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Click here to learn more about Laureate's Autism/PDD Packages.

"The Best Phone Call We Ever Made"

girlAs the parents of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and significant needs in the areas of language and communication, we are forever grateful to Laureate Learning Systems for the invaluable support its software and staff have provided. At almost five years of age, our daughter could sing and recite the alphabet, but had virtually no meaningful language. It was only when she started using Laureate's First Words program that she began building vocabulary. Seven years later, after having worked with Laureate programs throughout that time, people who knew her at five and see her now remark at how her language has progressed.

We've become huge believers in the value of providing structured language programming to children with language deficits and credit our daughter's language development to the structured language interventions that Laureate provided. Without them, it's likely that she would have only been taught a variety of scripts and would not have learned the mechanics necessary to produce her own spontaneous generative language or developed the receptive competence that she now has.

We strongly encourage parents like us to advocate for the integration of Laureate software into their child's IEP, so that its use becomes a central part of his or her language program at school.

Beyond the benefits that the software provides, the bonus, as we see it, is that parents, skilled clinicians, and paraprofessionals will all start emphasizing and modeling the same language structures and linguistic principles in everyday communication with the child that he or she is working on with the software programs. Talk about generalization - it becomes a way of life!

We've found Laureate's staff to be caring, knowledgeable, and entirely committed to improving the language and communicative functioning of those in need. We feel extremely lucky to have gotten Dr. Mary Wilson on the phone that fateful day in 1997, when, on the advice of a friend whose son had made phenomenal progress using Laureate software over the course of just one summer, we perused the catalog and called the office seeking advice on which programs might be appropriate. For us, it was the best phone call we ever made, as the benefits of working with Laureate have, indeed, been life changing! We only wish we had made it sooner, as starting early is the key.

A Grateful Parent