A Promise Kept: More Than Words® Makes it to Barbados – One Year Later
... Continued from Part 1
Fourteen months after completing the More than Words® Program, Zwade’s father, Corey, gives an example of how much Zwade’s social communication has improved by describing a trick Zwade played on him at the beach.
Click on the link below for an excerpt from the interview:
Why is Zwade’s trick so remarkable?
Children with autism spectrum disorder have difficulty taking the perspective of other people – i.e. thinking about what other people are thinking. To play his trick successfully, Zwade had to:
- recognize that if he pretended to be stung, his dad would think that he was really in pain and would behave the same way he did when Zwade was genuinely in pain
- plan how he would show his Dad that he wasn’t really in pain, once his dad had come to his rescue
- think about what his dad would think and how he would react when Zwade revealed that he had been pretending all along (it sounds like he predicted that his dad would find it funny)
All this required a high level of social awareness and the ability to take another person’s perspective into account, which Zwade was not able to do in the early stages of the program. This story indicates that he has made significant progress in his ability to communicate.
For more than 35 years, The Hanen Centre has taken a leading role in the development of programs and resources to help parents and professionals help young children learn to communicate to the fullest of their potential.
To help parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Hanen created the evidence-based More Than Words Program, as well as a More Than Words parent guidebook and DVD. The program and resources teach parents practical strategies for using everyday routines and play to foster the social communication skills of their child.
Learn more about the More Than Words Program.
Click on the links below to learn more about how Hanen can help you help children communicate: