Parker is a beautiful, healthy and intelligent soon to be five year old boy. He is also autistic. Parker was diagnosed when he was 3 1/2. He went from being non verbal to only echoic speech, he was also self injurious and was having melt downs every half hour. He could not play with other children and he was aggressive. He could not communicate with us and was always frustrated. All he did was scream, holler and beat himself. We tried regular preschool and special education which did not work. For a year and a half he had been in speech and OT therapy but seemed to be stuck and could not get beyond the echoic speech. We played guessing games to figure out what he wanted. Then we found The Einstein Academy. Sure, we were skeptical at first so we thought we would give it 2 weeks and see if there was any improvement. Parker's meltdowns stopped almost immediately. Through positive reinforcement, ABA, verbal behavior and the educated and personable staff, we now have a little boy who can: answer yes and no questions, talk in complete sentences, and respond to people other than his parents. He can say “good morning mommy”, ride in the car without meltdowns, make transitions easily, and eat in McDonald's at the table. Now, he can play with toys where as in the past he did not know what to do with them. All is not perfect and there are still words or situations that will cause a meltdown but TEA has trained us (the parents) on how to handle those situations. They made a home visit and observed the wild behaviors and taught us how to deal with them. Our home life was so stressful dealing with his meltdowns and his constant need for attention but since utilizing the principles of ABA, verbal behavior and sensory integration we have our life and our little boy back.

The Einstein is now our extended family.
By Kay and Larry Thode, October of 2006

Gavin was diagnosed with autism at about 22 months. I had never heard of autism before so I had to educate myself in order to better educate him. So for the next 2 months my mother-in-law and I searched the internet everyday and everything we read talked about how we needed early intervention using behavior modification. So the next step was to find this treatment and through our search we found The Einstein Academy. The progress Gavin has made is unbelievable. He no longer sits in his room when we have company, he is finally starting to play with his little brother who he acted like didn’t exist before. When we first came to The Einstein Academy he would not make eye contact or sit in a chair for more than a few seconds. He did not like to interact with anyone and could barely get through a five minute table top session without problem behaviors, but now he can sit at the table for at least forty-five minutes. He also has developed almost all his pre-learning skills.

Thank you, Einstein Academy,
By Virginia Fontenot, October 2006