Meet Olivia: Patient Success Story

Olivia was diagnosed with Autism when she was three years old, and shortly thereafter began home health speech therapy services. She communicated primarily with 1-2 word approximations, scripted phrases, sign language, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Upon evaluation, Olivia’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) noted delays in receptive and expressive language skills as well as a sensory-based feeding disorder resulting in difficulty communicating with caregivers and challenges during mealtimes. Olivia’s family knew these difficulties would not define their child, so they got to work with their SLP to create a plan of care that would help unlock Olivia’s potential.

Olivia is a gestalt language processor, which means she learns language in chunks rather than single words, so she needed support to begin breaking apart and mixing her gestalt phrases while improving her ability to be understood by others. Her SLP supported Olivia’s family by teaching them how to model phrases during their daily routines, incorporate language goals in play, and understand her gestalts/language processing style as well as utilized varying intervention strategies to help Olivia learn to produce new speech sounds. As she began to make progress with her expressive communication, Olivia’s family was able to see more of her creative and silly personality that they love! Olivia, her family, and her SLP also focused on improving her ability to explore new foods by reducing pressure at mealtimes, using food play and food chaining strategies, and special interest play with non-preferred foods to encourage Olivia’s involvement during meals with her family.

Olivia’s family was heavily involved throughout her treatment sessions and were consistent with carrying over strategies between therapy visits to assure Olivia’s steady progress. Because of their commitment, Olivia’s hard work, and their SLP’s clinical expertise, Olivia’s communication skills have flourished! She is now able to make jokes, tell lengthy stories about her day or her favorite movies, The Little Mermaid and Moana, and regularly invite friends over to her house to play board games. Olivia is also using complex grammar skills and producing new, complex sounds without direct intervention. Olivia’s family is very involved in their community, so they were grateful for the flexibility of home health therapy and the ability to complete sessions after school. Now that Olivia is graduating from speech therapy services, she is excited to enjoy more time with friends and pets after school.