one hour dives in 10 days with her son and saw big gains in his speech. So we discussed it further with them since they live fairly close about the possibilities of us finding another family close to go in on buying a Mild Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy Unit and sharing it. By July, we had another family interested and we all purchased the unit and received it the end of July.
We call the Mild Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy Unit the "Spaceship" and refer to it as going for a "Spaceship ride". Cory loves it and we really have seen some amazing progress in Cory's recovery after about 40 one hour dives. We have been in the Hyperbaric Chamber many times since and still continue to see progress.
In August 2005 we decided to have Cory go through Auditory Integration Therapy (AIT) to see if it would help him with his hearing sensory issues. He would always want to have headphones on in places like Disney World, a movie theater, concert, loud restaurants, etc. We found this to be extremely successful in helping Cory to listen better, and lighten the sensory issue on his hearing a bit.
After Cory attended AIT for about seven days, which it goes for 10 consecutive days, he was listening into our conversations that did not include him, and he would actually jump into the conversation with some comment that was applicable to it. For instance, I was sitting in the front seat talking with my husband on how Cory had been just testing me all week long, and Cory jumped up from the back seat and said, "Mom, I like testing!" Now I about wanted to loose my cool with him, but then I was in amazement that it was the first time he had ever listened and jumped into a conversation someone was having with something applicable to say.
That same night at home it happened again. I was talking with my husband in the kitchen about sneaking tomatoes into Cory's new "Taster's Choice" Program we were doing during therapy, and Cory was eating dinner at the kitchen table, and jumped up and said, "No mom, I don't like tomatoes! My husband and I were both pretty surprised and happy about how well he was starting to listen and understand conversations.
When Cory started school in September 2005 he was able to stay in his class and attend class 90% to 95% of the time, up from 25% if the time, where he was being taught outside the classroom environment in a resource room. Also in years past, he use to always have high temper tantrums during Specially Designed Phy-ed class and now is taking most of his direction very nicely and sometimes unassisted. I think AIT helped much in helping him to be able to achieve this.
Cory has now entered into 3rd grade in September 2006, and is still showing significant progress in all areas. The school is looking to start to back off his aide slowly so that Cory is not so reliant on them being right there next to him and for him to be able to start paying more attention to what the teacher is saying, along with the rest of the students in the class. At this point Cory has been in the mild hyperbaric chamber approximately 180 times, since we purchased it in July 2005.
We still have a ways to go before we would consider Cory fully recovered, but we have been very successful in getting him where he is today. We have really learned not to take even the littlest steps for granted. We are so thankful to God for leading us to these interventions and helping in Cory's recovery process. We continue to pray and be thankful for all that we have. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. God Bless everyone!
Read more at:
Reference: http://www.machkovich.com/Cory/AutismRecovery/index.htm
Videos of Family who went through Early Intervention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTkbTfnGyCs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKJFaG0vzfg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5IhRzRu2R4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbHOAtBNew
Reflection:
Parents of kids with special needs don’t see a disability when they look at their kids. Instead, they see the most precious and wonderful blessing of their lives. They see their child. -- Eliana Tardio
The families in the videos that I had watched were very worried on what had happened to their child. They let their child to be checked by a pediatrician and discovered that their child manifest behaviors with such disabilities. They asked who the people were in charged in helping their child in early intervention services. The families that entered the services were happy to see a lot of improvement from their child. The symptoms that their child had lessen. Of course they continued the services to see more improvement and for their child to learn more. The families were very thankful with the people who helped them and to the Programs, Centers and Schools that helped their child.
I am really surprised with the strong faith that these families have to be able to conquer the hardships
It’s not easy to describe the experience of raising a child with special needs. From the outside, it may look challenging and stressful. But in the heart of a parent, it is a wonderful experience of evolution and personal growth. -- Eliana Tardio
The families in the videos that I had watched were very worried on what had happened to their child. They let their child to be checked by a pediatrician and discovered that their child manifest behaviors with such disabilities. They asked who the people were in charged in helping their child in early intervention services. The families that entered the services were happy to see a lot of improvement from their child. The symptoms that their child had lessen. Of course they continued the services to see more improvement and for their child to learn more. The families were very thankful with the people who helped them and to the Programs, Centers and Schools that helped their child.
I am really surprised with the strong faith that these families have to be able to conquer the hardships
It’s not easy to describe the experience of raising a child with special needs. From the outside, it may look challenging and stressful. But in the heart of a parent, it is a wonderful experience of evolution and personal growth. -- Eliana Tardio