Our son, Jase, is 5 years old and was diagnosed with autism right before his third birthday. When he was first diagnosed, we visited several therapy facilities but none compared to The Emerge Center. As soon as we walked in the door, our child was welcomed with a warmth and joy that touched our hearts. We had no doubt Emerge was where our son needed to be.
After Dr. Jane Morton at Emerge evaluated Jase, she mentioned the Bloom program. This is Emerge’s five-day-a-week therapy program that combines Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), Speech Therapy, and Occupational Therapy throughout a child’s day. The child’s therapy team works together to help the child meet their goals. It is seriously amazing!
Since the Bloom therapy team collaborates on a daily basis, there is a tuition component to the program. Thankfully, not only was Jase accepted into Bloom, but we were also awarded a partial tuition scholarship for both years he has attended. This scholarship has alleviated an unimaginable amount of stress for our family.
The growth that Jase has made in these last two years has been absolutely remarkable. These are just a few examples of his incredible progress:
• He has increased awareness and eye contact
• He is transitioning easier from activities
• He is interacting better with his peers
• He is saying up to 20 + words verbally
• He is communicating complete sentences with his iPad “talker”
• He is writing his name and alphabet
• He is riding his bike
• He is exploring new places with reduced anxiety
Jase enjoys his friends and family, adores his little brother and sister, and loves a vacation to the beach. His favorite hobbies are swimming and riding his bike with his brother. He has recently become a math nerd and enjoys doing math worksheets as an incentive in his ABA therapy and at home. He loves playing outside and throwing a ball with his dog, T-Rex.
His life is better because of his Bloom therapy team. He’s able to be a kid and enjoy everything that a kid – typically developing or not – should.
In celebration of Autism Awareness Month this April, Emerge is hosting “Project Puzzle: Building Hope Piece by Piece,” a community-wide raffle campaign to provide scholarship support for families whose children are enrolled in Bloom. To learn more, visit www.emergela.org/puzzle.