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Discover the Heart of ReClif – Our Client Testimonials in Peachtree Corners

At ReClif, our client testimonials are incredibly valuable to us. We appreciate every individual who walks through our doors, and the success that our clients see happening each day is evidence that our coaches and facility are working hard for this wonderful community. Take some time to read through the stories below and then call us to find out how you can experience our unique approach to autism.

Call ReClif in Peachtree Corners at 678-691-5426.

Hear What Our Parents Are Saying

Using Special-Fit to stay Active Read Transcript
Using Special-Fit to stay Active

Immediately I could tell that this was different from traditional therapies we had done in the past. And as a special needs parent, you're always want to do anything you can to help your children. One thing that really stood out to me here is that they presume competence in everyone that comes in here. I didn't have to worry about if my child had any behaviors that day or his body wasn't listening to what his mind wanted to do. That they understood that and they knew how to work with him and kept going and didn't judge him because of that or think that he was any less capable of what he is.
My son had been diagnosed with Hypotonia, which has low muscle tone and in general would be ... It was a challenge to get them to be active. We would go outside as much as we could and go to the playground. But he would struggle with doing some of the basic things. He couldn't really pump his legs to push on the swing or climb things as easily as some of the other children. And he also would have a lot of sensory issues where he was seeking out sensory input. Along with Special-Fit, one of the other services they provide is yoga and that's been great for my son as well. It really is a great environment for him to get the benefits of yoga without the expectations of a regular environment where you're expected to stay in one place and follow the directions all the time.
So it's wonderful that he has this outlet. Before trying yoga, a lot of times there was lack of focus. So there might be irritability and I think it was from sensory issues not being met. I had never seen a program like yoga for kids like Luke, where it was an environment where he could be himself but still get the benefits of yoga. I've really seen where it's going to benefit his flexibility and with focusing on breathing and stretching. It helps settle his nerves. So he can apply that to all parts of his life.
Everyone can benefit from the benefits of yoga with the stretching and breathing and the calming aspects of it. It's a wonderful environment to try it. The parent is welcome to be in the session with the child. If they are anxious without you, and as soon as they feel comfortable without you, then you can just wait outside for them. But it's a wonderful environment and something that you're really not going to find in a lot of places.
What I would say to parents that are considering coming to ReClif is that the people here really take into account the person as a whole and are very patient and regardless of whatever behaviors they might be having that day or whatever might be going on, if their body doesn't want to listen. They're patient. They understand and I just love all the different kinds of programs they have and that they focus on movement and fitness and presume competence.

Helping Non Verbal individuals find their voice Read Transcript
Helping Non Verbal individuals find their voice

With my son being nonverbal, obviously, he would get very frustrated because he would want to express a thought or something and couldn't do it, and there's only so much you can just try and figure out, but you understand why they would get frustrated. And, we have done and still do traditional speech therapy, but I wanted another way to help him find his voice. And, Spelling to Communicate has been a wonderful thing and it's still a work in progress, but it's really exciting to see the progress he's made so far with Austin. And, I think it'll only help to serve him as he grows up, whether it's in school or in life everyone, deserves to have their voice heard.
In our Spelling to Communicate sessions, I really like how a lot of thought is given into the subject that's going to be covered that day. It's age-appropriate, yet challenging. And it's really exciting to see when my son is answering these questions and I find myself just continuously being surprised that I underestimated how much he's really taking in and understanding. So, I really like the effort they put in to challenging my child. I've really just been blown-away, and it all just started with, they just presume competence with him right off the bat.
And, I'm just thrilled with how it's been. Presuming competence is so important, especially in someone who's nonverbal because at first glance, because they're not answering you or giving you an answer, it's easy to think that they're not understanding what you're saying or it's not going through. And this has really opened my eyes, with some of the answers that my son has given during these sessions, just shows, it's like there is so much more going on than meets the eye. And I love that ReClif completely presumes competence and focuses on age-appropriate activities. Where when someone's nonverbal, automatically, they might think that they're way behind, so a lot of the content or they might speak to them in a tone that's for someone much younger, but they know so much more than what they're able to express. So, it's really exciting to see the progress and he's made so far.
What I love about ReClif is all of the staff is just so friendly and understanding. I don't have to worry about how my child is behaving or if he's having a bad day. They just take it all in stride and love him for who he is and work hard to help him be the best he can be.

