Kaylee, six-years-old, and her family traveled to the Greater Philadelphia Area from Wisconsin for CommuniCamp™ Intensive Group Treatment Program. Before 
getting treatment from the SMart Center, she spoke only at home—not at school, not at her friends’ houses, and she did not speak to her grandparents who she saw once/week, cousins, aunts, or uncles.
Angie, Kaylee’s mom, shared her experience with us six months after attending CommuniCamp™: “We have had tremendous progress since camp!! We went to camp 100% non-verbal with anyone beyond mom and her dad, for over a year. Between switching to a therapist who specializes in SM and attending CommuniCamp we have a totally different child 6 months later and it is unreal. We never thought that we’d ever see this day. She is speaking to ALL of her family members again, so many friends we can’t even count, her teachers, and even strangers at the store and ordering her own food! CommuniCamp was what kicked it into gear for us for her. We left camp with an understanding that communication can happen in many different ways. She came back still not speaking to anyone beyond mom and dad, but she was much more comfortable communicating in a way that was comfortable for her and she started to make connections to the same things from camp that we were trying to implement from her local therapist. Someone would ask her a question and rather than freezing up, she would turn and use mom or dad as a verbal intermediary all on her own. Prior to that we would have to prompt her and she would rarely do it. It just blew up from there, kind of like popcorn…it started and just keeps popping! We NEVER thought we would be where we are today. The months leading up to camp was a dark time because we just didn’t know how we were ever going to overcome this and felt helpless. We still have lots of work to do and this is not over, but the progress thus far has been surreal and we cannot believe it!”
