Where Zaylie Started
When Zaylie started at Cornerstone five years ago, everyone was obsessed with her sweet giggles, imagination, and soft little voice. She carried around comfort items like her baby blanket and small toys. Although Zaylie loved to play and sing, she had difficulty communicating what she wanted to play with or if she needed time away from things she didn’t want to do. Zaylie made attempts at communication when adults prompted her using vocal approximations and modified American Sign Language. Zaylie also had difficulty putting her comfort items down to complete tasks and often engaged in long tantrums when asked to do so. Zaylie could not attend to tasks for long periods and could only meet a handful of demands without engaging in tantrums, physical aggression, property destruction, or task refusal.
How Zaylie Improved
When Zaylie graduated from Cornerstone, she could use complete sentences to vocally communicate her wants and needs and often did so with pizzaz! She was a social butterfly and well-loved by her peers and staff alike. Zaylie no longer brought her baby blanket to Cornerstone and was able to put her small toys away in a pencil box without engaging in behaviors when it was time to focus on programming or other tasks. Before graduation, Zaylie was in the full-day transitional classroom and could attend to a teacher at the front of the class, raise her hand, and independently complete classroom activities. Zaylie is so ready to begin her new adventure at school! We will miss her sweet and spunky personality but are so excited for her to move on to the next phase of her life! We are so proud of you, Zaylie!
