"My son Grant and I have been using services from AST for 2 1/2 months. He has been receiving behavior therapy twice a week with Nicole. Before we began I was a very discouraged mother who had no idea how to handle the difficult behaviors of my 2 yr. old son. It was a very frustrating and lonely time and by the end of most days I was in tears. I am ecstatic to say that now, through the help from AST and Nicole, I feel very different. Grant has made tremendous progress and is a much happier and more confident boy. His behaviors have decreased and when they do arise I now know how to effectively handle them. I am very grateful for the talents of Nicole and for AST’s wonderful program. They have honestly changed my life and the life of my family. But most important, Grant now has a better chance at a successful and happy future."

Kami Fedden

"When my husband and I first started the process of having our 2 year old assessed for Autism it was an emotionally trying time. We didn’t know what to expect or what kind of therapy was involved. We were overwhelmed! AST managed our case with sensitivity and care while maintaining professionalism and ethical standards. It has been 7 months since our son started therapy with AST and the improvement is remarkable! Before therapy he had almost no language skills. Now he is using 4-5 word phrases with full cognition and with each day improves greatly. Our therapist had the ability to understand our son’s disability and help him learn in a way that was functional for him and help us as parents learn how to do the same. As parents of a child with Autism, we needed support and guidance without judgment or criticism. AST provided us with this plus hope and promise for our child’s future."

Darin and Irene Glenday

"I always appreciate the kindness and knowledge given by the AST staff. They use up-to-date research and make therapy fun for the kids. They never tire of parents’ endless questions or concerns."

Stephanie Holl, M.A. CCC-SLP

"AST has been great to work with. They have accommodated our schedule and provided us with high quality services. The real joy has been seeing how much the people of AST have bonded with our son. It feels like they really care about him, his education, and his quality of life. They have been more than a service provider; they have been part of the family."

Michelle and Larry Roberts

"My son has been in therapy with AST for the past 3 ½ months and has made amazing progress. I've seen a lot of advancement in his ability to express himself and his needs. When he began with AST, he very rarely used words or gestures to communicate his wants or needs. Over the course of therapy, he has learned how to relay his wants using many different words. I am very grateful to EVERYBODY at AST for all their hard work and help."

Thank You,
Foley Family

"Ten months ago our family was in turmoil. Almost everyday there was an ‘incident’ in our home involving our twelve year old autistic son. Each day if his demands were not met immediately or if we made any demands of him, he would fly into a rage and bite, pinch, kick, hit and scream. A lost toy could start the rage, or being denied a trip to his favorite store. In response we found ourselves scrambling frantically to meet his demands. Toilet training was next to impossible, outings and social events with Justin were stress events for us. In short, somehow, somewhere down the line we had completely lost control of our son."

"In the past we have had many different behaviorists attempt to help us with our problems. In many cases Justin’s behaviors became worse, so we did not hold out much hope that anyone could make a difference. But things became so desperate that we felt we needed to try again. That decision, and the decision that it should be AST to work with us, was life changing. The guidance and strength of our AST team was phenomenal. They provided us with a concrete plan to change Justin’s behaviors by changing ours. We had complete support on every aspect of the treatment. Our counselor Yasaman, was amazing. She cheered us on when things went well and stuck by us through the difficult task of changing our behaviors and patterns."

"Today Justin is fully toilet trained, follows direction, and is no longer abusive to us or himself. Our family continues to work daily on the methods we have learned and we continue to enjoy the benefits of our newfound knowledge. Thank you A.S.T. Thank you to our wonderful team, Faye, Loc and Yasaman for making our home a happy one again!"

Hein Family

February 27, 2006

Dear AST and Team Members:

"I would like to take a moment to tell you how thrilled our family is with Jared’s improvement. Just a few months ago we learned that our 23 month old son had autism. Jared has always been in a world all his own. He didn’t talk, look at us when we called his name, he didn’t know he didn’t know to come to us for requests or to share something he found pleasurable with us. He didn’t point. Jared spent the majority of his waking hours spinning objects, slamming cupboards and engaging in repetitive activates. I would try to get Jared to interact socially but was given a blank stare or no response at all."

