AEIOU News

Testimonial - Riley Foulis

Mon, 29 May 06

Our story is one of hope and inspiration. Originally from Melbourne, we are the Foulis family, Steve, Lynda, Bailey (6), Riley (4) and Heath (1).

Our son Riley was diagnosed with autism 8 days before Christmas in 2003 at the age of two and a half. We were devastated and didn't know who and where to turn too.

We were lucky enough for Riley to gain a spot at a Government funded centre in Melbourne for 2004 where he attended on Thursday mornings for two and a half hours. Although this was a fine centre we realised after many hours of research that he wasn't receiving enough early intervention and when we were told by the centre that due to lack of Government Funding Riley's hours would be reduced to one and a half hours in 2005 we decided that something had to be done.

We came across a new centre opening in Queensland called AEIOU that was offering 5 days of quality early intervention. After Riley was selected as one of the 12 children fortunate enough to attend the school's first year we immediately made plans to move states so that Riley could have the best chance of overcoming his difficulties.

During 2005 Riley came along in leaps and bounds and exceeded our expectations. We then knew that we had made the right decision. We can now go shopping as a family, go to restaurants and Riley happily plays with his brothers rather than with his dinosaurs by himself in his bedroom.

This year Riley has been attending AEIOU for 2 days a week and pre-school for 3 days. Riley's development has been amazing and he is now comfortable in his pre-school environment and has many friends. When Riley recently told us that he wanted to go to pre-school today and not AEIOU we were so happy for him.

We will be forever indebted to all of the teachers, staff and the Morton family for giving Riley the chance to be the best that he can be. The teachers were extremely professional and passionate about helping all of the children and we only hope that many more children with autism can have the same chance.

We will also be forever inspired by Riley who has worked so hard and we are all very proud of him.