MeRT for Autism

Featured in Autism Parenting Magazine

“In the third week, something happened. The family was driving around sight-seeing when they realized that they were getting lost in the California desert. Mary and Frank began to argue, and right in the midst of it, the moment they had waited six years for finally came. “I remember he said a seven-word sentence basically to the effect of ‘I want you two to stop fighting.’ And it shocked me so much that I almost stopped breathing,” Frank recounts. “I looked at my wife and said ‘Do you realize what just happened? He just said a seven-word sentence.’ I had tears in my eyes, and I was happy at the same time. He was so upset that it pushed these words through.”

From there, Frankie’s progress snowballed. They returned home after only a month, but the difference between the child who arrived in California and the one who left was striking. They had taken a video of Frankie on the plane when they started the journey, “and he’s just making baby babble,” Frank says. “We have another video of him on the plane coming back. And he looks out the window and says, ‘Goodbye California, see you soon.’ This was a nonverbal kid, 30 days later. And his feet are flat on the ground.”

Doctors said Frankie would continue to improve even without regular MeRTalbeit a bit slower. Today, he is 11 years old, verbal, and attends a public school. He tells Frank stories about times when he wanted to speak but couldn’t. “He goes ‘You know, I’m so glad we went to the brain treatment because now I can talk,’” says Frank.