advise on modifications that can be made in the classroom. Mona works with the entire lifespan, from babies to the geriatric. Catering to that wide demographic, public education plays a big part in helping her to change the narrative and there have been collaborative efforts with the media to that end. She is also educating families, her staff and her friends, hoping knowledge can be spread through that medium. Mona and her staff at CHATS are also exposing their client-children to different activities, such as taking them horseback riding, swimming, tennis- and by so doing they are teaching the children functional skills, and persons in the community, how to deal with the challenges that interacting with a person with an invisible disability may bring.
CHATS teaches parents to be their child’ s biggest advocate, empowering them so their hope will remain. In addition to speech and language services, CHATS offers early intervention services where they focus on the global development of each child. This program was birthed as many families come to them with the notion that their child will never be able to do a specific thing and that breaks Mona’ s heart, so she reminds her staff that,“ Through our early intervention program we ' re holding the hands of all families and advocating for and with them so their child can achieve functionality within society. We ' re going to make them functional.” And her promise:“ if it takes me 10 years to make your child function, I ' m holding your hand until then.” 80 % of the people she sees are children with autism.
Mona’ s practice is run with genuine care for her families as she knows first-hand the heartache of parents or guardians seeing their child live with an invisible disability.
Her own family having lived through a lengthy emotional rollercoaster before and even after her brother’ s diagnosis, she is determined to change the narrative on the island. Society’ s insensitivity, lack of awareness and acceptance is a constant source of immense stress for families that are already learning how to raise a child with a developmental disorder or learning disability. Support is needed, not shame or blame.
Mona says proudly,“ my brother is severely dyslexic but does that mean that he can’ t learn? Absolutely not! My brother ' s vocabulary is more extensive than mine. He ' s an auditory learner and does things differently. He ' s a good at drawing and he ' s amazing! He has so much to contribute to society and we refuse to let anyone limit him. We are his biggest advocates. He is now a college engineering student and we’ re so proud of him!" brought to life
A room inside CHATS Antigua
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