12 yrs ago when I started as an Autism Support Worker, I was given a child to work with whose Clinical Supervisor and parents informed me that he will never speak, according to the doctor at the time of diagnosis. I tried so hard to enter his world and invite him into mine, but he seemed to not be aware of me. The only thing that interested him was playing with and looking at lions. He even repetitively said the word 'lion'. I thought to myself, how does this make sense? How can a child who is non-verbal so adamantly say the word lion! That night, I did not sleep, I spent every hour building a lion costume (this was before the era of onesies). I went to work the next day dressed like a lion, ate, drank, played, roared, and pounced like a lion! I'll never forget the look on my client's face, we finally made a connection, he let me play with him, and by the end of the day he started verbally requesting me to play with him as a lion! I showed his mom and his clinical supervisor and we all cried because this child was never supposed to speak according to his doctor and we almost never gave him an opportunity to try. Programming shifted and focused on functional communication and he began to talk! This experience is what set me down the path of becoming a BCBA.
