Meet the
LUDINGTON-BARQUET FAMILY Mariana, Darren, Sofia, Jack
by Angelica N. Gray, MA, BCBA, LBA Photos by: Heather Gregg – 21 Vines Photography
Meet the Barquet Family
Mariana and Darren’s love story began in Mexico City in 2001. They moved to the US 16 years ago and relocated to Farmland 9 years ago. They lived in Virginia and then Miami where they welcomed their daughter Sophie in 2009. The Ludington-Barquets completed their family with the birth of their son Jack in Muncie, IN on 2012.
Jack was born profoundly deaf and with other developmental disabilities and when he transitioned to preschool, he needed the specialized services of an Oral Deaf Program to ensure his progress with his language, so the Ludington-Barquets relocated to the Indianapolis area when Jack was about 2 years old. His parents stated that time is of the essence when you have a little one that needs to develop spoken language due to the limited window of opportunity allowed by the neuroplasticity of a young brain.
18 Special Needs Living • August 2021
Mariana shared that she and Darren didn’t know if Jack would learn to listen and talk. He was bilaterally implanted with cochlear implants at the age of 14 months. Due to his low muscle tone, his physical development had been affected and they needed to work on many areas of need. The family found themselves working on a variety of skills all at the same time, with several different interventionists that supplied invaluable knowledge and support to them. Mariana recalls that time was ticking and Jack needed high intensity of services. He then started in a full-day program the day after his 3rd birthday and remained in that school for three and a half years. He received daily speech therapy in addition to PT and OT weekly services. Mariana exclaimed that “No one tells you the amount of hard work that a kid with special needs will need!” She said that the family started to “look