Using Yoga to help focus Read Transcript
Using Yoga to help focus

With my son, Aiden, doing yoga, I think one of the things that was very valuable for him is learning how to control his body in ways and maintain a kind of core strength and overall muscle tone and strength. He clearly understands what he's being asked to do, but he has a hard time getting his body to do it. The instructors are very patient, and they're demanding, but not over demanding and are happy to sit there and you move your body in a particular way, but they also invite the rest of the family in, and we serve as very good models for Aiden to work and move his body along with this. And we've been doing this for over a year and a half now, and we can see his coordination improving and his flexibility improving and his overall attention improvement.
I think yoga is good for everyone, and one of the nice things about ReClif is that if you get a membership for the individual, then family can participate in any of the activities that the individual is in. So we actually have either some subset or all of our family participate in the yoga all at once, and I think that's a nice kind of bonding. Aiden actually benefits from seeing other people do the yoga, not just an instructor say what to do. So I would take advantage of the fact that you can do the yoga with your child.
Well he tells us about how it wakes up his body, and we actually experimented quite a bit with the order in which we do, because we come in on Saturdays, and do three things all in a row now. And the last is the Spelling to Communicate, and I always thought that, "Oh the problem with that is he's done Special Fit, and he's done yoga, and then he's done the Spelling to Communicate." And we said, "Well by the time he gets to the Spelling to Communicate, is he too exhausted?" And in fact it's the opposite. The Special Fit wakes up his body, and the yoga, I think, it's in tune with his body so then he has more control when it comes to the Spelling afterwards. And he talks about how he needs those other things to kind of wake him up and then be able to do other things.
Well, the Special Fit has clearly improved his strength and his conditioning, but I also think it's improved his attitude. I think he enjoys coming. I know he enjoys coming here, even though sometimes it's hard, even though sometimes we push him harder than it is. And it's not, to me, it's not just about the physical conditioning, it's the fact that this becomes like a home. It's a fun place to go, and we do it as a family, and I think that's really what's made it so rewarding for him and for the rest of us.

A Parent’s take on ReClif’s Mission Read Transcript
A Parent’s take on ReClif’s Mission

Reece's vision had to do with the mind, the brain body disconnect and exercise and so here at ReClif John has done the Fit Light, and the yoga, those are the things he really, really likes. And those work perfectly in terms of helping you learn to control your body, and you do that kind of exercise regularly, it does work. ReClif brings all that together. It brings together the exercise part, which is the brain body connect, disconnect, and it brings together the Spelling, and you have to have both.
Because of the way that ReClif brings that together, it's unique. It is totally unique here in Atlanta. And for someone who has a person with autism, whether they think they have pragmatic language, or they're like my son John who are non verbal, it's critical.
In order to effectively get started, the first thing you do is you presume competence. If your kid is 12, then presume he knows what every other 12 year old knows. Here at ReClif, all of their coaches presume when they are working with anyone, that the person they're working with fully understands them and has simply one challenge and that is controlling their body.
When John gets here, and he's working with Austin, Austin presumes that John is fully capable, and the reason it's important that Austin presumes John is fully capable, is because John, he's only 25. He has a future and in that future, he wants to do something meaningful and he wants to have the ability to do something meaningful and although he'll need support, probably for the rest of his life, the fact that someone's working with him as a young adult who is capable and can do it, it gives him a future.
When you presume anyone is fully competent, you approach them in a completely different way. You approach them as an equal, and you know what? They respond as an equal. If you treat someone as you would like to be treated and you intellectually kind of raise the bar, they're going to meet it. It works for everybody. And the bottom line is is that our people who are autistic and unable to control their bodies, they're in there, they just need a special consideration which means, just see my brain, just see who I am inside. Because I'm same as you.

