Therapy helps kids with autism open up
Gives families tools to communicate
Denise Mangiante of Memphis felt like something was missing early on with her son, Will. He didn’t make much eye contact, he rarely responded to his name and he flapped his hands when excited, along with other obsessive behaviors.
Their pediatrician reassured her that everything seemed fine, but when Will turned 1, he still didn’t have many words, and Mangiante’s concerns continued to grow.
She made an appointment with a neuropsychologist to evaluate Will, even submitting a video t hat documented his quirky behaviors. She got a diagnosis she never expected — Will had autism. He was just about to turn 2, and Mangiante felt heartbroken.
“Now that I look back, it’s so clear — but at the time, I really felt like I was making this entire thing up in my head,” she said. Will immediately began therapy at Janna Hacker and Associates, a Germantown-based group of specialists who provide speech-language, occupational and social therapy. Mangiante says the words began coming and they finally enjoyed long-awaited progress. Mangiante and her husband, Gene, also received training and learned how to work with their autistic child.
“Autism presents many different ways in children. Sometimes, it’s helpful for parents to see YouTube videos of different children with autism to see the differences,” Hacker said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 68 children in the United States has been identified with autism spectrum disorder. April