"Jared’s supervisor, Emily Boshnack has been very involved with Jared’s therapy. She’s not only informative and resourceful, she is also great support to our family. She’s at our home weekly and works closely with Jared’s therapists, Hengameh and Shea. The goals Emily set forth for Jared after his initial assessment seemed unrealistic to me and my husband. How could he possibly sit at a table? Learn basic skills? Or even talk? Hengameh, we like to call her “the Miracle Worker”, has been working with Jared from the first day. Even though Jared could only sit for 30 seconds initially, Hengameh never gave up on him. She remained enthusiastic and encouraged all of his accomplishments with such sincere, positive reinforcement. We will be forever grateful to Hengameh. She has guided Jared out of his world and brought him into ours."

"Jared now looks forward to Hengameh’s arrival in the morning, greeting her with smiles and waving through the front window. The goals that we thought were unrealistic have all been met. Jared now has a vocabulary of approximately 50 words and continues to learn more words as he now understands that everything has a title. Amazing, considering he was completely non-verbal prior to therapy just 4 months ago. He also eagerly sits for “table time” and remains seated while learning new skills for 17 minutes. We are so proud of him, but what’s more important is to see how proud Jared is of himself! We now have Shea, another wonderful therapist who works with Jared in the afternoons. Jared greets her with smiles and runs into his bedroom to “get to work”. It gives me such joy to see how happy Jared is."

"With Emily, Hengameh and Shea in place as Jared’s team, we have seen Jared turn into a little boy who loves to learn… who wants to learn. Most importantly, he is playing with his big sister Emily (who’s 3 years old). Something he would never do before no matter how much his sister would try to interact with him. To watch them engage in a game of chase or peek-a-boo is so special to me. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Jared as he continues to grasp an understanding of the world around him. Thank you, Emily, Hengameh, Shea and AST."

Lovingly,

Jennifer Hamilton

Dear Autism Spectrum Therapies,

"We want to express our gratitude to all of you that have contributed to Ryan’s progress since he started with AST. We are very impressed with the many different techniques that have been used to help Ryan. He had almost no skills when he started just before Age 2. It is truly amazing to watch him learn and grow along the way."

"The early months were spent mostly on compliance skills and engaging him in eye contact. Sarah Mayfield did a great job increasing his engagement minutes at a time. Ryan went from literally only being able to sit for 1-2 minutes to sitting for 15 minutes at a time. Sarah was able to start working on imitation skills and functional play skills. We saw a noticeable change when Ryan learned to appropriately play with toys. He had acquired some organization to his actions and had fun with many different toys. He also began to imitate letter sounds and motor actions as well. Sarah would use what he loves such as tickling, physical play or music to motivate Ryan. It became obvious that the more functional skills Ryan could learn, the less behaviors he would display. Sarah knows how thankful we are to her for teaching Ryan many of his early skills. We also want to thank Lorin McGuire and Melissa Penman during this time for their supervision. They both assisted us with behavior plans, bedtime routine, PECS, and answers or suggestions to our various questions and concerns along the way."

"Last year, Sarah was promoted to Supervisor and was assigned to Ryan. This worked out perfect since she had been with Ryan for a year and knew him very well. Katie McDonald became Ryan’s new therapist. It didn’t take long for Ryan to warm up to her. She is very punctual, professional and educated in Autism. Her calming way with Ryan complimented his strong-will and busy personality. He has responded very well to her techniques and made progress in many areas. He is able to understand some receptive language and using some words and many word approximations for his wants and needs. His eye contact has increased and he is able to say “hi” and “bye” and give a kiss or High Five, etc. Of course, he still has behaviors and stims but they have substantially decreased. We are blessed to have Katie working with Ryan. We are excited to see Ryan’s continued success with AST."

"A special thanks to Michelle Coulter as she helped us with writing goals and supporting Ryan’s services at his initial IEP with Long Beach Unified School District. We cannot imagine not having the professionalism and education from AST for our son. We, as many parents of children with Autism, want to make sure that our son reaches his full potential. We know that with AST, along with his school program, Ryan will be the best autistic boy that he can be! We are very proud of him."

