Liyuan and his team has been working with my son, Kabir, for six years. My son Kabir is now 17 years old and is autistic. Kabir is on the mild to moderate spectrum and has limited verbal ability.

When Liyuan started working with my son, Kabir was 11 years old and the main challenges were that Kabir was not an independent worker and was totally prompt bound.  Kabir was a very good sight-reader but comprehension was very poor. And we were also noticing signs of pre-adolescence behavior such as crying, flapping hands, making loud sounds when he was unhappy and occasional zoning out.

Liyuan’s approach to Kabir’s challenges was to craft the sessions where he was firm without being intimidating, disciplined without being martial, pushing Kabir to achieve without putting undue pressure and most importantly, sensitive without being indulgent. This approach was very appropriate in handling emerging behavioral issues. And today I can say that Kabir has very few (mostly manageable) issues.

Liyuan sets goals for Kabir that are always micro with the big picture in the background and this helped him in reading comprehension. Simply tasks helped Kabir concentrate better and gave him a sense of achievement at completing tasks. AutismSTEP has been working hard with Kabir to move him towards being an independent worker. He has designed, and is implementing, programs to teach Kabir to cross a busy road, travel by public transport, work in an office environment, develop task-oriented time management and locational awareness. All these programs are small projects in themselves, as they require management of multiple processes.

Liyuan and his team put together his programs with a lot of thought and understanding. I am really appreciative of the commitment, which he has worked with, to help Kabir achieve his goals.

Anu

Committee Member of Autism Support Group

Age of child when intervention started is 11

Length of Intervention is 7 years