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The light switch The Bedtime Routine And now ? When my husband Henrik first suggested ABA therapy to me, I wasn’t sure what it meant for our son Lucas or our family. We were still digesting the diagnosis, not really knowing what the future held. Henrik said that he wanted us to try ABA to support Lucas and develop his potential. We first experienced ABA in Sweden as my husband sought out a specialist when we were visiting for the summer. The ABA specialist recommended that we find someone that lived near us in Zurich, Switzerland where we were living at the time. That’s where we got to know Linda. Right from the get-go, Linda was amazing with Lucas and they quickly developed a strong bond. Initially, she played with him to gain his trust and gently over time, she introduced games and teachings. She would then train us in ABA allowing us to continue the training on our own when she wasn’t around. Linda is incredibly optimistic and always sees the possibilities. We worked on a number of different challenges together. Since working with her, we’ve learnt to believe that things we once thought were “impossible” can in fact be very possible. We love and accept Lucas as he is and we also want him to live his potential. My husband and I have always aimed to have a growth mindset and Linda embodies that. Here's a couple of examples where Linda helped us: The Light Switch Lucas must have been around 5 years old at the time. We lived in a flat that had a communal hallway that had light switches. You know the ones where you push the button and then the light stays on for a couple of minutes before automatically switching off. Lucas developed a fixation around wanting to be the one that pushed the button. If one of us weren’t thinking and pushed it before him, hell would break loose. He would be so upset and there would be lots of tears. I even remember sitting in the hallway waiting for the lights to go off so that he could push it again. It was all very well if we weren’t in a rush to get somewhere but most of the time, we were heading out or coming home and it wasn’t easy for any of us. We had no idea how to fix the issue except making sure that Lucas was the one that pushed the button first. That’s when Linda came to us with an idea. She explained that Lucas wanted to be in control and if he felt he had that, then other people might also be allowed to press the button. She drew a picture of the light switch and printed photos of the family. She then moved a picture of one of us under the light switch and explained to Lucas that this person was going to push the button. Lucas could predict what was going to happen. We would take it in turns to be the person to push it and at other times, Lucas could as well. At the beginning, he always wanted to be the picture under the light switch and be the one to press it but surprisingly, rather quickly, he allowed others to push it too and he was ok with it. It got to the point that anyone could push the button even without putting the picture under the light switch. I knew we were onto a winner with Linda. The Bedtime Routine I dread to think how many different “Stay in Bed” routines we tried. From supernanny’s technique of bringing him back to bed to sitting next to him and inching slowly away to just giving in and lying next to him. Nothing seemed to work. The supernanny technique of bringing him back to bed failed miserably. The technique said not to use eye contact so I tried and every time he came out of his bedroom, I would carry him back in again. Most kids give up after a while and fall asleep. Not Lucas. He was a machine. I started around 7pm that evening and 4 hours later at 11pm with him crying and screaming, was I the one to give up. I couldn’t do it anymore. I tried sitting with him and slowly inching away but Lucas would find it funny and would come and sit next to me, finding it highly entertaining. It wasn’t entertaining for me. It got to the point where both my husband and I just gave in. We would end up lying next to him for what seemed like hours. We would take it in turns and most of the time, we would end up falling asleep before Lucas, only to emerge from the room groggy a few hours later. We didn’t have an evening of our own. That’s when Linda came up to us and said to us “Can you imagine sitting on the sofa for 20 minutes whilst Lucas is in bed?” I burst out laughing as this seemed so far-fetched and impossible. The problem we had was that if we stepped out of the room, so would Lucas. Linda showed us what we needed to do, gaining Lucas’ trust that we weren’t far away, coming back into the room in intervals starting from as short as 20 seconds and slowly building the intervals into longer ones. It took a while initially as the intervals were so short. Lucas started to understand what we were doing and he trusted that we weren’t far away. We were able to start increasing the size of the time intervals. It was like a miracle for us to have our life back in the evenings. As Linda had predicted, we really were sitting on our sofa in the evening and wondering what we could do with our time again. We have bedtime routine working brilliantly for our family now. After changing into PJs, brushing teeth, toilet, a bit of iPad and computer time and a couple of stories, we say good night. We close Lucas’ door and have our evening to look forward to. This I have to say is really all thanks to Linda. Without her support here, we would probably still be lying next to him for hours trying to get him to sleep. And now? I am originally from the UK and had lived in Switzerland for 19 years. As a family, we decided to move to the UK for Lucas’ schooling. We wanted to make it easier for Lucas language wise by dropping German and concentrating on English. We also felt that we can advocate for Lucas better in English. We continue to work with Linda as her inputs and insights are so valuable to us. Like all families, we have our challenges. We are learning and growing all the time, seeing what works and what doesn’t and adapting along the way. We try to double down on what works and learn from our experiences. We’re really proud of Lucas and all the progress we have made together. It’s a lifelong journey and we also have a lot of fun along the way. Linda has a strong growth mindset. Like I said before, she makes what may at first feel impossible – in fact very possible. We are incredibly grateful to have her in our lives and we love working with her. We highly recommend her and her services!