Six Months In: This is what actually changed

Quick Recap - 

Aisha was diagnosed autistic at the age of 2.5 years. She is now 8. Over the last 6 months I have been working with her on her developmental goals alongside the ongoing therapies (OT & Speech). 

I based this on a mix of naturalistic, evidence-informed approaches (like NDBI, JAML, and MTW), adapting them for what we could actually do in everyday situations. I’ll share more about this in a later post. 

When we began, I was trying to figure out if anything was working. There were small moments, a lot of doubt, and many days that didn’t make sense. Over time, I started documenting everything - not just what Aisha did, but what I was seeing underneath it.

This post is different from the previous ones. I’ve stripped away the fluff and focused only on what actually made sense over the last six months - what changed, what worked, what didn’t, and what I’ve learned along the way.

When I started in November 2025, the goal was simple:

Could I meaningfully support Aisha’s development at home and accelerate her progress alongside therapy?

But six months in, one thing has become clear:

This isn’t just about complementing therapies. As a parent, I can do much more than I initially thought.

The Journey -  

This is not just a before-and-after. It’s how the journey actually unfolded. I will break it into multiple short posts for better readability. Here we go - 

We started working on three core systems - Joint Attention, Early Communication and Social Interaction. 

We started with Joint Attention - building connection first. Once the Joint Attention foundation was solidified, we started to layer in the communication. I observed that connection helped retain functional words and Aisha started using them with purpose. 

Once we progressed a bit, I observed one more thing - Aisha would stare at a group of children when near to them or she would stand close to them. But she was unable to get in the interaction. She did not know how. I treated this as a signal. I wanted to capitalize on her intent and immediately started the Social Interaction interventions with her. 

At that time I did not fully understand how the three domains would interact. There were constant questions - 

• Am I doing it right? 
• Am I going too fast? 
• Am I reading the signals wrong? 

I did not have answers then. But over time something became clear. I realized that  - 

Direction is not the problem. The system was starting to align!

Data Became The Guide - 

To answer these questions and understand where things were heading, I turned to data.

Below is a domain-wise progression and loading view of the three core systems over six months:

1. (Nov) — Foundation

Joint Attention began to build

• Shared attention started emerging
• More noticing and brief engagement
• Early connection, but not sustained

2. (Dec) — Communication Activation

Intent started turning into expression

• Requests and signals became clearer
• First meaningful use of words/signals
• Still inconsistent, but purposeful

3. (Feb) — Social Reciprocity

Interaction became two-way

• Turn-taking crystallized
• Shared interaction loops appeared
• Responses were no longer one-sided

4. (Mar–Apr) — Integrated Growth

All domains started working together

• Attention, communication, and social began reinforcing each other
• Skills showed up in real-life situations
• More stable, more natural interaction

What It Meant For Me:

Over these six months, three things shifted:

• Attention moved from something I had to create -> to something we shared
• Communication moved from prompted words -> to meaningful use
• Interaction moved from participation -> to real back-and-forth

And the most important part: 

these did not grow separately - they built on each other

Looking at it this way, the progression stopped feeling random and started making sense. In the next post, I will translate this into real life - what actually changed in everyday situations, then vs now.