Keeping Active with Special Fit Read Transcript
Keeping Active with Special Fit

I have taken some classes to learn more about exercise and exercise specifically for young adults on the spectrum. It's been helpful for me to learn more about keeping Caroline fit, but one thing I really like about ReClif and their exercise program here, Special Fit, is that I feel like the trainers are attuned to Caroline and of course, I am as a parent, but it's nice to have someone else to be able to work with your child. Caroline responds to different people differently and I think she gets tired of mom every once in a while, so the fact that I'm able to do some exercises with her and things that I've learned here and at other courses is helpful, but it's also nice to be able to have her come in and associate with trained specialists that know what they're doing and that look at Caroline and say, "Wow, she can do this." A lot of times parents have preconceived notions about what their kids can and can't do, and it's not that way here. You come in and they'll give anything a try, which I think is great.
We come on a regular basis, which I think is great for Caroline. And they work with her on things she needs to work with while working on the goals that they have for each student. So they kind of have a list of exercise that they go through, but the exercises that they do, they work with Caroline and her abilities and adjust them to get her to eventually do the exercise. She may not be able to do it at first, but it's wonderful to watch her progress and see how she navigates things and eventually is doing it just like they had wanted and envisioned for her.
I think Caroline's confidence building, the fact that she is more confident, is helpful for her to see that it's important. And I think she enjoys exercise now. I see a self-confidence or a confidence in her that she didn't have before. She's gaining skills with working out and just control of that body, which is a challenge for our young adults. When she does Special Fit, after we have a Special Fit session, we will do Spelling to Communicate. So that kind of calms from her body and centers her body so that she can move on to the next session that we do here, which is Spelling to Communicate, and it makes her more able to receive and learn.
I enjoy coming to ReClif with Caroline because I feel like I get to see her grow, and change, and watch her progress. And I've got the ReClif staff here as my cheerleaders, they're supporting us and Caroline. And it's just wonderful to see that excitement for her and they're always cheering her on, which is great. And it's such a nice thing for a parent. ReClif is changing the conversation of autism by being inclusive to all of our kids, helping our kids be the best they can be, and being supportive of parents too. I mean, hey, we need the support as well as our kids and it's nice to have that family here.

Using IM to help her daughter focus Read Transcript
Using IM to help her daughter focus

We struggled a lot with Emily's starting on her own, but she would have a delay in starting something so we would have to gently push her, but they told us about Interactive Metronome. They're keeping a beat and so even after that training is done for that day, she still has this little thing that she doesn't just sit back. She starts wanting to do things at a beat. Even when she was spelling, it's like her pointing was very rhythmic. Before Interactive Metronome, Emily was very sporadic all over the letter board when she was trying to work with the letter board. It was always hit or miss like a day would be like, maybe, maybe not and mostly it was maybe not. It wasn't like going to work. When we implemented the Interactive Metronome, I feel like she was more focused and had more push to initiate moving her hand around the board. Interactive Metronome helped her in other ways, not just with the Spelling. It helped her to keep a good beat. Whenever we're listening to music in the car, she's hitting her lap, and it's really, really cool because she did not do that before.
Some of the most beneficial things that we've seen in Emily since coming to ReClif is her frustration level is a lot lower than it used to be because she can get out things that she couldn't get out before. You know, things like ideas and jokes that we as parents were like, I didn't know you had that sense of humor and it's pretty amazing. ReClif opens the door to people who really have a lot to say, a lot inside their minds. ReClif helps take that out and it's so inspiring. It brings tears to my eyes when we leave and I know that my daughter just had this really wonderful session.
The staff here is absolutely wonderful. They have wonderful caring people. When you walk in, you feel like you're walking into a home and they're welcoming you. Everyone knows everyone's name and it's just warming to the heart. And I know Emily feels that too. She never complains. She might have an off day, but she enjoys coming here because I feel like she's like, "I'm going to say something today that's going to knock the socks off everybody." She's gained so much confidence in herself and her and Austin have this really good connection where she knows she sees his face and she knows I'm going to spell today. This is going to be a good day.
Emily feels their compassion when she comes into ReClif. She can feel the welcoming, the love. She just loves how people treat her as a person and not as a two year old. We are extremely, extremely thankful for ReClif. We love coming and seeing what is Emily going to do next? What is she going to say next? Because it's been too quiet for too long. ReClif is giving people with autism a way to prove themselves and improve themselves.

