Parent sees progress through birthday party

Colleen Waguespack, BRSHF President, sent the following email over the weekend, telling how she saw her son's and other former BRSHF students' progress at his 6th birthday party.


"Three of Christopher's former BRSHF classmates were at his birthday party this weekend.  It is really neat that we can mix his former BRSHF friends with kids from his other school now. I used to pick: either BRSHF or the other school. If I had told people that 3 of the kids in the room were in the autism program at BRSHF, your average party-goer would not have been able to pick them out of the crowd. It shows how far these kids have all come! (Of course, the biggest hit was a girl who Christopher still calls "his girlfriend" and whose family says she still plans to marry Christopher!)"

Substitute Therapists make an Impact

As you may be aware, children in our program for Autism Spectrum Disorders go through multi-disciplinary therapy - individualized Applied Behavior Analysis therapy, combined with our unique Group Language Therapy preschool classes. We also have a rather small but very passionate, dedicated corps of substitute therapists who step in to cover therapy when a staff member is out. Sarah Brunet, Speech Therapist, had this story to share about the impact one of our substitutes had on a child with ASD in her speech group:

"I was out about 6 weeks ago on vacation and had a substitute therapist cover my groups. She hasn't been around much since, until last week when one therapist was out for jury duty. Well, one day last week, I was out on the playground with my group and she walked outside. The little boy I was playing with looked up and cued himself, saying 'Go say Hey, Ms. Pam!' He ran over to her smiling & gave her a big wave! I was surprised to see not only that he remembered her name, but that he was so excited to see her that he stopped what he was doing to go say hey! It's proof not only that our kids are constantly full of surprises, but also a testament to the spirit and importance of our wonderful subs!"

InRegister's Autism story inspires community, helps spread the word

Welcome to Autism Awareness Month! This month's InRegister features a cover story  on resources for Autism Spectrum Disorders across the capital region (page 20), with a profile on BRSHF's President, Colleen Waguespack, and her son Christopher, who was enrolled in our autism program from 2007-2010. When the issue hit stands last week, Jenna, who works in our front office, got the following emotional phone call:

"I got a call from a lady who had read the InRegister article, and she was just choked up on the phone. She has a daughter with a similar diagnosis and was interested in our services. She was amazed by Colleen and Christopher's story, she read it 3 times in a row. She was impressed at the progress Christopher made here, and was just so glad she read the article, because she didn't know about us before."

As a non-profit clinic, it can be hard for us to get the word out about our services at all, much less to paint an accurate picture of the incredibly rare, comprehensive, effective programs we offer, especially in the area of Autism. Many people don't realize that we accept 5 different types of private insurance, in addition to Medicaid and offering financial assistance, so we exist for people of all incomes, not just the medically under-served. Autism is almost an epidemic and the resources in our community are scarce, but as the article showed, there IS hope for people living "on the Spectrum" in and around Baton Rouge. This April, we hope to reach more people with that message.

If you have a loved one with needs that BRSHF doesn't meet, we encourage you to contact our friends at the Resource Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, at Families Helping Families.

Sounds Like...

Meg Sprunger, one of our Speech Therapists, has this story from recent therapy lessons...

"This winter, the children had lots of fun with our 'bear' theme – we talked about hibernation, made a pretend cave to sleep in, and read books about bears. One of our budding artists began drawing and coloring an endless array of bear caves. Since 'cave' was a bit difficult to say, he would proudly show off his pictures every day, loudly proclaiming 'A bear house! A bear house!'




 Fast forward to March, when bear activities had long been replaced by Mardi Gras preparations, with discussions of parades and beads and king cakes. One day, as we looked at a Mardi Gras book filled with parade pictures, this same boy excitedly called out, 'A bear house! A bear house!' I scanned the pictures quickly, looking for anything that might resemble a cave. I was at a complete loss. Then I noted that he was pointing to a picture of children waiting for a parade to pass, and my mind went back to what I had said about that picture the session before: 'See the children hanging on the barricade, they’re waiting for the parade,' I had explained. Ah yes, I quickly began to put it all together….. Barricade = bear cave = bear house!


And that’s how it goes, never a day without something to smile about!"

Patients use "buddy-system" for hearing health

Dr. Natalee Menge, Audiologist, shared this story about patients with a uniquely proactive approach to hearing healthcare:


"I have an 81-year old patient who always comes to the clinic with her friend, "Ms. Suzie." They attend most of their doctor's appointments together in hopes that if one of them misses what is said, the other one will catch it. They also walk each week and regularly share meals together. As I was making adjustments on her hearing aids, I overheard my patient voice her desires to travel "out west" on a train. "Ms. Suzie" responded simply, "Well, why don't you go." My patient responded that she didn't want to go by herself. "Ms. Suzie" then said, "You just want to drag me along with you." They laughed and made small talk for a few minutes. I returned my patient her hearing aids and checked to make sure they were working well. As they left they were making plans on where they were going to lunch. After they left I found myself hoping that one day I have a girlfriend like "Ms. Suzie" to spend retirement years with."

Student Aide touched by working with BRSHF kids

As you may know, BRSHF relies on a cadre of students from local universities who, overseen by licensed professional staff, assist with and facilitate autism and speech therapy and audiology services here in the clinic. Often, these students go on to pursue post-graduate studies in Speech Pathology, Audiology, Psychology, Occupational Therapy, and Special Education. BRSHF is proud to be one of few clinics in town where these students can get hands-on experience working with children to add to their resumes. One such student, Gina, cited an experience she had working in our program in the personal statement for a grad school application, and she allowed us to share part of it with you:

"I have a unique passion for the field of Speech Pathology. This was made clear to me during my clinical practicum, as I worked with a particular 4-year-old girl. This child, having severe Apraxia, had a very limited vocabulary and repetitive phrases were common. (*Ed. note: Apraxia is a motor planning disorder, which makes it difficult to sequence how to make a sound, or to decide what to say and then say it. Once these children know how to say a word or phrase, they often repeat it because they know they can say it correctly.) One day she replaced a name in one of her regular utterances ("Where Shaun?" - a boy in her class) with my name ("Where Gina?"). The day that she first spoke my name was the day that I became absolutely certain that I wanted to be a part of this field. I look forward to being able to make a difference in people's lives by helping them to conquer their communications deficits and to grow as more social and competent human beings."

This story is an example of common, every-day progress that goes on here at BRSHF. But it is an honor to provide these pivotal learning moments, not just to the children enrolled in our programs, but also to the many student workers who dedicate countless hours to our clinic.