As a parent, it’s important to understand, connect, and help children grow to be successful adults in the way they can be successful. Sometimes it takes a random interaction or opportunity to understand other ways to support your children and other times you can be proactive for opportunities to support them in other ways.

In the article “The father apologized. ‘Mind if I try something?’ By the end of the flight, it clicked. He was astounded.’: Dad ‘nearly cries’ after speech pathologist teaches autistic son to communicate on a plane for the first time,” author Rachel R. Romeo contributed to a little boy’s life. 

Romeo described her experience with a father and his son on her 8-hour flight. The plane had not even taken off and the father was already apologizing in advance for his son’s behavior: “he warn[ed] [Romeo] that his 10 year-old son had severe nonverbal autism, and that this would likely be a difficult journey” (Romeo).

Romeo is a speech-language pathologist who has lots of experience working with minimally verbal kids and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). In specific, she is used to the behaviors that the son was exhibiting: screaming, hitting, and grabbing. Romeo consulted with the father and asked him if he had ever tried to communicate in different ways with his son. 

Romeo received consent to try to communication therapy which his son. 

“I tried to see if he was stimulable for a communication board. I started by pulling up some standard images for basic nouns on my computer but I could tell that screens really bothered him. So, I... tried to create a low-tech board” (Romeo).

Through multiple assessments, Romeo learned that the boy likes to communicate through symbols as he caught on quickly to her drawings. On this 8-hour plane ride, Romeo was able to introduce other symbols that he might know. 

Romeo stated that “by the end of the flight, he had made several requests, initiated several times, and his behaviors had reduced quite a bit. The father was astounded – clearly no one had ever tried an AAC approach with him. I gave him the paper and showed him how to use it, and he nearly cried.”

Through this experience, Romeo was able to make a difference in this parent-child relationship by introducing a new communication system that no one had ever tried with the father’s minimally verbal son. 

This story illustrates the importance of parent-child relationships and communication to and from children. Feeling connected, communicating, and helping your children grow to be successful adults sometimes takes therapists, speech, and other opportunities to help them.

For more information on how Hilber Psychological Services can help you and your family with communication, parent-child relationships, parenting or child therapy, please contact us.

- Written by Lily Schmitt and Tanya L. Hilber, PsyD.

References 

Romeo, Rachel. “The father apologized. ‘Mind if I try something?’ By the end of the flight, it clicked. He was astounded.’: Dad ‘nearly cries’ after speech pathologist teaches autistic son to communicate on plane for the first time.” Love What Matters. https://www.lovewhatmatters.com/the-father-apologized-mind-if-i-try-something-by-the-end-of-the-flight-it-clicked-he-was-astounded-dad-nearly-cries-after-speech-pathologist-teaches-autistic-son-to-communicate-on-pl/