SANTINO CONQUERS AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER! IS SPEAKING, READING AND WRITING
At two years of age, Santino stopped talking. He had trouble expressing himself, and started spending most of his time obsessing over spinning the wheels on his toys. He was not responding to his name. Santino had poor eye contact and was behind in fine motor development. His mother noticed his energy was low which became apparent in his slower movements, which was unlike toddlers his age.
Santino was four when his parents took the online Doman Method® Course: From Special Needs to Wellness. At the time, his parents had been told that he was likely on the Autism Spectrum Disorder with a related language delay and possible hypertonia with decreased muscle tone.
After taking the course, Santino and his parents started a Doman Method® Program with crawling on the belly and creeping on hands and knees. They started the Doman Reading Program and followed the guidelines for nutrition from the course.
In six months, Santino had seen over 300 single words, crawled, crept, walked, ran, and ate a good diet free from dairy, gluten, and processed foods. By this time, Santino had his first evaluation at Doman International. He could differentiate single word vocabulary in two languages, in English and in Spanish.
He showed that he was a quick learner, able to reason, and answered inference questions with complete confidence. Santino’s understanding was better than before starting on the Doman Program.. He was able to play and understand the rules of games and could follow up to 3-steps of instruction. During his first appointment, Santino initiated conversations, greeting staff and striking up short conversations about his interests!
At his second and most recent Advanced Doman Appointment in Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A. Santino comfortably spoke and understood at age level, both in Spanish and English. He can read sentences and is starting to read his favorite homemade books. A visual comprehension of more than a 100 words gives him a Reading Victory!
Along with being able to read, Santino can now write short phrases. He gained credit for his writing skills during his evaluation. This is an essential fine motor development and a Writing Victory for Santino!
Physically, Santino is stronger and loves to run. Santino and his younger brother enjoy running with their dad daily.
In the time he spent with us, Santino shared his creativity and love of sharks. Here are some that he drew for us during his visit. He also created several intricate species of sharks out of blocks, including his favorite, a hammerhead!
We celebrate Santino and his family for their incredible efforts!