Meet Damian: Patient Success Story

Damian and his family met Joe, a speech-language pathologist, when they sought out speech therapy services due to Damian’s delayed language skills in the summer of 2023. He was non-verbal and became easily upset around new people and environments, making it difficult for the family to engage within the community. Damian’s family knew their little boy had so much to say, and they did not want to limit his ability to have new experiences, so they reached out for support to help Damian reach his full potential. Mr. Joe, as he is fondly known, was the catalyst they needed for Damian to flourish with his language skills and improve his ability to interact in novel situations. The primary goal at the beginning of his therapy journey was to increase his joint attention in order to establish a strong foundation for learning.

Additionally, his plan of care focused on establishing eye gaze, increasing awareness of others, and following the simplest of one-part commands as well as imitation skills, increasing vocalizations, and increasing his use of basic, functional vocabulary needed for daily interaction with his family. Mr. Joe knows how to be silly, meet kiddos on their level, and motivate them to participate in therapy strategies needed to achieve their goals. As a result, Damian thoroughly enjoyed his speech therapy sessions, which included highly animated activities with a lot of repetition and heavy variation in speech intonation patterns. Damian’s mother did an excellent job of implementing the home education program by consistently using the techniques taught to her for their home exercise program. Due to therapy services being provided in the home, all of Damian’s family was able to participate in the HEP strategies provided by Mr. Joe, which significantly added to his progress.

Unfortunately, there were a few bumps in the road; Damian’s therapy services were suspended for two months due to loss of insurance. Luckily, he did not experience regression because his mother worked diligently on his HEP using strategies taught to her by Joe, but they were unable to advance his skills and progress was stalled.

Fast forward to the present day: Damian is producing words, phrases, and simple sentences as his primary mode of communication. He can participate in play activities and basic educational tasks for short periods of time while following simple directions with verbal cues. Damian’s relationship with the outside world has dramatically improved as he can now not only express basic wants and needs but comment on general situations that

happen around him. His increased communication skills have improved not only his quality of life, but that of his entire household as they can enjoy their relationship with him more through his increased ability to interact and communicate. Damian now enjoys books and reading, going to the “Y” swimming pool, and spending time with grandfather. His charming and adorable personality shines brightly now that he can interact with others. While Damian still has some work to do to reach age-appropriate communication skills, his incredible progress in the span of less than a year is only the beginning for this amazing kid!