A Note from a Happy Grandmother

Dear Friends:

I am the grandmother of a young child who has been served by the Early Childhood Autism Program (ECAP) that is part of the Behavior Analysis Program in the University’s Psychology Department. Our family was both honored and blessed that my granddaughter was able to receive services in this truly unique program, and we will be forever grateful for the work, care, attention, and focus which ECAP provided.

As the grandmother of five grandchildren ranging in age from 2 to 25, I have had the privilege of watching over them and assisting them as needed. In 2013, it had become evident that one of my grandchildren was often struggling just to get through the day. With each day would come a new set of challenges, frustrations and more.

As a grandmother, and as a family, we recognized how difficult the days had become for her as well as the family members that were working with and caring so closely with her. As the situation had become more urgent, we sought professional assistance. Fortunately, we were aware of the ECAP due to its known successes in helping children on the Autism Spectrum.

ECAP offered training, counseling, and intervention techniques tailored to my granddaughter’s individual needs. After several consultations and evaluations, she was enrolled in ECAP in March 2015. During the course of this program, observation and intervention techniques were performed 6 days a week.

I am proud to say that due to the uniquely focused services provided to my granddaughter through ECAP, she was able to graduate from the program in July 2016. She can now interact much more coherently, maintain a focus as necessary, communicate with both adults and her peers, and attend to age-appropriate tasks. She is currently enrolled in a pre-school in which she is indistinguishable from other children behaviorally and is actually ahead of her peers academically. She is so smart! She is a pleasure to be around as well as interact with, all of which is due to ECAP.

As a proud grandmother of two sons who graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, I have always been grateful for the university. However, I would have never imagined that both myself, as well as other family members would directly benefit from the University to which I was already so grateful. ECAP is a program that the University of Nevada should be immensely proud of as well as showcase with great pride.

Our experience with each and every member of the program who worked with my granddaughter, as well as our family members, is held in the highest regard. Each of the staff demonstrated the utmost reliability, skill, trust, and professionalism throughout the duration of the program and showed a level of personal attention that deserves to be recognized.

Thank you for your investment in and support of the Psychology Department’s Early Childhood Autism Program. This is truly a world-class program. I have had the opportunity to work closely with each of the program staff and I would like to personally thank Dr. Patrick Ghezzi, Ainsley, Emily, Teal, Sarah, Kristin, Staheli, and Kim. Each of these individuals helped my family and me to better understand and work with a challenging issue and to aid us in learning and administering intervention techniques that work!

These individuals have had the unique opportunity to change a young girl’s life, for which she and our family will be forever grateful.

Editor’s note: The author of this letter requested anonymity for herself and her granddaughter.