Hailey's Story (Part 2 of 2)

Part 1 of this story can be found here

 
During her stay in the hospital, Hailey was taken off of all medications. This was an opportunity for doctors to start fresh. She constantly underwent tests and evaluations. Hailey spent three weeks in the hospital and two weeks out-patient. After her hospital stay, her parents enrolled her in the Vanguard Preparatory School in Dallas. The private school specifically addresses the needs of students experiencing academic, social and emotional difficulties. Hailey continued to struggle, but the faculty at Vanguard was more understanding of her behavior and trained to diffuse difficult situations in the classroom.

While Hailey’s school life had become more stable, her home life began to fall apart. Hailey’s father, David, moved out of the house in 2000, leaving her mother Cheri to care for her and brother. Whether it was this instability, or a further progression of her condition, Hailey’s behavior worsened in 2001. One day while at school, she started babbling incoherently. Hailey’s teacher immediately reported the problem and called Hailey’s mother. Hailey was re-admitted to the hospital.

This time, the staff at the hospital had trouble getting Hailey’s cooperation taking tests to determine the problem. She didn’t seem to care. It was as though she had given up. My aunt continued her quest to find out what was going on with Hailey. She began reading more material about Autism and recognized that Hailey’s behavior exemplified many characteristics of Autism. Hopeful that Autism was the explanation for Hailey’s difficulties; my Aunt scheduled a consultation with an Autism specialist at the hospital.

After the specialist spent copious time testing and observing Hailey’s behavior, she indicated that Hailey possessed traits of a child with Autism including social isolation, adverse reaction to touch and abnormalities in her auditory processing. At age 11, Hailey was diagnosed with Autism – specifically Asperger’s Syndrome. The diagnosis came as a relief to my aunt, who was worried that they might never receive an accurate diagnosis for Hailey. People with Asperger’s typically struggle with normal social interactions. Additionally, they typically have circumscribed interests. For Hailey, these interests were animals and art. She always loved animals and was drawing a lot of pictures of animals in a sketchbook.

Over the next few years, my Aunt instituted many changes around the house meant to help Hailey. Lights were kept low, sounds and distractions were kept to a minimum. Hailey thrived on a system of schedules and was responded well to the changes made around the house.

Academically, Hailey was performing well at the Vanguard School. With the right support elements now set up for her, Hailey’s behavior began to improve and her maturity and personal growth began to emerge. Hailey’s interactions improved enough that my Aunt pulled her out of school at Vanguard and enrolled Hailey in a public school near their home to alleviate the financial strain of the Vanguard school.  Hailey was placed in many of the mainstream classes, but she had to be held back a year because the education standards at Vanguard were much lower than those of the public school.

Hailey has thrived academically in the public school environment. Although she continues to struggle socially, she does have a small group of friends with whom she eats lunch and socializes. She received a driver’s license but her time spent driving without her mom’s supervision is limited. Now in her junior year of high school, Hailey is considering her about post high school plans.

Hailey’s behavior has improved dramatically since receiving her Autism diagnosis. Once she was diagnosed, her mother was able to accommodate Hailey better at home and teachers could assist her better at school. Although her behavior is still sometimes unpredictable, she positively interacts with her family and friends more frequently. Once living a life of psychiatric wards, and a myriad of medications, Hailey can now lead a full and rich life as a fully-functioning member of society.