Jade’s Story

Jade was born at 29 weeks 6 days in July of 2012. After a rough start to life with her twin brother Ivan, she was released from the NICU after eight weeks. At eight months old, Jade was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at Helen Devos Children’s Hospital, a direct effect of her early delivery. At a year old, Jade stopped meeting milestones at the same rate as her twin brother. It became apparent that her development was delayed and we began the processing of finding out what was causing her to fall behind. At age 3, Jade began the ECSE program in public schools for speech, occupational and physical therapy. Shortly after, she was discovered to be on the autism spectrum and also to have sensory processing disorder. In the beginning, Jade’s diagnosis was both scary and disheartening, but with the help of her doctors and her amazing therapists and teachers, we have come a very long way. Jen Bleckiner, Jade’s speech therapist, alongside her teacher, Michelle O’Hagan, Jade started to use a PECS communication device to tell those around her what she wanted and needed. In October of 2020, Jade’s mom read an article about the use of a communication device on a playground in another state and thus began the idea for Project Jade.