Living in Slate River, just west of Thunder Bay, Alex and Alina Cameron reside in an area where it’s common to come across bears and cougars. Understandably, they always have their daughters Elizabeth, Fiona and Isabelle close to them whenever they’re outside. Fiona, their six-year-old, has autism and requires constant supervision to keep her safe.

“Fiona is a tricky, inquisitive little girl who doesn’t understand the concept of danger right now,” her mother Alina explains. “She is non-verbal, but we actually prefer to say she is pre-verbal. She has a lot of energy, so we need to keep our eyes on her. Not only do we have to worry about cars because she’ll run into the street, but bears, cougars, lynx, and other wild animals wander through our property on a regular basis. She is quick to slip a lock and she wouldn’t understand that any of these things are dangerous and could hurt her.”

Alina and her husband recognized early into their daughter’s diagnosis that she would need ABA therapy. As Alina explains Fiona needs to learn how to learn to make other therapies like speech and occupational therapy more successful. Alina works as an epidemiologist and was drawn to ABA therapy because of its scientific approach. 

“ABA has a solid scientific basis that is growing exponentially right now,” says Alina. “While it may not be right for every child who is autistic, it’s right for Fiona. ABA is teaching her life-saving skills. When you’re teaching kids not to run into traffic or you’re teaching a kid to eat from all the food groups, you’re teaching them essential skills.”

“I wasted a lot of time going down rabbit holes questioning whether or not we should do ABA because I saw a bunch of frightening dialogue online that was not based in science. It was  anecdotal and I hesitated when I should have trusted the science from the beginning.”

ABA has helped the Cameron family better communicate with Fiona. Their daughter is using words to identify objects she wants and her emotional meltdowns are less frequent. Most importantly for the family, Fiona has started to play with her sisters and seeks them out to play which she never did before. 

“Thus far, that’s the biggest part for us having Fiona engage with the family,” says Alina. “She smiles now. She wants to play and pulls us towards a toy or the door to go outside and that’s everything. Thanks to ABA, she’s not off in her own little world anymore. She’s happy to invite us in. She wants us in her world. We can see it brings her joy and it brings us joy.”

Alina still questions how much further ahead they would be with Fiona if they had been able to start her ABA therapy at an earlier age. Fiona has never had access to consistent ABA therapy because of a lack of available ABA providers in her region. Alina says her daughter’s current team of therapists is top-notch.

“Our BCBA is based in Toronto, who supervises our behavioral therapists in Thunder Bay remotely,” explains Alina. “Pre-COVID, she would come up once a month. She’s fantastic, so into collecting the data as BCBAs do. They love their data, finding all the puzzle pieces to help Fiona learn. The team looks at what she does well and things that are barriers to her learning. 

“I love how the BCBA talks to us because she glows about what Fiona is learning and what Fiona knows. Instead of talking about problem areas, she calls them barriers. It’s something that we’re going to overcome with work. She never speaks in a negative way about our child. It’s always very positive. They’re very respectful of her and us.”

In addition to the therapy team, Alina is grateful to be able to lean on and learn from other parents. While she is upset by the lack of resources available to families in the system, she says out of necessity parents with autistic children have come to rely on each other.

“Family groups are so important because they are on top of local resources,” says Alina. “For example, Fiona is exhibiting more and more elopement behaviors. It is a strong pull for her and from talking to other parents I know that this will likely be a concern for the rest of our lives. In this same parent group, we learned about a service called ‘Project Lifesaver’ that makes available an FM radio tracker for your child. It’s a tool that could be especially useful to a family like ours living in a rural area. As I learn more about it, I’ll go online and share with the family groups in our area.”

Family is everything to the Camerons, whether it’s supporting other families or making sure everyone in theirs is happy and healthy. Caring for Fiona can be all-consuming. Alina and her husband also worry at times about Elizabeth, 8, and Isabelle, 4, and strive to give them equal amounts of attention. 

“To their credit, amazingly, ABA is bringing all three girls closer together,” says Alina. “Fiona and the girls have definitely picked up on ABA communication strategies. At times, I hear Elizabeth and Isabelle using the consistent language of Fiona’s ABA program. Fiona’s sisters have inadvertently become little mini therapists because they love her. They love her so much.”

Alina is one of the strongest voices for autism advocacy in Northern Ontario. She joined forces with several other families in 2019 to co-found Northern Autism Families Matter. She also sits as a Northern Representative on the Ontario Autism Coalition Board of Directors.