Stephanie seemed to arrive on this earth like an angel without wings to fly. This blonde-hair blue eyed child passed routinely through her early years with hardly a spoken word to anyone. Her outward behavior appeared normal for one her age, yet her continual lack of speech and the inability to comprehend even the simplest…
by Jenny Marrs When John was born in the fall of 1994, we were devastated with the diagnosis of Down syndrome. We were so scared about what kind of future he would have. Among the tons of literature we were given to help us understand Down syndrome, I found no silver lining, and I only…
by Robert J. Doman Jr. In order to determine appropriate treatment approaches for children with Down Syndrome (DS), one must first, look at “normal” development, and then explore how and why the DS population differs. When considering language acquisition we encounter historic problems that are not dissimilar from those of any of our special…
by Robert J. Doman, Jr. In 1972 I sent my first Down Syndrome child off to her first day of school, in regular class, in a “normal” public school with “normal” expectations, and no special services. Linda was entering first grade, having spent two years with me at the George Crother’s Memorial School. Linda entered…
My story begins on June 7, 1992, when my husband and I received a call about a baby born in another state with Down Syndrome. On June 8, 1992, at approximately 2 p.m., one of the most beautiful babies I had ever seen was placed in my arms. As I looked into his beautiful blue…
Paul and Ann Stephens As I write this account, it is the day after Thanksgiving, 1996. How far we’ve come. How thankful we are that we found NACD. On August 23, 1993, our son, Camron, was hit by a car while riding his bicycle. He sustained serious head injuries and was comatose for four months….
Philip could not speak to be understood until he was four years old. At that point there were only a few words that someone besides myself and his Daddy could understand. We were very concerned. He couldn’t stand noise and began making dull repetitive noises when confusion surrounded him. Lots of pieces to Philip’s puzzle…
Our three children were classified by the school system as learning disabled. One as neurologically impaired and two as perceptually impaired. As a young mother I believed the school system wanted to help our children succeed and agreed to self contained classrooms for two of the three and supplemental for the third child. This began…
In April 1990 we were first introduced to Bob Doman’s program through prayer on our son’s behalf and the referral from some friends. Prior to this our son had been evaluated at age three with intelligence testing; screened for allergy sensitivities at age 7; and participated in vision therapy at age 8. All of these…
Luke was diagnosed as hearing impaired at the age of 11 months. At 2 years of age an Auditory Brain Stem Evoked Response (ABR) showed him to have a severe loss in the right ear and a profound loss in the left ear. We went the conventional route with homebound therapy until age 3, then…