At the time, my son was attending a private school in a small town, which struggled to provide the resources and time necessary for him to thrive. NACD equipped me with the tools and techniques to effectively tutor him, and I saw immediate improvements in his reading abilities. Prior to our engagement with NACD, he was processing information at a level typical of a 5-year-old, even though he was 7. He was at the end of first grade and reading at kindergarten level.

Through NACD’s targeted activities, like digit sequences, he began to mature and gain awareness of the world around him. It’s been incredible to watch him grow in confidence and see his self-esteem improve. NACD not only provides educational support but also empowers me as a parent to help my son reach his full potential. Thank you, NACD, for your invaluable assistance and guidance!

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“Your son may not survive the night”, doctors told us soon after our son, Baran, our firstborn, was born in 2009. Baran had suffered moderate hypoxic ischemia at birth. What started as a healthy pregnancy ended with our son being deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes. Needless to say, my husband and I were in shock. Those are words no parent ever wants to hear. Thankfully, Baran made it through the night, but we would learn a few days later that in addition to suffering moderate brain damage, he also suffered a stroke. Doctors told us he had a significant chance of being physically and developmentally delayed. We were devasted. 

The months that followed included many PT sessions, then OT, and then speech therapy. At 18 months old, Baran was diagnosed with speech apraxia. This diagnosis began a seven-year commitment to speech therapy sessions three days a week. At this point, my husband and I decided that I should quit my career to stay home with Baran and our newborn daughter, Maya. We moved from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio to be near family. I knew we had a long road ahead of us, and we needed the support of family. 

The early elementary years for Baran involved many IEP meetings, more speech therapy and a diagnosis of moderate receptive/expressive delay, which made reading comprehension and writing very difficult for him. Every IEP meeting left me feeling hopeless. I worried about his future daily and began searching for ways to help him. In my research, I discovered a book titled “The Brain That Heals.” There were so many therapies described in this book that helped people with brain injuries and so many stories of hope. I continued to search various therapies and came across The Listening Program. This was my first entrée into NACD. I remember talking to Lori about TLP, and she encouraged me to join NACD’s program. At the time, I didn’t think I could ever home educate my child and actually implement some of the therapies he needed. I didn’t feel qualified to do any of that. I told Lori that we’d start with TLP. In just three short months of using TLP, Baran’s reading score on the standardized reading test increased from below range to average range. I was thrilled. We also incorporated Simply Smarter into our daily routine. 

Unfortunately, during Baran’s second grade year, he suffered a seizure for the first time, and a whole new set of challenged confronted us. At that point, I filled out the online forms to fully participate in NACD, but I was still unsure about being qualified to implement their program. Luckily, Pam in the main office nudged me a bit, and before I knew it, we had our first evaluation with Bob at the end of Baran’s second grade year. Bob was so encouraging. My husband and I left that evaluation filled with so much hope. This was in sharp contrast to leaving IEP meetings in tears and with a pit in my stomach. We got started on program right away the summer before Baran entered third grade. By the fall, he no longer qualified for math services because his test scores were too high. At the next IEP meeting, I felt empowered. I knew what my son needed to excel. Unfortunately, my goals for him didn’t align with what the school deemed he needed to be successful. I remember Bob saying to me, “Melissa, I think you would feel a weight lifted off your shoulders if you home-educate Baran.” One month later, Covid hit, and all classes were online. I started to see how ineffective traditional instruction was for Baran. By May, my husband and I decided that I would home-educate Baran and our daughter, Maya, who joined NACD in the summer of 2020. 

Being a part of NACD has been wonderful for our family. Their programs are more than just an education plan. This is a lifestyle. Sara and Bob remind my husband and I all the time to challenge our kids, to give them chores, to assign tasks that will lead to more independence. I remember a few years ago I had a friend visit me from San Francisco. She and I were up late talking so I took the liberty to sleep late the next day. The next morning, Baran and Maya were up with their alarms, unloaded the dishwasher, and made breakfast for themselves before I even came downstairs the next morning. My friend, an early riser, was in awe of their self-sufficiency and chores at ages 10 and 12. 

Our daughter Maya is a typical kid doing not-so-typical things. Over the past two years, we’ve been entertained by the plays she’s written, directed and acted in with the help of her neighborhood and homeschool friends. At one point, we had 22 adults sitting in lawn chairs in our driveway watching one of her plays being performed in our garage. She also started her own handmade greeting card business, Creative Cards, selling cards at children’s business fairs to raise money for a local dog shelter. NACD has encouraged us to let our kids explore their passions.

