ODESSA, Texas —
6-year-old Jace Rodriguez is filled with energy.
He loves talking and playing, but he wasn't always able to.
"When he started here at 3 years old, he spoke less than 50 words,” said Jace’s mom Jeanette Rodriguez. “Random, no coherence to it."
Jace is autistic and has apraxia, which made it difficult for him to communicate in early childhood. But with more than two years of therapy at the Permian Basin Rehab Center, Jace is becoming a new kid, one step at a time.
"Even when he started from last year, he was a new kid and from last year until this year, he's another different kid," said Rodriguez.
Jace has worked his way up from simple tasks to making some serious progress.
"That was our first goal is just to be able to interact with others, and now he's working on so many different things,” said occupational therapist Laura Venesky. “He's doing cutting, he's doing writing, he's doing all the pre-school skills and all the other skills, and it's been really cool to see him grow."
“We started with just simple phrases like ‘I see dog,’ ‘I see cat,’ and just kind of slowly worked our way up from there,” said speech therapist Kathryn McGowan. “And now we're working on when questions, what questions, and just answering those w-h questions."
Since coming to the rehab center, Jace's progression has opened new doors.
"He is just so comfortable with everybody, he's like Mr. PBRC,” said McGowan. “Anywhere he goes, everybody loves him and he's just a light in front of everybody. But at first, he couldn't really look at you, tolerate being around you, we kind of worked on saying ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ to people, and now it's like we have to pull him away from everybody so we can go work because he is just a social butterfly, so it's just amazing to watch."
Mr. PBRC was named this year's patient representative, and he's just scratching the surface of his developments.
"He's met so many goals,” said Venesky. “He's able to write his name now, and he's almost age appropriate with a lot of his fine motor and visual motor skills, and our next adventure that we're taking on is feeding. So, he's a picky eater, and so we're going to work on expanding his diet a little bit, and that's what our main new focus is going to be going into 2023.”
“My goals are for him to continue navigating this world better, and the people in it,” said Rodriguez. “He's already improved, but there is always more and always another goal for him to reach. So, just you know, navigate his world more and better."
Those people helping Jace navigate his world are his therapists, and they’ve bonded in a way that's become inseparable.
"His relationship with his therapists is gold,” said Rodriguez. “I mean it's, they are great with him, and they know him well, like on a personal basis they know his personal interests. And they use that to the therapy's advantage, and I think that's also helped him improve."
"Jace is, he's, my favorite,” said McGowan. “He's, my boy. He's always going to have a special place in my heart. It was just tough to see at first. Just because I felt kind of helpless not being able to help him. But just to see the growth over the past couple of years, it was amazing to see. It really just, I am so happy that he's able to communicate now. I don't know what I'd do without Jace. I'm sad when I don't get to see him during the week, and like I said, he makes my life better, along with everyone else's."