Sincerely,

Ken and Jean Marie Johnson

"Our experience with AST has been outstanding. They have been extremely responsive to our son's particular needs. The AST therapist (Kat) and Supervisor (Mayu) were able to totally win over the teacher in Kailen's public school class who was very hesitant at first about working together as was required in his IEP. What ensued was a very positive and productive working relationship which resulted in Kailen making substantial progress. We wholeheartedly recommend AST!!!"

Lynda Metzger

March 1, 2006

"My family and I have been very fortunate to have Autism Spectrum Therapies in our lives. Our son, Garrett is an eleven-year-old with autism and we have received services for him for over a year now. Staci Mizokami has been Garrettt’s therapist and she has worked extensively with Garrett in the areas of his behavior at school, home and out in the community. These services have allowed Garrett to transition smoothly to middle school and deal with a new teacher and grade level. He is better able to manage his behavior and to recover from challenges more easily. Because of these services, Garrett has made tremendous growth academically. At home Garrett is able to lay board games, take turns and interact positively with others. He is also able to go out in the community with less stress."

"Garrett is fortunate to have dedicated people, like Staci Mizokami working with him. Ms. Mizokami provides ongoing training for his para-educator and is a resource for his teacher. She developed a system that is very effective for Garrett at school and at home. We are aware of the challenges and obstacles a child with autism faces in everyday situations and we are pleased with the training Ms. Mizokami has provided for Garrett. With Autism Spectrum Therapies, Garrett will continue to meet the demands he faces in his academic and social worlds."

Laurel A. Wade

Dear AST:

My husband and I want to write and update you on the continuing progress our son, Dominic, has made since concluding therapy a year ago.

My son was diagnosed with mild autism at 24 months old. AST was our first link to getting our son back. We couldn't believe his progress with your therapists. Amber English, was especially wonderful with him. She was so good at reaching him and pulling the best out of him. We loved the frequent contact with our supervisor, Erin McNerney. She was great for fine tuning our program, and seeing what new challenges we could present to our son.

Our son has continued to make amazing progress. He is currently testing within typical ranges for all developmental areas. A true miracle! None of his accomplishments could have been made without the early intervention provided to him by AST.

Thank you,
Tony and Erica Cox

2/27/06

To the staff at Autism Spectrum Therapies, especially Carol Castellon, Loc Le, Harmony Estevan, and Faye Cater.

"Hi, my name is Libby. My son Justin, has been a client of AST since 2003. He was six years old at the time. He started an early intervention program at Pediatric Therapy Network at the age of 22 months. At that time he was completely non-verbal. At the age of three he was diagnosed with autism. He then started a school based early intervention program. At that time he was still non-verbal with very limited social skills. At the age of 4 Justin still, had very limited language skills. We decided to get help for Justin, so we hired a private agency. Even though Justin was progressing I was not happy with the high turn around of therapists. Then in 2003 we decided to try AST after several people had recommended the agency."

"AST has been a wonderful agency to deal with. Justin has progressed so much. When Justin became a client of AST at the age of 6 he was not toilet trained, his language skills were very low, academics were limited and he very dependent on others for self help skills. With the help of AST and two amazing therapist Carol Castellon and Harmony Estevan Justin has grown in every possible way."

"Justin is now 9 years old. He has been fully toilet trained for the last two years. He reads very well. He can add and subtract single and double digit numbers. He loves to play on the computer. He dresses and undresses himself independently. He can communicate his needs very well. He answers and asks questions. Justin communicates using 5-7 word sentences. He can prepare his own snakes and meals including pizza, waffles, and French toast. His self stimulatory behavior has decreased immensely. Justin now has chores he is responsible for like collecting trash from the waste baskets around the house, feeding the dog and putting clean dishes and utensils away. Justin’s social skills have also improved greatly. Eye contact has increased, he enjoys being around other children at the playground at home. He can play board, video and computer games with his brother and other children. He enjoys listening to and dancing to music. I could go on and on."