Our son, who doctors thought may never walk, found a passion in running cross-country. For three years he’s been participating in a local running company’s programs for kids his age. In 2024, he ran in our city’s annual 5k for a second time, this time coming in 40^th place out of 1,000 runners and 10^th in the under-19 age group. He also started taking drum lessons two years ago. At first, my husband and I were regretting our encouragement that he take up playing the drums. Our noisy household became even louder! But, two years later, we find ourselves really enjoying Baran’s jam sessions. Recently, he participated in his first concert onstage in front of an audience, and he joined a rock band with other musicians his age. He still struggles with reading comprehension and writing and seizures, but he’s finding his voice in music and keeping himself in great physical condition by running.

I still have days when I get frustrated and wonder if we’ll ever go beyond X numbers on digit spans or master a certain math concept. And then, Sara reminds me to look back at prior evaluations to see how far we’ve come!

Thank you, NACD, for helping us see the potential in our kids, despite their challenges, and for encouraging us, as parents, to encourage their independence and see that they are highly capable. 

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I never tire of hearing stories like the one we are sharing with you today. This family worked together and totally transformed their daughter’s confidence through opening up all new abilities. When I first started with Stella, only a short while ago, it was apparent that we were working with an intelligent, hard working girl with minor issues in several areas. By addressing and accelerating her processing abilities relative to short term memory, working memory, and long term memory, she was able to make great strides in her abilities. In addition to focusing on these pieces, we freed her up from a package of academic busy work and taught her to love learning. Hearing how this has impacted her life and the lives of her family is what keeps the staff at NACD doing what we love to do. Read all about their journey:

From Marie, Stella’s mother

My name is Marie, and I am the mother of Stella. We have been receiving NACD services since September 2022. Over the last nine months our family has gone through multiple challenges and changes, including moving from Texas to Puerto Rico, becoming farmers, and starting homeschooling. NACD has been an important part of this change, as it has provided us with guidance and support. Stella started her education at home with me when she was very small. Before her 1^st year of age, I started reading to her, singing, showing her colors, and stimulating her physical, emotional, and cognitive development as much as I could until the age of 4, when she started going to preschool. She was a smart and eager-to-learn little girl, already bilingual (Spanish and English), even when our main language was Spanish. Later we moved to the States, where Stella started Kindergarten. This is when I started noticing problems with her learning process. The girl that was eager to learn was now crying about sight words, and was struggling switching letters and sounds when reading, and not wanting to go to school. I was heartbroken, but our financial situation would not allow me to stay with her at home, or so I thought. Around that time, we received recommendations to stop reading to her in Spanish, and by the age of 6 she was forgetting Spanish. By second grade we had noticed that the previous issues would not be resolved, and now she was also struggling with mathematical problems. The girl that loved numbers and was able to count and do simple math tasks now was struggling and hating math. Her teachers were instructing us to take her out of her extracurriculars (sports and music), the only areas she was feeling successful about. We refused. Right before we started NACD for her 8^th grade, Stella had good grades at the cost of her peace and rest. She was restless, agitated, and anxious most of the time. Her mood would swing, and she was frequently upset. She would listen to conversations differently than what we said and feel upset about it. She was putting more effort into her schoolwork than any of her peers just to catch up. It was so hard to see her at the dining table completing work from the classroom, and later her homework. When we asked the schools for evaluations or support, they would only notice her excellent grades, but not the extra effort and anxiety she was struggling with. When we started NACD Stella had started a bunch of books but had not finished any yet. She used to say she hated to read and hated math. Now the story is so different. After only nine months of NACD programming, we have seen such a change. Lyn has been an amazing source of wisdom and guidance, and Melody has been the strong and kind hand taking us from point A to point B. Here is a brief list of some of the changes we have noticed:

• More responsibility.
• Increased comprehension of verbal commands, social cues, and even reading.
• Increased attention span: Able to follow multi-step directions and recall appropriately when asked to complete tasks and chores.
• Better self-regulation in conversations, when upset, and when discussing different points of view.
• Is more self-regulated in terms of how to invest time in different activities (fun vs. responsibilities).
• Able to accept her mistakes and point at mistakes appropriately, not taking it personally, but explaining, or accepting whatever is appropriate in the situation.
• Identifies what is working for her and what is not; negotiates.
• Learning to manage money (math), as before she would avoid trying to pay for things and even look at what she was supposed to pay or receive as change (avoidance of the math process).
• She is interested in audiobooks and in reading paper books, when in the past she had no interest in books in general. Has completed about 5 books (paper books) over the course of the year, and multiple audiobooks, when previously it was impossible for her to complete 1 book per year.
• Overall, she seems more mature.

