"We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly Caleb picked up skills as the weeks went by."

Caleb’s parents were concerned that he did not seem to be meeting his speech milestones at the early age of one year. After further evaluation at Rochester Hearing and Speech Center, Christine Fogarassy was assigned to work with Caleb to help him overcome some of the barriers that were holding back his progress. Though Caleb's time with Christine was relatively short, Caleb’s parents were hearted by how much he learned.

Christine worked with Caleb using TeleTherapy and a parent coaching model. His ability to communicate and engage with his parents grew rapidly. For example, Caleb learned to sign simple words and phrases for “milk”, “more”, and “all done”. He also learned to be more attentive and engaged and to take turns during playtime with his parents.

The most exciting milestone was Caleb learning his first word! He was able to say "dede" in his native Filipino language combined with the sign for "milk" to let his parents know he was hungry. Christine used numerous methods to help his parents gain Caleb’s attention and spark his interest in interacting with them, and he also learned to communicate with them using pictures.

"We appreciate that Christine always had something for us to work on within the week between therapy visits as it gave us a goal to reach for, and we were pleasantly surprised at how quickly Caleb picked up skills as the weeks went by," remarked Caleb's mom, Ms. See.

"Even though we could only do TeleTherapy due to the COVID pandemic, Christine was enthusiastic in interacting with Caleb. She was always ready with various videos to gain his attention, and she taught us many activities to help us interact with Caleb to assist in his learning. We are grateful for the time that Christine spent with us, and we are very encouraged about Caleb’s future growth and learning."