"It’s taken a whole team to get Justin to where he is today. Thank you so much AST for helping Justin reach his full potential. Special thanks to Carol and Harmony for being so caring and dedicated to my Justin. Carol Castellon has been Justin’s therapist for quite a while she has not only taught Justin so much but has educated myself, Justin’s brother, and other family members on how to best work with Justin."

We will be eternally grateful,
Libby Armendariz and Family

"I have two autistic children and both have received services from AST. My children have had their share of service providers, but I believe that AST has been the most influential. There’s not enough space here for all the examples, but I have had experience enough to give credit where credit is due, and ABA services through AST were more productive per hour than their time in the classroom, OT, and speech. If you weren’t already convinced, please know that you must get ABA for your child."

"So then, why AST as opposed to others? Well I can point out that I haven’t had a negative experience and only positive experiences. I’ve felt supported as I learned to be a parent to autistics. They maintain a balance between being professional and yet remain approachable and caring that I‘ve felt very comfortable with. The therapists have always treated my kids with respect, never as just another day‘s work. I‘m reassured by the weekly follow-ups by supervisors and the reliable data they collect. Finally I have benefited from their willingness to cooperate with the school district and the data collection required by the IEPs." In summary, AST strikes that important balance between trusted professionals and a caring support group. I can hardly imagine how much further behind we would be without AST. I feel fortunate to have had them in our lives."

Jennifer & Brian, William and Charlie O’Neal

"AST has provided excellent services for our 2 year-old son. We have been clients for the past 5 months. The therapist is very punctual and has formed a terrific bond with our son. Our son really looks forward to "therapy" time each day. Since beginning therapy he has improved his listening skills tremendously and is making new strides every day. The therapy "team", including the supervisors, has been intimately involved with our son's program and seems to care a lot about his continued progress. We would recommend AST to anyone considering behavioral training for their young child."

Valerie Reid

"AST was the first company we had after our daughter was diagnosed with autism. They were very understanding and helpful in that difficult time of our lives. Felicia has been a great therapist for Coco. Coco was at ease with her the first time they met, and always looked forward to her sessions. Clearly, Felicia has been instrumental in the progress Coco has made, and we are grateful for her skills as a professional. AST also helped us transition, start potty training, and school, things that we could not foresee doing, with ease and comfort."

Our thanks to AST for all they have done for Coco. -The Blakeleys

"We have a 4 year old son with a diagnosis of autism. Prior to receiving behavioral services from AST, my child was aggressive and hyperactive, and he had a poor attention span. He frequently had tantrums, and he punched, bit and kicked. His language was limited and his play and self-care skills were impaired and delayed. He was also delayed in many areas of his development, and he was having difficulty participating in preschool.

After a year of behavioral treatment with AST therapists, I have a different child. He is no longer aggressive. Moreover, once his behavior was brought under control, he started to learn rapidly. His language improved tremendously, and his level of frustration decreased. His attention span has improved a great deal, and he is able to participate in preschool as well as in sports, such as soccer and tae kwon do. His ability to play and interact with others has gotten better and he has had many successful playdates. For our family, this change has been nothing short of miraculous. We now have a sweet, wonderful, bright little boy who is a joy. We are so proud of him. We owe much of this transformation to the very dedicated and skillful therapists from AST, and we believe very strongly in the effectiveness of behavioral treatment for children with autism."

Anonymous

"Maricela,
AST has provided and continues to provide world class therapies for our autistic son. AST therapists and their supervisors have always performed their duties with the kind of knowledge and dedication any parent would appreciate. And, in addition, they sincerely care about our son and his future which is probably the biggest reason for our son’s exceptional progress under AST’s program. One of our son’s former AST therapists, who moved out of state and then on to Europe while working for other providers, has told us what we’ve already come to believe: AST is one of the finest service providers for autistic children in the world. AST is willing to make the extra effort to closely collaborate and coordinate activities with our son’s school personnel to maximize efficiency and affect in our son’s overall AST-School experience.

