Monique Conner contacted me in November 2003 regarding her daughter, Gabrielle. Monique and her husband Mike live near Houston, Texas with their three children: two normally-developing sons, Elijah and John, and daughter Gabrielle, who was diagnosed with autism at age two and is presently six years old.

At the time of diagnosis, Monique was advised to have Gabrielle institutionalized. Monique refused institutionalization and searched for solutions instead. After a few unsuccessful attempts with dietary intervention, Monique found my web site and contacted me for assistance. Employed full-time as project manager for GE, Monique read my book, Climbing Out Of Autism One Bite At A Time. In addition to reading my book, Monique spoke with me on the phone and emailed me approximately five hours each week for the first six weeks until she was comfortable implementing changes without my consistent support.

Monique's joy regarding Gabrielle's progress is abundantly clear as she describes Gabrielle's newly acquired milestones as AWESOME! Emailing me with updates detailing Gabrielle's gains in language, attention span, and self-help skills, Monique happily relates stories of heightened awareness and budding skills that occurred within the first month of intervention:

For the first time on Sunday, she said, "Hi, Mommy" and directed it toward me without prompting. She initiated it and was looking for me to talk with her...It seems the fog is lifting...She is doing better and everyone can see it. According to Gabrielle's teachers yesterday was her best day ever. She is identifying on command body parts verbally and she sorted 15 objects independently (first time). She also was calm and peaceful and shared and played with her classmates. She said over 20 words on Friday and identified "baby" and "bug" on her own. She is realizing that objects have names or labels. The world is opening up to my baby...

Gabrielle attends a public school in Houston that has a special program for autistic children. Gabrielle's teacher has worked with autistic children for many years. She has commented to Monique that she has never seen progress like the spontaneous gains Gabrielle is achieving. Within the second month of intervention, Monique reported the following:

I [hear] more spontaneous language; for example [Gabrielle] normally would pull someone to the TV and pick up a video that she wants to see and hand it to you. Now (just happened within the last 2 weeks) she would pull you to the TV but will now say, "Blues Clues" and it is the correct name. YEAH! Once again yesterday she had an excellent day at school. I am seeing incredible improvement in language...Her teacher is so excited about her improvement she called my house today to leave a message saying, "Mrs. Conner, you haven't called me at 3:30 and I wanted to tell you how good Gabrielle is doing..."

When our children suffer, our whole family suffers. Conversely, when our children thrive, our family rejoices. Here is a beautiful passage Monique shared back in December about Gabrielle and her brother Elijah:

...Some more good news. This weekend Gabrielle and Elijah were singing and dancing the Blues Clues show. She went completely by memory (she has seen it many, many times) and did the song and dance to go with it. But that is not the good part. Her brother Elijah then asked her to come play with him and she said, "Okay." You could tell she understood. Her brother looked at me and said, "Mom, Gabrielle is talking with me!" He was so excited that it almost brought tears to my eyes. I know he is pulling for her too.

One of the most challenging aspects of autism is transitioning to new environments and performing tasks outside the home that require us to split our attention between our children and the work at hand. Even tasks we perform on a regular basis, like grocery shopping, can leave us drained because the challenge is so great. In the following passage, Monique describes what it was like to have Gabrielle return to a stable state after an encounter with some pepper:

She was very pleasant. When they all came to pick me up from work, we went to Whole Foods. I was going to run in and leave Mike and the kids in the car. She said, "Mommy" and unlocked her seatbelt. She wanted to go. Now before I tell you what happened, let me preface this by saying I am used to her either trying to run away or wanting to climb into the cart like a 2 year old. What happened was a MAJOR breath of fresh air.

She and John came in and I gave both of them hand baskets. We walked through and shopped up and down. She took groceries, followed behind me, stopped and waited -- stuff that even a kid without this trial finds difficult to do. WHAT A CHANGE. She then went with me to the register, helped unpack the groceries onto the conveyor belt, then went to put her basket away. It gets better. She could not reach the height of the basket to put it away, so another lady came in the store and took the basket from her. SHE DID NOT SCREAM! HALLELUJAH!

Another terrific challenge autism presents is sleep interruption, a phenomenon that affects the entire household. Here again we see Gabrielle overcoming her inability to sleep through the night:

Michelle, she was a different child yesterday...She was the calmest I had EVER witnessed in my child of 6 years. It was so encouraging this morning. No screaming, no fussing to get dressed, no waking in the night...Great things are happening...

Thankfully, good news from the Conner household keeps pouring in. Last night, Monique called me to say that Gabrielle rode her bike for the first time! Previously unable to coordinate the pedals, Gabrielle used to walk her bike and watch her brothers as they effortlessly rode away. No more! Pedaling to her heart's content, Gabrielle announced that she was going, "To infinity and beyond!" the very place she is destined with the strides she continues making. Gabrielle demonstrates consistent, global advancement, allowing Monique to replace feelings of despair and worry with hope, peace, and liberation. Monique is now optimistic about Gabrielle's future. What a joy and privilege to share the Conner family's miracle as Gabrielle advances in her recovery from autism!