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Why Choose ACIS?
S.S.- " Any
time that you chose a school or therapist for your child, for the first
month, it is a leap of faith. You don’t know if you made the right
decision until you start to get feedback from your child, and see results.
After a few months with ACIS, I am seeing a huge improvement with my son
in terms of language, appropriate intonation and sentence formation. I
have been extremely impressed with the individualized program that has
been made and that is constantly revised to fit the needs of my son. At
the core of ACIS is an incredible staff . I am so pleased with the
clinical supervision and therapists. These folks really know what they are
doing, and I would be happy to speak to other parents who’s children have
challenges to share my positive experience with ACIS.
T.G. - "We have been involved with ACIS since January
2004. When our son was 2, he was referred for ABA intervention by Dr.
Cynthia Goldfarb who gave us an extensive list of service providers to
consider, but highly endorsed ACIS due to their integrative approach
across all disciplines. As parents, we have been impressed with the
quality and consistency of therapists. Grace and her wonderful team are
professional, empathic, caring and enthusiastic. The best indicator of
their intervention is our son’s remarkable progress since their
involvement with him. He has been described as “the poster boy for early
intervention and ABA.” We are so grateful to have ACIS as our service
provider and highly recommend them to parents at any stage of the process,
either in the beginning of their search or at any time along the way.
Thank you, ACIS!!"
P.K.- " We
just came back from an appointment with our son's developmental
pediatrician. She told us that our son has made great
strides. Much of his improvement is because of ACIS's hard work, in
particular Grace and her therapists. Thank you so much!"
M.B. – “You made us
feel so comfortable and relaxed. A few weeks into the program we noticed
wonderful changes in our son’s language and social abilities! The
therapists who work with our son are terrific! The service and therapists
exceeded our expectations. Here we are today six months later happy to
know we have A.C.I.S. and its terrific staff advocating on our son’s
behalf.”
M.Q- "Back
in November 2002, we received the devastating news that our
3.5 year old son had Autism. We were scared - what would
our son's future look like. I got on the internet and tried
to read everything I could. I took the list of ABA
providers that Markham Stouffiville Hospital gave us and
started making the calls. It was amazing that at this time
of panic and confusion that there were people who were out
there to take advantage of the situation. I was lucky
enough to be given the name of ACIS Canada. That first call
with Grace Damouni had such a calming effect on me. Finally
I was speaking with someone who was willing to listen to me
and my concerns. Someone who wanted to help my son.
Someone who did not take advantage of how frightened I was.
Grace took the time to meet with me and my son. Together we
decided what my son needed. She has always taken my input
because she values mother's instinct. The recommendations
from other families already using ACIS made we realize that
my decision was already made for me.
At the time of
the diagnosis was my son was non-verbal and had to use PECS
to communicate. He had no social skills and would play by
himself at the daycare. He did not even say "mommy". One of
my first priority was for Grace and her team of therapist
was to get my son to say "mommy". They were able to
accomplish this within the first week. By the second week
he was able to say "I want my mommy". The PECS binder was
put away by the third week. The list of things that my son
was able to learn through ABA is endless but here are just a
few:
- Your
typical toddler reaction "mine" had to be taught to my son
- Taking turns
- Sharing
- Initiating a
social interaction
After 2 years of
ABA the changes in my son are unbelievable. My son is in SK
at a public school. We were very lucky that we had a
fabulous principal who ask before I could if I was sending a
therapist in to shadow my son. There is a EA in his
classroom but she rarely has to step in to help him. He has
no problems with transitions, taking turns, asking a peer to
play with him, etc. He is doing so well that it took 45
seconds after meeting the KINARK's psychologist to be taken
off the waitlist because he is very high functioning and
mild. We recently went back to Markham Stouffville for a
psychological assessment. 2 years later - the psychologist
said that if he were being assessed today he would not be
diagnosed with Autism but just language delayed. He scored
above average/high average on most of the tests and he is
reading at Grade 2 level. He has friends at school and he
is so willing to make the first move to initiate an
interaction. He even empathizes when a friend is crying.
Thanks to Grace
and her team of devoted therapists my son is doing so well
that most people cannot pick my son out of a classroom of
children as the one with Autism. Even his paediatrician is
amazed at how quickly he has progress. Now I am not worried
about my son's future. He is doing so well that every day
life in our house is "normal". No more tantrums and no more
trying to guess why he's crying. I never thought the day
would come when I would wonder if my son would ever stop
talking. The things that come out of his mouth makes me
wonder "how does he know that". He is learning from ABA,
from his teacher, from reading on his own, from his friends,
from the internet - the list is endless.
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