We are especially thankful for the work of son’s current AST therapist, Melissa Tomberlin, who has been instrumental in helping our son overcome difficulties in verbal communication, social skills, toilet training and several other assorted behaviors. She has been his therapist for over a year which demonstrates an exemplary commitment in a field where therapists may come and go several times in a year. Her supervisor at AST, Maricela Munoz, has designed an individualized program to develop our son on a functional level in a way that supports our entire family. She is the face of AST at our son’s IEP meetings with school officials and has always been a driving force in building the best overall program for the management of our son’s autism."

Steve Venegas
Parent of an AST client since 2002

"To all of the parents of children recently diagnosed with Autism.

Two days before our son Hunter turned two years old, we were hit with the unbelievable news that our little boy was moderately Autistic. Our pediatrician had recommended that we have him evaluated at Harbor Regional Center as he was not making the typical ‘bench mark’, age appropriate developments, and was exhibiting unusual behaviors. I guess that it’s a normal reaction, but we hesitated in getting him evaluated, because in our eyes, this whole scenario couldn’t possibly be happening to us. During my pregnancy, apart from a little high blood pressure toward the end, it had been ‘text book’. I never drank, I stood clear of smokers, I ate as healthy as I could and I took moderate exercise. I had the amnio, the high powered ultra-sound, and took every care in ensuring my baby’s health.

In retrospect, I wish we had have known what to look for. Hunter’s first steps were on his tip-toes, and even now at three, he would still be walking on his toes if he wasn’t getting so big and heavy! He would spin objects for long periods of time, and his eye contact became increasingly worse, especially between eighteen months and up. There were no early words, no talking at all, no pointing to objects and lots of tantrums due to his frustration with his inability to communicate.

When the psychologist evaluated Hunter and gave us her diagnosis of moderate Autism, we were devastated. I was in tears for probably two weeks of and on, trying to deal with not only the diagnosis, but all of the other emotions that come screaming at you after this event. Why did this happen to us? What did I do wrong during my pregnancy? Will my little boy have some kind of a good and normal life? And, what do we do now? It feels like you’re thrown into a world of total darkness, full of unknowns and abbreviations, different tests here and different tests there, the whole experience was totally over whelming! Unlike the diagnosis of a medical issue, there is no definite course of action that will guarantee a complete ‘recovery’. There are so many variables that may affect your child’s progression to become more ‘main stream’. Nothing is guaranteed, and I think that that is the statement that you’re looking for, that one day your little one will be living a normal life, taking part in normal activities at school, having little buddies to hang out with, and just to interact with other kids and have fun and learn like a regular child.

Then, shortly after our diagnosis we met with a Supervisor from AST, Lorin McGuire. She came to our home and explained what their program entailed, of course we were a little skeptical, every thing was so new to us, there is so much to adjust to and take on board. With in ten days our assigned therapist, Teresa Suen, started working with Hunter. I think that hunter probably cried for the entire duration of her visits for the first four or five days! It was the first time in his little life that he had been asked to concentrate, or even stay still for even a short amount of time. It was a hard transition for all of us, but both Teresa and Lorin assured us that this was a perfectly normal pattern, and to stick with the program!

One year has passed, and we have a new and improved Hunter!! We can not relay to you other parents out there, how much ABA therapy has helped our son. When Hunter looks us in the eye these days, he connects with the strength of a laser beam; we could never even catch a glimpse before. He is mimicking our words and pretty much will attempt to say any words that we ask him to, which in our eyes is a miracle. Hunter just recently mastered pronouncing the letter ‘D’, and is SO proud of the fact that he can say ‘daddy’, ‘dog’ and ‘digger’. When he wakes up in the morning and he’s still in his crib, I hear him practicing his vocabulary very methodically! I can hear ‘tiger’ (with sound effects!), lion, all the D words and a whole selection of wonderful words. It brings tears to my eyes and fire to my heart, as our little man is breaking free of his social and verbal bindings, and Christmas comes ever time he looks at me and smiles…Christmas comes a lot these days! Every day there is always a challenge, but our days are now filled with hope and excitement for the future…for Hunter’s future, and we owe so much of that to AST.

We were assigned a new supervisor around eight months ago, Emily Boshnak, who has turned out to be really fantastic. We can call her with all of our questions that arise and I always feel that I am talking to a very knowledgeable friend rather than a ‘supervising therapist’. She has always listened to us with an open heart and recently during our IEP experience, she was so extremely helpful and helped guide us through this extremely important process, we owe so much to her. It goes with out saying that we also owe so much to Teresa, Hunter’s therapist, whose patience and expertise has helped bring our son back from a distant place.

When I was pregnant with Hunter, I always had a vision of how wonderful life would be to hold my little boy’s hand, and just walk and talk about things….some thing that most parents take for granted, but for a while, seemed to Jason and I an impossibility. Now we are almost there, we walk and hold hands and say lots of words, some sound a little more jumbled than others, but we are starting on a road that before seemed not to exist. Recently Hunter and I were strolling hand in hand through some grass, I was singing nursery rhymes (as usual!) and every one was calm and happy. Out of the blue after a moment of quiet, Hunter said, “Bubby” which means mummy. I said “yes Hunter? “, and Hunter replied “I wuv oo”, we all know what that means! I smiled all the way home with tears rolling down my cheeks, and wrote what happened in my day runner! Hunter had filled my heart a one hundred times over with his little statement of love, and I think I’ve been smiling ever since. The most wonderful rewards do come to us, they just take a lot more effort to achieve. Hunter is learning to be able to communicate and express his feelings, which I know he has had trapped inside all along. I am so excited to hear what Hunter has to say every day, now days there is always some thing great and new!

Thank you to our friends at AST for helping us bring our little guy into our world, so that we may have the extreme pleasure of his beautiful company."

Emma and Jason Dunlavey

"Our son has received one on one therapy from AST for the past five months. We are glad that we chose AST for him and highly recommend AST to other parents of autistic children. In fact, we think that obtaining behavioral therapy from AST for our son may be the single best thing that we have done for him since receiving his autism diagnosis.

Before choosing AST, our son had months of other therapy with very little progress. Within just weeks of starting with AST, his eye contact began to improve and he began to turn and acknowledge us when we called his name.

All of the professionals who we have encountered at AST have been very knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. Our son’s therapist Natalie Neavez has tremendous enthusiasm that is a wonderful motivator for our son. She closely observes our son, evaluates his strengths, deficits, and learning style, and tailors therapy to his needs. Natalie and her supervisors, Fernando Guerrero and Erin McNerney, regularly inquire about our observations of our son’s behaviors outside therapy sessions and use our reports in developing a therapy plan. They celebrate the successes in our son’s therapy but also recognize when techniques are not effective with him and modify those techniques.

We are also pleased with the wide range of services that AST can offer and their ability to help our whole family be a part of his treatment both during and outside of therapy sessions. The services we have received include DTT for our son, training for our son & our whole family on PECS, visual schedule development, parent training on breaking down and teaching self-help skills, parent training on keeping data on his behaviors so we can use that data in developing behavior plans, and social play skill training (like turn taking and PECS) with both our autistic son and his pre-school age neurotypical sibling.

Perhaps most importantly, the professionals at AST believe in our son’s ability to prevail over his autism and we trust them to provide him with the therapy he needs to be able to do it."

Maria G.

"Well, I must say that our journey with AST has been nothing short of miraculous and wonderful. Our therapists and supervisors have brought our Caden "back to us" and we are forever grateful. Though, Caden and I will miss our therapy sessions and all the positive support and reinforcement we received from you all. I guess there comes a point when it's time to move on and not be so dependent on you. Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge, talents, time and beliefs with us. You will never be forgotten as our gratitude is bottomless and inexpressible. Your work, no doubt, must be draining. Yet, you bring so much hope to others and if hope is too much to ask for then you bring compassion and clarity in an otherwise stifling and confusing world. Truly, we are in awe of each and every one of you and feel so blessed that you were brought to help us.

Please accept our most humblest of gratitude and immense appreciation."

Sincerely,

Lynn, Tim & Caden Upson