Juliette’s first 7 months of ABA therapy for autism. Juliette developed normally at first, crawling, walking and talking at the expected times. She acquired language rapidly, and seemed like a fairly typical child. However, at about 20 months her behaviour worsened and she started losing skills, eye contact and all her language. Juliette commenced therapy at 2 years 2 months and was given a diagnosis of severe autism soon after. At this point she could not understand or follow a basic one step instruction such as “do this” (tap table). She was functionally non-verbal and had to be taught to say basic words such as “mummy” “yes” and “no”. She was taught PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) early in her program. Although PECS was originally designed as a communication system for non-verbal kids, in many children it had the unexpected effect, when done well, of triggering expressive language. This is exactly what happened with Juliette, with a relatively short space of time she started using her words, allowing PECS to be phased out. Juliette has made excellent progress in the past 2 years and is an absolute delight with a wicked sense of humour. Her eye contact and social interaction is good, and while she still has a language delay, we continue to see significant gains from month to month.