Abaza Family Testimonial

Lara’s Journey with NACD

Lara was diagnosed with Williams syndrome when she was just 1 month old. At the time, the geneticists gave me a list of features and possible challenges of her syndrome and told me to put her in early intervention therapies to try to help her develop and keep up with her age. By the time she was 1 year old, we had already done a full developmental assessment and enrolled her in physiotherapy, oral motor therapy, and cognitive therapy, and I was running around from appointment to appointment with a crying child who seemed completely disconnected from everything going on around her, thinking I was doing my best to help her. For months we kept this routine; however, our struggles were growing. Lara had barely started crawling; she was not communicating with us in any way, and I always had the feeling like she could not understand me. She hated her therapy appointments, and so did I, and despite all our hard work, I could barely see any progress. Until I ran into a mother whose daughter had a similar condition and had been on the NACD program for a while.

I will never forget the first conversation with our coach, which was a breath of fresh air. For the first time, I felt like someone understood my challenges and believed in what my daughter could achieve and not only saw her challenges. Lara, who at the time was very stimmy and disconnected, responded very well to the program. In a matter of weeks, I started to feel like there was a change in her; she was responding to me and seemed more present, and ever since, program time has become the most important bit in our day. As we started the program, we also realized that our daughter had auditory processing disorder, which was causing her significant speech delay, fear of various sounds, and inability to focus on the talking addressed to her. Working on NACD’s program and the sound program, which they put her on as well, had a tremendous impact. She stopped crying randomly as she walked into different rooms and started paying more attention and responding more to us talking to her.

For more than 3 years now, NACD’s program has helped us navigate all of Lara’s challenges and focus on her strengths and capacities. The program addressed her physical development, her processing, her speech, her social/emotional development, and as she got into school, her academic development as well. Lara has progressed tramendously over the past few years, she is now almost 5 years old, an active, social, happy and pressent child, who is very eager to learn. She loves school and is learning very well in both English and Arabic. Her very frequent and immense emotional outbursts have improved tremendously. She is also talking loudly and more clearly than ever, and I am grateful for that every day.

There aren’t enough words to describe how much our program and coach’s guidance have helped not only my daughter but also helped me navigate my anxiety and fears as a mother and focus on helping my daughter the right way, and we depend on that guidance every step of the way.