Success Stories
Newfoundland and Labrador
Early Intervention Services
Angela & Evelyn / Branch, NFL
Angela's family lives in a small community in Newfoundland. She was like any other healthy baby until her tenth month.
"My daughter was doing fine and suddenly at ten months, she lost her language."
Angela's mother, Evelyn says it best: "My daughter was doing fine and suddenly at ten months, she lost her language."
Angela was taken to the community public health nurse and finally for medical observation where Evelyn learned of Angela's Autism Spectrum Disorder, a pervasive developmental disorder that, in this case, was fortunately mild.
Through Newfoundland and Labrador's Autism Pilot Project -- a National Child Benefit initiative -- she was referred for home-based early intervention. Once a month, Evelyn and Angela travel to St John's to the Health Sciences Centre to videoconference with Dr. Zelazo at McGill University.
During the session, Dr. Zelazo talks with Evelyn about Angela's activities and progress and sets out a home-based program for Evelyn to follow. About once a year, Evelyn and Angela travel to Montreal for face-to-face visits with Dr. Zelazo.
"At the time of the first videoconference," recalls Evelyn, "Angela could speak only about 20 words. We had to move her from nouns to verbs and then to full sentences. At each session, Dr. Zelazo reviews what I've been teaching Angela with language and behavior, determines what progress we've made, and then lays out the next activities and goals."
National Child Benefit provincial funding has brought the best in medical advice from Montreal to St. John's where a mother can take that teaching back to the small community on Newfoundland's Southern Shore.
The benefit to Angela is clear. Early in her development, she showed signs of language delay and autistic behavior. Now, at four years old, she has her language back. She speaks in sentences, she is playing and advancing in her reading skills.
Her mom couldn't be happier. "I have my child back," says Evelyn. "You can't imagine when all of a sudden your baby won't give you a kiss or look at you. I didn't think she'd have a future."
Learn about Newfoundland's NCB programs