Posted April 7, 2011
Seven years ago, when Justina Aguilar gave birth to her first child, Luis Angel Aguilar, it was one of the happiest days of her life.
Like all first-time mothers, she watched in awe at the changes happening quickly in her infant son as he grew.
By 6 months, Luis appeared to be a normal baby; he was grabbing for things, babbling and looking around at his surroundings. There were no signs of anything wrong.
At 7 months, however, Aguilar noticed that Luis began to regress in a way — he was not talking as much and seemed to develop slower than other babies his age. By 8 months, he stopped showing interest in food when Aguilar would attempt to feed him.
She became suspicious that something might not be right.
Aguilar, who does not speak English and used the help of a translator during her interview, said her suspicions continued to grow over the next 12 months, and, at 20 months, doctors diagnosed Luis with autism.
According to the National Autism Association, autism is “a bio-neurological developmental disability that generally appears before the age of 3 … impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction, communication skills and cognitive function and is diagnosed four times more often in boys than girls.”
When Aguilar found out, she had no idea what autism was or that it existed.
“When the doctors told me, I figured it was something that could be cured with a treatment,” she recalled. “I thought it was going to be pretty easy, the whole process.”
She found herself questioning what this condition was, how to combat it and how it would affect their lives. After hearing Luis’ prognosis, Aguilar was emotionally conflicted.
“For a moment, I felt like the world was on my shoulders. When you’re expecting your first child, you don’t imagine that he or she would come with some sort of problem,” she said.
Each week, Luis is visited by therapists from the Early Autism Project (EAP), an organization that specializes in working with autistic children.
Once a week, lead therapist Jennifer Prince comes to the Aguilar home and assesses Luis’ progress over the last week, as well as works on his implementation plan for the following week. EAP Line Therapist Liz Walker comes to the home six days a week and works one-on-one with Luis in everything from verbal communication, academics and motor skills.
Four months ago, Kenny Allen, co-owner of KinderKids, began working with Luis, as well.
“KinderKids is an organization that is dedicated to providing children with disabilities a pathway to a normal life,” Allen said. “We offer speech, physical and occupational therapies, early intervention, family training, nutrition services and translation interpretation.”
Allen works specifically with the Aguilars to help Luis work better with his EAP therapists.
Recently, Allen and his mother, Evelyn, with whom he owns the company, implemented a new type of therapy using Apple iPads.
“We’ve found a way to use technology to facilitate in the learning process for children. There are tons of iPad applications that are especially catered toward kids that have special needs,” he said. “Everything from story books to mathematical applications; one of the favorite of a lot of kids is ‘Talking Tom’ (a program in which a digital cat on the iPad screen repeats whatever the user says to it). This especially works with a lot of children that have difficulties with pronunciation.
“We see it (the iPad) as a way for technology to benefit, but one of the most important things that we need to keep in mind all the time is that you can’t simply use technology to solve a problem, but you can use it as a way to help,” he added.
Allen said in the four months he’s been working with Luis using the iPad, he has seen “tons of progress; it’s been magic ever since, and he’s a great kid to work with. I’ve seen him go from a point where he wasn’t really doing his mathematics work to where he flies through problems in a heartbeat. You can definitely see the way that he processes information. You can tell every day he’s definitely making improvement.”
To see the full interview with Luis’ mother and Kenny Allen, as well as demonstrations of the iPad applications Allen uses with children in the KinderKids program, catch the new episode of Living on the Go, Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Contact Ashleey Williamson at awilliamson@aikenstandard.com.
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Copyright © 2011, Aiken Standard, S.C.