by Captain Carol Benbrook I will never forget the feeling I had the day when Jack was labelled as autistic, he was five years old and had received a heavy educational input from myself and my supportive family with reading, math and general learning. My husband and I had left our jobs to take our…
by Sharon Lee We had been through nearly four years of searching for answers to our oldest son, Matthew’s, angry outbursts, failure to follow through with instructions, with fear and stress weighing him down. When I was at my whit’s end and totally misunderstood by other moms, a woman from our church told me about…
By Ana Grosshauser It is hard to believe that my involvement with NACD started back in 1992, over 25 years ago. With that said I have had the pleasure of watching many young children grow up to be highly capable adults. Some of these wonderful families are in regular contact while other times I am…
A Testimonial About a Family Helping Each Child Reach Their Full Potential When our son was about four, we took him for a consultation with a well-known pediatric neurologist. Because Ben used just a few words, made little eye contact and showed little interest in other children, the diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise…
Gregge Sandusky I would like to introduce myself to you. My name is Gregge and I’m 13 years old (1999) with Autism. When I was around 2 years old I became weird acting. Something began to change in me according to my parents. I became a stranger to my family and had a lot of…
as told to Iliana Clift Years ago I hung a quote by the Roman orator Cicero on Marcus’s bulletin board that said, “The greater the difficulty…the greater the glory.” This quote describes our journey with Marcus quite well. When we first started the NACD program, he hardly had any speech at all. He was extremely…
by Janine Little, as told to Iliana Clift It breaks my heart to say it, but before we started the NACD program Luke was like a wild animal. He dashed here and there, climbed on tables and cabinets, jumped off and started all over again. He rocked precariously on the seat and back of a…
by Joanna May, as told to Iliana Clift Existing in survival mode—day… after… day… after… day—is downright exhausting. This was my reality. My son screamed incessantly, hid under the kitchen table, refusing to come out for an inordinate amount of time; played for hours with spinning wheels, or stared dreamily as “Dora the Explorer” and…
by Tamara Grosz, Ph.D., Mama Time – Southeast As a mother of a child with special needs I have sat on the sidelines for years excitedly cheering for children of close friends who danced in recitals, played baseball, basketball, football and of course–soccer! It is a bittersweet feeling, participating in these events, you are so…
by Cori Longfellow NACD mom and coach At 2 ½ our son Evan rarely gave us any eye-contact, and did not communicate outside of dragging one of us to the kitchen when he was hungry, repeating phrases he heard on TV, or echoing what we said to him. He could play by himself beautifully for…