Due to autism, our son Dallas, age 11, was not able to be helped with personal enhancement or life skills because he would not present himself to be helped.
Dallas would not willingly get into the car to go anywhere with us, and he stayed upstairs when guests were in our home. If appearing at all, he wore a Halloween mask and would not remove it. He did not carry on any conversation but could speak.
Our own counselor contacted Tracy Sherwood as she was known to enable individuals with autism to be cognitively and willingly ‘present’ enough to make gains with tutoring.
Tracy had a program guarantee with specific goals that would be reached within 12 sessions plus some practice sessions with us between sessions.
When Tracy first arrived, it took some time to get Dallas to come down the stairs and when he did, he came slowly and hesitantly down, wearing his mask. He would not sit in the chair near us, but in the beginning, walked around the house with much discomfort. Tracy suggested we allow this until he makes his way closer and becomes curious about this new visitor - which he did.
We coaxed Dallas to sit in the chair before her, which was drawn back about five feet. He would not be still and kept turning his head away, getting up, walking around then returning, many times before Tracy began to coach his attention very lightly. He became more interested and comfortable in a goofy way which was a good indicator.
Tracy never mentioned the mask but began coaxing him to look at her while she acknowledged every attempt with patience and encouragement. She could see his eyes, but he felt well-hidden.
After three sessions he came right down, took his seat, and willingly accepted the help. It was pretty clear that he was winning!
He became calm and present with her, and she simply spoke to him, directing his attention around and away from himself and then onto her as though just another object in the room. He was here!
Dallas began pulling the mask off and on, while improving eye contact. Then one day he took it off and left it off. It seemed that it had become old and was impeding his communication. This was one breakthrough with Dallas!
Now he began really comfortably being there longer with eye contact for many seconds and eventually minutes. Tracy paid no attention to his motion nor autism self-stimulation which also subsided over his sessions.
She inserted light conversation off and on, about the environment and he began to communicate logically, and it was clear before his twelfth session that he would now be present and willing to be helped. He did in fact work with our higher level counselor afterward and he did just fine.
This help for Dallas made our daily life activities much easier including Dallas willingly getting into the car to go out into the world, socialize and be educated. We recommend Tracy Sherwood highly to help any child or adult with autism or other similar needs.
Her number:
(323) 394-9423
She travels US WIDE