We are thrilled with her progress and the person she truly is. It is beautiful to see my wonderful teen being able to show her true colors, without the anxiety, without the moods and the exhaustion. We are excited about what is to come, and even though we are not done yet, the current progress is so wonderful, and our family is better because of it. We are living a much simpler life. Currently we are farming, and I am working from home, and even when it took a leap of faith to get here, I wouldn’t change it for the world. My daughter’s peace and healthy development is worth the change! Thanks, NACD, for your support throughout these 9 months! We are excited about the journey to come!

            • Reprinted by permission NACD Newsletter, July 2023 ©NACD

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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 a neighbor who had success in helping her child who was experiencing similar things. She handed me THE MIRACLES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT. With great anticipation, I listened intently. When Robert Doman claimed that the kids with ADHD were the “easy” ones, I was ready to prove him wrong.

During this time, my life had been reduced to keeping our other children safe from their brother, who would throw heavy objects across the room, kick, punch or scare them with his hour -plus long temper tantrums. At bedtime, I would have to climb to the top bunk and lie next to my now eight-year-old son, who had never been able to sleep through the night. He would hold my hand in a death-grip for security and it would easily be 1 am before I could sneak away. By five a.m. he would awake and come into my and my husband’s bedroom. Being a bright child, he knew how to manipulate and confuse us, wearing us down.

When I say that we had tried everything under the sun as a solution, I mean it. From rewarding good behavior to taking away items or privileges for disobeying, to counseling and professionally recommended nutritional changes to medical exams. Yes, avoiding certain additives, preservatives and foods did help some with his hyperactivity, but overall, we were still facing what seemed like insurmountable obstacles.

On the day of our first appointment with NACD, Matthew was having an OCD meltdown. He turned pale and felt like vomiting. We literally had to drag him into the car and then into the building. As soon as Bob Doman greeted Matthew and instructed him to go upstairs, he got off the ground and walked behind Bob. It was as if he were following the Pied Piper!

After he was evaluated in each area of brain development, Bob called us into the room, while our son was instructed to wait in another area. Bob shared the results with us, explaining that Matthew felt like everything was out of control, and therefore felt the need to try to control everything around him. He proceeded to show us where there were neurological inefficiencies and how each of these areas would be addressed. He created and showed us how to implement a personalized program that would prove to bring success to our child’s life. Three key words were given to us:

Frequency

Intensity

Duration

Bob then shared with Matthew the new boundaries and consequences for breaking the new rules. He also emphasized to us the importance of giving ten times more positive input verses negative input. Knowing that our son would test the waters made me feel very nervous. Would I be strong enough to hold him accountable to the new standard? The next day, Matthew crossed the line and consequences were given. It was a whole year later before he attempted that again!

Each day, I endeavored to be consistent in doing each and every activity, exercise, or academic pursuit. During the years that we did NACD program, we grew into a family with nine children. You can imagine how busy it was as we homeschooled. Since Matthew required a quiet atmosphere to focus on his work, we eventually hired a tutor to help with some of his program and other academics. One day it dawned on me that Matthew was thriving! He had gone from not being able to read anything at eight years old to reading on an adult level at age eleven. Now he was able to carry out instructions and go through his routine without us having to constantly repeat ourselves. His interactions with family members was slowly getting better. He was finally ready to attempt writing skills. His auditory processing and visual memory were both improving. The OCD behaviors were decreasing.

At 17 years old, he wrote in to the NY TIMES for the OP-ED page and his response was published. He went on to have his writing appear about a dozen times on the Op-ed page over the next several years. Matthew graduated from Harvard University and is an excellent communicator.

What we discovered along the way is that finding answers is like searching for all of the pieces of a puzzle. In Matthew’s case, it was a combination of counseling, dietary changes, learning to be more consistent, endless prayers and for sure a key component was the brilliant assistance we found in the NACD family.

