Testimonial
Luke, a 4 year old boy with autism, improves with hyperbaric therapy.
Luke, a 4 year old boy with autism, improves with hyperbaric therapy.
Summary of the testimonial
Luke A. Graves is a 4 year old male with a diagnosis of Autism and an Unspecified
Disorder of the Nervous System manifesting itself in various developmental delays. The
areas most affected by this "disorder" are compromised communication skills/ lack of
meaningful communication and necessary social skills to develop relationships and
function in society at large. He also has some fairly significant sensory dysfunctions (as
well as fine motor and gross motor delays) which interfere with just about most activities
or tasks performed throughout the course of a normal day. He has also has a tendency
towards obsessive compulsive behaviors which also interfere with life in general. For a
child with autism the simplest things that we take for granted can be quite overwhelming
and terrifying. Staying grounded and calm with excesses of sensory input constantly
bombarding your system-is draining for these children to say the least
i
We have found that hyperbaric treatments have helped Luke in many different ways. The
treatments have helped Luke to get more out of each of his individual therapies and he
seems to be more connected to us (his family) than ever before. We have been doing
therapy for almost 2 years now and have had good results. The improvements have been slow but steady with spurts every now and again. Speech has been the most challenging. Within the last 3 months of hyperbaric treatments we have seen some significant improvements in this area. Also since beginning Hyperbaric Therapy we have noticed that his sensory system is much more in balance and he is more tolerant of various types of sensory input than ever before. His eye contact is much improved and I feel more close to Luke than ever before. He seems to be trying to connect more in small but significant ways. Luke also seems to be more adapting of changes in his environment -this is wonderful!!!
Keep in mind that when we first started these treatments with Luke most of his communication consisted of jabbering gibberish, repeating what was said to him, repeating the same phrases over and over again from movies and videos, and asking for basic needs like "want milk", "want juice" or "want video" in a sing song voice. He needed and still needs a lot of prompting but is finally talking on his own more. Also keep in mind that making trips to the grocery store or Walmart were always usually greeted with fits, tantrums, and sometimes even screaming. Crowds and new people had usually been avoided completely. The stimming was continuous throughout the day and getting him to pull his attention and look at you was rare and almost never for more than a second or two. He also could not handle anyone to touch his trains or toys or move them and games and toys had to be played with the same way every time. We have noted many interesting changes.
