Best of All- Ana del Carmen, Mexico

The Best of All!

Ana del Carmen is 18 years old and is currently signed up for mathematics, reading, language, kitchen, and social skills programs. She came to GiGi’s Playhouse when she was 14 years old with the great challenge of requiring more support for her learning.

As a teenager, Ana had significant limitations in her social adaptation in interaction with others due to little or no verbal language and little eye contact. She was not ready to work in group programs. However, we decided to provide her with individual support so she would have the same opportunities as others.

In the first classes, Ana had difficulties with limits. It was difficult for her to understand instructions, her attention was dispersed, it was very difficult to keep Ana sitting and following instructions for more than 5 minutes. Her family was discouraged since they could not find the right way to stimulate and enhance Ana’s development.

GiGi’s Playhouse worked with the family to promote understanding, limits, and attention. We started with social skills and knew with adequate interaction and the correct environment it could enhance her abilities. We always believed in her and included her in group programs.

After years of hard work from therapists, family, and Ana, we can say she is currently very motivated, and she has managed to enter the following programs showing the following achievements:

• Social skills: she can take the whole class, stay attentive, and respectfully socialize with others, playing, and waiting her turn.
• Reading: she is attentive for 20 minutes and is starting to articulate words. Ana is locating the same words and letters and she loves doing activities in her notebook.
• Mathematics: works on concepts of understanding and begins to classify and identify numbers from 1 to 10.
• Kitchen: remain attentive and active throughout the class following the instructions of the chef. Chopping, peeling, grating, and cooking on the stove.
• Language: this is a class where she is beginning to repeat some phonemes, likes to sing, and follows the instructions and challenges of the therapist.

There are so many advancements and new challenges that will incorporate her into more programs.

Ana’s parents are very motivated when they see Ana’s results and see that after a lot of effort, perseverance, patience, and love, incredible things can be achieved.

Congratulations, Ana del Carmen!