Two of our other children also experienced excellent assistance from their NACD programs. One of them was displaying what appeared to be autism. I love the fact that NACD does not label children, rather, they specialize in helping each child reach their full potential. Diligently working on auditory processing, visual memory, reading and math skills, etc., James made strides in every area of brain development.

Another son was born prematurely and needed assistance in the areas of kinesthetics and language development. It wasn’t too long before George went from not being able to utter even a single word to catching up in his language skills. Over time, he completed all of the areas of brain development as well.

We are forever grateful to Bob and his caring, qualified staff for coming alongside of us as parents. They equipped us with the tools needed to intervene where there were obstacles and encouraged us all along the way to do our best in helping our kids reach their full potential.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 33 No. 4, 2020 ©NACD

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It is natural for parents to feel concerned about how to help their children live fulfilling lives. Parents of children with special needs have additional concerns. My son, Mark Turner, was nine days old when he became paralyzed due to complications related to a congenital heart defect. He is now 39 years of age and enjoys a very rewarding life. We attribute a good deal of his success to the program developed by Bob Doman and the National [Association] for Child Development. I am so grateful for all the recovery Mark has experienced on this program and have the peace of mind that comes from seeing him achieve his dreams. Mark’s story is shared in the hope of inspiring others to believe in themselves, do the rigorous work that it sometimes takes to meet life’s challenges and to follow their own dreams.

Mark’s paralysis occurred in the lower portion of his body. He was originally placed on a traditional physical therapy program that utilized the best practices traditional medicine had to offer at that time. He made good progress and yet, when he was two years old, I was shocked to learn that the next phase of his program would be occupational therapy. The new goal would be to teach him to cope with his special needs. The widespread belief at that time was that significant neurological return was not likely to occur after two years from the time the paralysis began. Giving up hope for recovery was unacceptable, leading me to search for a program that would further the neurological development that he was still experiencing. Eventually we connected with NACD.

Bob Doman and his team, taught Mark’s brain about the part of his body that did not adequately receive neurological signals. Mark participated in the NACD program for about twelve years and made significant progress. One of my favorite examples occurred when he was about four years old. He was sitting in the seat of a grocery cart facing me and talking excitedly about something. All the sudden, he started moving one of his legs from side to side. Wow! He had moved this same leg from front to back, but never side to side! It still touches my heart to recall this precious moment.

While on the NACD program Mark developed a great deal of confidence in his physical abilities, and his self-esteem was significantly enhanced. He came to believe he could do anything he wanted to do in life and Bob was one of the biggest supporters of Mark’s ever growing confidence.

When Mark was 13 years old, he began participating in disability waterskiing. He loved it and his desire to improve his skills also became a strong teacher of his brain. Every time he would set a goal to reach his next challenge in slalom, trick and jump skiing, his brain had to figure out how to use his body in a new and very specific way related to each type of skiing.

Mark eventually became a national champion and was a member of the United States Disabled Water Ski Team competing in five world events. This provided the opportunity to travel throughout many countries, including England and two world events in Australia. He received the title of World Champion in slalom skiing, and has held two world records in this event. He has also held the title of Best All Around (slalom, trick and jump) for his division.

Mark is now making world history in a new way. A few years ago, he was doing exhibition skiing at tournaments for skiers who do not have physical disabilities. Exhibition skiing is a very important way to get the word out about disability skiing. While he was watching the other skiers, Mark realized he had a good chance of competing and placing. He has become the first skier in the world with a disability to win medals in his age category at tournaments for skiers with regular needs. Currently, he has placed in the top tier at the state and regional levels and has skied in the national championships.

In addition to his focus on tournament skiing, Mark works full-time for a major international travel company. He also serves as a volunteer at clinics, where he teaches people who have paralysis, amputations or visual impairments to learn to ski. He provides individual coaching as well for established skiers with or without special physical needs. Mark is also one of the co-creators of a contemporary documentary film about the history and empowerment of disability water skiing, H2O Effect: Disability Water Skiing From Beginning to World Championships! Here is a link to this 33 min. film:

Much of Mark’s incredible drive and self-confidence can be directly attributed to the tenacity he developed while participating in the rigorous NACD program. He and I would like to thank the team at NACD for all they have done, and to thank everyone who has supported this extraordinary organization in any way. To all the parents of children in programs at NACD, may you experience the kind of peace of mind and joy that we have found with NACD guiding the way.

Sincerely,
Chyril Turner

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 33 No. 3, 2017 ©NACD

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