Parent of the Month

ELCA is proud to announce our parent of the month program!

November 2011. We are thrilled to recognize Ila and Ross Langner as our first parents of the month!  Ila and Ross are the parents of a 6 year old child with an autism spectrum disorder.  ELCA began serving their son at the age of 3.  From the beginning, Ila demonstrated a high interest and motivation in her child’s program. She sat in on just about every session, using the sessions as a training ground to soak in information and ask questions.  Ross and Ila immediately began using the strategies throughout the day to increase his language skills, decrease his self-stimulatory behavior and increase his pro-social behavior.  This generalization was invaluable toward their child’s development and progress.  Over the past years, Ila and Ross have asked great questions and pursued a deeper knowledge about the diagnosis and how it affects their child.  It has been a pleasure to serve this family.

Testimonials

* In 1997, I found myself utterly overwhelmed, confused and grieving over the news that my 3 1/2 year old son had been diagnosed with autism.  I had no frame of reference for autism other then the movie Rain Man.  My son at 3 1/2 years old was not functioning in any developmental way higher then a 22 month old and in most abilities was at about the 12 month area.  He had no language, was inflexible, had self-stimulatory and sensory issues and had no realy play skills or emotional attachments to anybody.  He was alone in his own world and I feared for what his future would look like.  With the help of my ELCA team, Brett learned functional language, play skills, basic school skills like reading, writing and math.  More importantly to me he knew how to have a friend and how to be a friend.  My team never lowered the bar for my son because of his disabilities.  ELCA always supported the theory that my sons abilities were much greater then his disabilities and sought successfully to maximize every ability that he had.  Today, at the age of 18, my son is a junior in highschool.  He is very much still autistic and challenged in so many areas.  My son’s future won’t be including college or marriage, but because of ELCA my son is successful in a way that carries much more weight for us.  He is a happy, thriving, progressing young man who has friends, hobbies and interests.  He has empathy, joy, and is able to stand up for himself, have some independence, utilizes time management, is flexible in all situations, understands consequences and most importantly as I said… is happy.  None of his accomplishments came easy for my son and when I think back to the most basic of skills such as “matching same with same” and the struggle, tears and frustration that process entailed for him but the true joy we all received when he finally “got it”! ELCA delivered me my son who I never really knew until they helped me help him. – Joanne Wickersham

* Thank you so much!  We are very happy about how you all have taught us so many techniques and changed techniques as our child grew older.  We are so very grateful to the many hours that the therapists have spent with him.  His behavior today is in direct proportion to all the amount of training he received from everyone who has worked with him! – Ila Langner

*My son has been receiving services from ELCA for over three years and I could not be happier with his progress! Nick was “officially” diagnosed with high-functioning autism at age four, which only confirmed what we had already suspected for well over a year. He was not socializing appropriately, if at all, with his peers, preferring to wander on his own.  Also very rigid and impatient, he was having major meltdowns that did not respond to traditional diversions or time-outs.  Not wanting to wait the several months it took to have him evaluated at Kaiser’s ASD Center before starting any type of behavioral intervention, I began looking for someone who could help us immediately.  A doctor recommended ELCA, and soon after initiating contact, a Behavior Consultant came to our home and met with us, taking plenty of time to discuss our fears and concerns. She spent quite some time evaluating Nick at our home and provided an extremely accurate assessment of his behaviors. She then sat down with us and discussed a treatment plan targeting his specific areas of need, as well as initiating parent and family training.  After only a few weeks, I began to see vast improvement in Nick’s behavior and the duration of his meltdowns. I felt more confident in my ability to effectively parent, given the “tools” I was learning as well!  As the months went by, Nick was better able to communicate his needs and thrived on the structure of the in-home therapy sessions. He then started attending social skills groups at the clinic, teaching him to interact appropriately with his peers. I have found these to be particularly invaluable in helping him at school, where it is so important to pick up on others’ social cues.  Nick is now in a mainstream second-grade class and doing well.  I owe that in large part to all the amazing work ELCA’s compassionate and professional staff does and continues to do with my son. He has grown and thrived under their care and I look forward to his continued progress! – Nicole Hames