Caleb’s Story

Where Caleb Started

When Caleb started with Cornerstone in the fall of 2017, he had limited communication skills. He struggled with articulation, which made it difficult to understand him. Caleb resorted to perseveration to gain attention from others, averaging 24.88 instances per day. Socially, he would play near peers, but he didn’t typically initiate interactions with them. His interests were very specific, and he would prefer to look at clocks rather than play with toys that were typical of his age level. Caleb also needed a lot of assistance with daily living and self-help skills. He had a lot of difficulty staying calm when changes to his routine would occur. His skills were in Level 1 of the Verbal Behavior Assessment (VB-MAPP), and when he began at Cornerstone, he started with 34.5 points on the VB-MAPP assessment.

How Caleb Improved

By the time Caleb graduated from Cornerstone, his language had flourished!  He was able to speak in full sentences and initiate appropriate conversations with his peers.

As Caleb’s language increased, his instances of perseveration decreased substantially, to an average of 1.61 instances per day when he graduated. Caleb also became very interested in his peers, and he had several friends that he would choose to play with often throughout his day. He enjoyed playing board games with them, dressing up as superheroes, and he would also swing with them.

When asked before his graduation what his friends liked about Caleb, they said he was fun and helpful. While at Cornerstone, Caleb also learned how to complete a lot of different self-help and daily living skills independently, including toothbrushing, chewing with his mouth closed while eating, and appropriately choosing a bathroom stall and waiting until it was vacant. Caleb mastered a variety of desensitization programs, including pill swallowing, haircutting, nail clipping and dentist practice.  He also became toilet trained, and mastered a food program, as he is now willing to try a variety of different foods, such as different main entrees and fruits. He mastered the ability to stay calm when unexpected changes to his routine occurred and would communicate his concerns or opinions about the changes appropriately. When he graduated from Cornerstone, Caleb completed almost the entire VB-MAPP, mastering 168.5 of the 170 milestones.

“Caleb is kind and sweet, and he has become such a social butterfly!  He is incredibly creative, is a hard worker, and we are going to miss him a lot.  We are so incredibly proud of Caleb and know he will do great things in Kindergarten!” said Kelsey Endres, Caleb’s clinical coordinator and BCaBA.