The importance of Presuming Competence Read Transcript
The importance of Presuming Competence

I think one of the important ways that ReClif opens the eyes of people outside this community and helps them understand what these individuals are like, is that they help to demonstrate the- I mean it's one thing to say presume competence about an individual and say, "Yes, these individuals are thinking, breathing, compassionate human beings." But it's quite another thing to concretely demonstrate that. I think they provide numerous case studies of individuals who can demonstrate to you, like my son, my son is pursuing an undergraduate degree and people are amazed that he's able to do that. ReClif is allowing us to demonstrate through those case studies. Here are the different paths that these individuals can pursue and by simply assuming that they are a thinking, breathing individual that has a motor challenge that prevents traditional forms of communication, they show if you can overcome that barrier, then you can demonstrate to people the value of these individuals.

How ReClif has helped with Communication Read Transcript
How ReClif has helped with Communication

About three and a half years ago, I think it was... Atlanta had a very interesting transition, in that, they started to build a community of people who had children on the autism spectrum who were unreliable speakers and my oldest son is one of those individuals. And there was a technique that we were learning about, it went by a variety of different names, currently called Spelling to Communicate.
We were seeing that a number of these individuals were starting to provide for many for the first time and ability to communicate independently by learning the ability to coordinate their motor activity of their finger to point on a variety of different kinds of spelling boards. And Reece Blankenship and his family were part of that community as well, so we got to know Lou and Reece and learned about Reece's vision once he was able to communicate it, and so, before it even started, we were interested in what this mission of ReClif was about.
Atlanta actually is also a unique community as well with respect to this Spelling to Communicate kind of activity. Just in terms of how it's really taken off and grown. So ReClif is one of the few places that provide that as a specific kind of service, but that they wrap that into a kind of whole wellness initiative. The ability to do things that regular people do, regular people go to the gym, but it's hard for individuals with special needs to get the kind of attention for being able to do physical exercise. So I think that's one of the unique things that they provide that Special Fit program, very unique, but then they build off that and provide other kinds of things that you get, like people who want to go to have yoga, but it's difficult to do yoga if you have individuals have hard time with a motor control.
And it's more than just coming here for the services. It's about becoming part of a larger community. I think that's really what makes it kind of unique.
There's a number of ways to think about what's been most beneficial for Aiden, having a consistent place to go for him to work on Spelling. But it's not just for him, it's for the communicating partners. So I participate as a father and a primary communication partner, but we've also brought in teachers, friends. Aiden is the member, but our family is a member and our family and friends are a member. And I think that's really important that they've made that possible for us and I think Aiden benefits from that. On top of that, this has become like a family outing for us. It's like going to the movies or going bowling. We go to ReClif, we work out together on Saturday mornings, we do yoga together on Saturday mornings, then Aiden and I do his Spelling after it. So it's not a chore and it's not a kind of drop him off for therapy kind of thing. It's a family event and I think that's really benefited our entire family.

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3200 Pointe Parkway, Suite 200 Peachtree Corners, GA 30092
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  • Tue: 9:00am-5:30pm
  • Wed: 9:00am-5:30pm
  • Thu: 9:00am-5:30pm
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