Case Studies

Lorna came to us as a 3-year-old girl who had not started speaking. Initially, she was not willing to interact with us at all. We started by discovering what activities Lorna really liked. For example, she loved popping bubbles after they had been blown. Once Lorna began enjoying interacting with us, she was much more willing to let us teach her language skills through play. Although she had no idea that we were actually teaching her, she was having too much fun! We gradually built up our expectation for her language little by little. 

At first, we expected her to sound out 'buh' when she wanted us to blow bubbles. The expectation then shifted to 'bubba' and it wasn't long before she was saying the whole word 'bubbles'. At that point, we again shifted focus but this time it was shifted to teaching Lorna to say more than just one word - 'blow bubbles'. Using this approach with lots of different items that Lorna liked, we gradually built up to more and more complex sentences and lanaguge components until Lorna began forming her own untaught sentences.

Lorna is now 8 years old and attends a mainstream school where she has been placed ahead of her peers in reading and a number of other areas. She is extremely expressive and enjoys a good chat. She is now keen on working to further develop her social skills as she wants to make friends but finds that difficult. She is very proud of her autism diagnosis. She is particularly keen on becoming a woman in science and looks up to strong women like Marie Curie. She has already read several books about her!

Bill was a 20-year-old autistic male with severe learning disabilities and an anxiety disorder, when he was referred to Behaviour Bloom in December 2020. He presented with severe challenging behaviours involving aggression and self-injurious behaviour. Bill also struggled with his weight and had diabetes.

A positive behaviour support (PBS) plan targeting multiple areas was put in place and Bill's care staff were coached on its implementation. One element focused on increasing Bill's tolerance for waiting. This involved inserting a time delay before, during or after specific tasks which was then systematically increased, pending his success at each stage. For example, this strategy was used to increase his tolerance to wait for food which significantly helped with his diabetes. He can now wait up to 30 minutes for ‘snack’ food. Previously, Bill wanted to eat snack foods continuously which had led to serious complications with his diabetes and quite intense aggression.

Following implementation of Bill's PBS plan, staff felt that his behaviour was much more manageable. He now goes out frequently to social clubs, trampolining, sports activities and walks. 

Due to the success of Bill's PBS plan, Behaviour Bloom were able to gradually reduce their input with Bill from 4 visits per month, to 2 visits per month, then finally 1 visit month until he was discharged from our service due to his progress. We are very proud of Bill's achievements and success.