Our son, Sam, is a high-functioning Autistic 7 year old. He didn’t start talking until he was 4 1⁄2, and now he talks non-stop! Just before finishing the 1st grade in May, he began reading past his finger, getting stuck on word parts, beginning, and ending sounds, and was very frustrated, as were we. I thought it was just the change in our schedule and routine, but with time, it only got worse. The worse it got, the more frustrated he got. Previous speech therapy didn’t help Sam. We were referred to Mr. Tim by our other son’s speech therapist. We were so fortunate to find Mr. Tim! Before beginning the F.A.S.T. Fluency approach, my family and I were not sure of what to say to our son, and felt all alone in our situation. We felt like we were doing and saying all the wrong things to him.

We started going to Mr. Tim in June, and Sam loves to go to speech class -- he looks forward to our sessions, and even drags me into the office. He participates during the whole session, and is totally engaged the entire time. Tim uses a variety of techniques to work with Sam, all of which are fun and entertaining, so Sam doesn’t see it as work at all. The best part of the session is that he involves the parents so we know what to do once we leave the session, rather than sitting in the waiting room the whole time wondering what is going on.

After just 5 sessions, we noticed a HUGE improvement in his talking. Sam now is correcting himself, recognizing when he has bumpy words and makes them smooth on his own, and role- plays being Mr. Tim. He even made me buy a magnetic dart board, which they use as rewards for smooth speech during the session, and we use it at home when we are reading or talking.

Mr. Tim has a gift, and we are so fortunate that we found him. He teaches with warmth, humor, and without making my son feel self-conscious at all about his talking. He gets our family’s seal of approval!