From the moment Fabu started vocalizing, she seemed to have her own language, which sometimes only FabuMom would understand. Fabu has always been a happy kid and expressed herself by hugging people. She did not often get frustrated when she was not understood. When asked a question she did not understand, she would answer in her own way, smile, hug you, and you clueless as to what she had just said.
We thought the delay initially was because we are a bilingual family, which not only did we speak to her in both English and Spanish, but so did her grandparents and extended family. We believed Fabu was just confused by both languages, and it was just taking her a little longer.
Fabu had reached her walking milestone at an earlier age than most other children. Her pediatrician had said that oftentimes when this happens, other milestones such as language take a little longer to develop.
Fabu did not start attending daycare until she was 3 years old. Fabu’s grandparents spent most of the day with her while FabuParents were at school and work. We believed this also had to do with the delay in speech because they catered to her every need, and she did not need to say much to obtain what she wanted and more. All she would need to do is point a finger, and she would get whatever she wanted. We believed that she would immediately catch up to where she needed to be concerning her speech as soon as she started school.
Despite her lack of vocabulary and speech, which she did not understand, Fabu always made sure you understood her by her gestures and acting out what she wanted to say.
Fabu was formally diagnosed with speech delay at 4 years old.
She started receiving speech therapy 2 x week.
We were hopeful that with therapy, she would quickly overcome the delay. We knew that therapy needed to be aggressive and agreed to 2 x week.
Her speech therapist was going to Fabu’s daycare 2 x week. She would get pulled out of her class for each session. We were hopeful that Fabu would obtain results quickly.
Fabu went through 3 different therapists within 2 years. Each of them had the same feedback: Fabu was a happy and friendly kid who lacked interest during a session, was normally not engaged, did not pay attention, and rejected participating in therapy overall. Fabu’s improvement was minimal during this time, and we became increasingly more concerned.
As the first grade was just around the corner, we became worried about all the possible issues that Fabu could face if she did not significantly improve her speech, such as social issues, behavior issues, anxiety, and depression. This was when we decided to take matters into our own hands.
Based on the therapists' feedback, our first task was to look for something that she was interested in, wanted to be a part of, and thought was fun. It was time to get creative!
We tested her level of interest with many things she liked at that time. We looked for things she found entertaining and was engaged with for long periods of time. We found that she enjoyed many things but most did not capture her attention for long enough.
We discovered that her most captured attention was when she watched several kid-friendly YouTube channels and their content. She kept bugging us about letting her have her own YouTube channel, something we had never even considered. In a moment of appearing to entertain her idea, we asked her to use her tablet and record herself and make a video of what she would like for us to put on YouTube. We never imagined she would actually go and do it. To our surprise, she made several videos which showed her expressing herself better than we had ever seen or heard her before. This showed us that she had really focused her attention on making those videos, which was something she was interested in and seemed to provide some hope.
We continued to entertain this idea and keep our promise of creating a YouTube channel for her and, with a camera, headed to a park to film her official INTRO video. After we saw how motivated and engaged she was during filming, we decided to create a YouTube channel for Fabu named FabuRocks. Fabu, short for Fabulous, has been her nickname since she was born, and Rocks came from her obsession with collecting rocks from wherever we went, where she had a story for each rock she had.
As we wrap up Season 1 YouTube Therapy, we are interviewing members of the FabuFam and FabuArmy. We are excited to dive deep into a discussion regarding their mental health and how each of them has used their hobbies to overcome the many obstacles faced daily.
Today we welcome FabuArmy NOOB and will be discussing in greater detail ADHD. Through open discussion we hope to, educate, inspire and empower others facing the same or similar struggles.
As we wrap up Season 1 YouTube Therapy, we are interviewing members of the FabuFam and FabuArmy. We are excited to dive deep into a discussion regarding their mental health and how each of them has used their hobbies to overcome the many obstacles faced daily.
Today we welcome FabuFam ARROW and will be discussing in greater detail Asperger Syndrome. Through open discussion we hope to, educate, inspire and empower others facing the same or similar struggles.
As we wrap up Season 1 YouTube Therapy, we are interviewing members of the FabuFam and FabuArmy. We are excited to dive deep into a discussion regarding their mental health and how each of them has used their hobbies to overcome the many obstacles faced daily.
Today we welcome FabuFam LexxTv and will be discussing in greater detail DEPRESSION. Through open discussion we hope to, educate, inspire and empower others facing the same or similar struggles.
Within ten months, we had more positive results than all of 2 years of conventional therapy. This was enough validation for us that we had made the right decision as a family for Fabu by dedicating our full attention and time to her. At this point, Fabu was in 2nd grade and showing improvement not only in academics but also socially. She was not yet reading at grade level. Still, her teachers on numerous occasions commented that Fabu was more willing to participate in class and was even chosen to read in front of the whole school a report she had written about Aphrodite.
We were so proud of her accomplishments...
Fabu had not been exposed to gaming on multiple platforms such as Xbox and VR. VR gaming had just come out, and Fabu wanted to play VR games often. These were not only fun for her but all of us as a family.
Our strategy was to expose her to a variety of gaming choices besides pc games like Minecraft and Roblox and app games like plants vs. zombies. We knew that eventually, she would pick the games that she was most comfortable with or piqued her interest the most...
Fabu enjoyed playing Minecraft, Roblox, and other games at that time. We began noticing she was losing attention quicker than we expected. We were hoping she would continue as engaged and motivated to play as she was with Pokémon Go previously. So, we decided at this point to switch up the content again. We put gaming on pause and returned to something she was familiar with and had done before… unboxings. However, this time she was unboxing gaming equipment. We planned to challenge her and take her out of her comfort zone, so she would have the freedom to continue to express herself as she did during gaming and IRL.
We took advantage of having bought a new Xbox, the Oculus Rift, and a new tablet for her to unbox. A new tool used with these videos, which was unique, was to research the item being unboxed and talk about it in her own words. This is something which she currently does until today with each unboxing video. This strategy worked, and the results obtained were exceptional...
We now transitioned to gaming therapy after the Pokémon Go burnout.
At this point, Fabu was reading under grade level. Reading was something that we wanted to include in the new therapeutic content.
We were on the hunt for a game that she liked to play, which would have all of the factors we were looking for. We started with Plants vs. Zombies, which Fabu played on her tablet. This was a game she liked and played often.
Quickly we moved onto Roblox because it had different mini-games that held her interest. We were looking for one that had more reading involved but did not find one on Roblox.
The good thing about Roblox was that it had a big community, and this was when Fabu started playing online with others. She was not in direct communication with anyone, but she liked playing with others even though she was not talking directly to them...
We got together with our sponsors Turtle Beach & ROCCAT to thank all of you for supporting our FabuRocks Podcast.
Season 1 - YouTube Therapy
Episode 11 - Pokémon Go Burnout
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We spent way too much time on Pokémon Go and knew that Fabu would lose interest at one point or another.
Fabu is young, and with ADHD, her attention on something does not last long.
Her interest in Pokémon Go lasted longer than we ever expected.
We knew that her therapy needed to evolve into something new. By this point, we had done DIY, unboxing toys, IRL, Pokémon Go, and learned different things along the way.
DIY was great for Fabu to explain what she was doing; toy unboxing was a success; going to different fun locations and exciting; IRL helped her develop her social skills more than anticipated...
Pokémon Go came out, and we were hooked immediately!!
What we loved the most about this game was that it brought grandparents, parents, and kids out playing the same game. We also loved that we discovered new places, beaches, and parks we had never been to before. Most weekends were spent hanging out with other Pokémon Go trainers and participating in raid events, which helped Fabu be more social...
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