Johana Miller, 4, arrived at her Oak Park home from a Haitian orphanage in early November, and expectedly, the transition from an orphanage secluded in the mountainous Port-au-Prince presented some barriers. Her mother, Trina Bauling, recalls that most apparent was Johana's inability to engage with anyone.
Johana's father, Matt Miller, expressed concerns as well.
"We weren't sure how or on what level we could connect with her."
Bauling and Miller enrolled their daughter in numerous Aspire services by December, such as occupational and speech therapies, and relied on Aspire's hearing and developmental optometry clinics.
Ashley Stoffel, Johana's occupational therapist, noticed her lack of engagement and an isolating bewilderment.
"There were so many new things - new places, new smells, a new language," Stoffel said. "She saw snow for the first time. She seemed a little lost about how to participate in this environment."
Aspire has used a thorough, web-like approach to encourage Johana's participation in her environments. And to strengthen the sessions at Aspire, her therapists coordinated goals, progress and therapy methods with Johana's therapists at Oak Park Early Childhood. Aspire's therapists have also taught Johana's parents and siblings how to continue the work at home. The goal, said Stoffel, is to create a consistent language so Johana processes the same information in the same way.
"We work on transferring these skills home," Stoffel said. "Aspire can only be a piece of the puzzle for her."
Jim Kales, Aspire's CEO and president, stressed the integration of the participant's support system.
"At Aspire, it's a comprehensive approach. We're not just treating the diagnosis," Kales said. "We look at the whole person and the family and help them aspire."
The Millers have benefited from it. Johana's oldest sister, Lily, 9, attends Sib Shop, a program for siblings of children with special needs. Also, Aspire notifies Bauling and Miller of special seminars, which typically provide on-site baby-sitting services, specific to supporting Johana and her needs.
Aspire prides itself on innovative therapy, but achieving that is difficult with the deluge of new, sometimes conflicting scientific research. So Aspire has organized a medical advisory council of experts to sort through the research and to focus and guide the development of innovative methods. Included in the council are the head of pediatrics at Loyola and a contributor to television's Good Morning America.
"What Aspire offers are not normal services," Bauling, who also praises the agency's bureaucratic support, said. "They intersect various paths of emerging science that few organizations think of doing."
Because of such diligence and support, Johana's parents are seeing results. After months of mostly silence, the wide-smiled girl recently spoke three words in one week. She can make eye contact and participates in chores at home, such as retrieving the lotion for her baths. Perhaps most importantly, Johana is learning to play and engage with others.
Stoffel is witnessing the change too. "She's a different girl. Johana is showing her personality, her humor, her playfulness," she said.
