|
|
Vahe
Born:2003
Problem:autism Attendance: November 2008 – December 2009 Progress recorded at: October 2009
Mother Lusine: : I have started taking my son to different specialists since 1.5 years old when I noticed him step by step losing his speech, eye contact and almost any reaction to the outer world. Time was passing but my son’s condition would not get better. In some cases he would behave like a genius – i.e. he adores reading and seems to understand what he reads though has never been taught reading. Or he feels like a cat when someone has health problems or something bad is going to happen. But on the other side he had no social and practical skills: he would not even eat or go to toilet on his own; avoided crowded places, refused traveling in public transport…
Horse seemed to be the last hope for me. First times it was very difficult both for us and for the practitioners. My son was crying non-stop, refusing even to go close to the horse. Then the specialists decided to put and keep him on the horse by force. First three sessions were a nightmare for all of us. I had a feeling that my child would love to come out from his inner world but there was some invisible obstacle between the two worlds that prevented him from doing that… On the fourth day miracle happened: he climbed on the horse and smiled. In a few sessions he would run to the horse and kiss him before climbing. And one beautiful day he went to the horse, smiled and said very clearly: horse… On hippotherapist’s advice we also deprived him from his beloved chocolate and wheat flour which have negative impact on the autistic children. Within the several months of our attendance Vahe started sleeping at night, became calmer, started looking at and not through. His peeing at night lessened. If before we could travel only in taxis, now sometimes we manage to travel in public transport. Hippotherapist's conclusion:: It took us almost a month to put Vahe on the horse. He was resisting strongly, crying, shouting, and literally beating us. In fact every attempt to “pull him out” from his inner world would come across a severe resistance. We had to put him on horse forcefully and when in several sessions he more or less calmed down we started teaching him giving a sugar to the horse, petting and cleaning him and obeying different commands on the horse using a strict “no” as a punishment and his favorite dried crust as a reward. Very often he would also go out, in fields with Borya, to change the already well-known environment which is very important for an autistic person. He became much more perceptive, calmer, eye-contact appeared, he started reacting on his name, started paying attention to everything around, and pronouncing words in place, like flower when seeing flower, up and down, horse, bye bye… During the practice we noticed an amazing thing. Communication with horse as if opens that obstacle-door between the inner and outer worlds of an autistic person. So now it is much easier to enter into Vahe’s world and establish contact with him. A psychologist working with Vahe also notices that improvement with him. |