Therapies for Ava During COVID

Ava is 10 years old (just had her birthday), a beautiful, happy, intelligent girl. She is a nonverbal, severely autistic girl. As a baby she suffered horribly from eczema, and she has had severe gastrointestinal issues her whole life. We noticed she was different but didn’t know she had autism until 3, at which time she was put into a program. She has had one form of therapy or another since that time. Presently she is being homeschooled due to being immunocompromised. Her therapies are continuing through homeschooling. With the help of our behavioural analyst and teacher, we have many meetings, planning sessions and are attempting online therapy. She deserves the chance to live her life to the fullest as independently as possible. To that end, we employ a behavioural analyst, behavioural interventionist, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist and soon a physical therapist due to low muscle tone and hyperextention of her joints which will lead to problems later in life. It is difficult with COVID, but we still get help, advice and more zoom meetings. When I say she has high needs, I mean that she cannot communicate her wants and needs. She does not understand danger at all, she is unable to prepare any food for herself, get her own water, dress herself, provide proper hygiene and is not potty trained. There are major sleep issues. It is like taking care of a 125 pound toddler who is big enough to get into things a toddler couldn’t. She needs constant supervision. We work with her in a fun, play based environment in order to teach her the things that will help her struggle less, and hopefully become independent. At a proper level of intervention, it would cost about a minimum of $32,000 a year. We get $6,000 from a government agency called the Autism Funding Unit. So as you can see, we fundraise to help make up the difference. Every dollar means more intervention for our sweet, funny, bubbly and smart girl. Every dollar means she has a chance at a more independent, full life. Your help will go a long way to providing that for her. We are very fortunate to have a great team for her and that she loves to learn. The more we can utilize them, the faster she can learn. She has made a lot of progress over the past 2+ years especially, but the work isn’t over. It can snowball, or she can regress if there is an interruption to her services. In addition to this, we will soon be doing additional hearing tests, and genetic testing for any underlying issues. She also has an aversion to brushing her teeth, something we are working on, but she has a lot of dental problems. It costs nearly $3,000 as she has to put under anaesthetic. So it’s treated as surgery and isn’t covered by medical. COVID-19 threw us a curveball as she can no longer attend school. Luckily we were able to access her school program and we get to learn to teach her the program at home. Thank goodness for online video conferencing!! Until her last year at school, she wasn’t taught anything. So we are starting at kindergarten level. You can make a real change in her life with your donation. You can also find updates and videos on our Facebook page, Our Holmlife: Ava’s Autism Journey. It gives you a glimpse into her day to day life and the kinds of therapy we do. Thank you so much for your time