Understanding the Whole Child

To truly understand a child, we must take a top-down approach, viewing them as a complete individual rather than a sum of disconnected parts. Every child is more than a diagnosis, a test score, or an isolated challenge. Yet too often, professionals—whether doctors, therapists, educators, or psychologists—focus on just one piece of the puzzle without seeing how it connects to the whole.

This fragmented approach is much like the classic parable of the three blind men and the elephant, where each man touches a different part of the animal and comes away with a completely different impression. One thinks he’s found a tree trunk, another a snake, another a fan—none of them realizing they are all describing the same elephant. In the same way, when we look at just one aspect of a child’s development without considering the bigger picture, we risk missing their true potential.

Parents, who know their children better than anyone, are often left out of the equation. Yet, they are the experts on their own child and an essential part of any effective intervention. Whether a child has a formal diagnosis or not, each one is unique, complex, and capable of growth beyond expectations—if we take the time to understand them holistically.

The Power of a Top-Down Perspective

One of the first things we teach professionals learning to assess children is to start with the big picture. The first 30 seconds of interaction can often reveal a wealth of insight into a child’s development, personality, and challenges. This top-down approach allows us to quickly identify strengths, pinpoint underlying issues, and develop a roadmap for meaningful progress.

In contrast, starting with individual symptoms or isolated skill sets often leads to a distorted and incomplete understanding of the child. To truly help a child thrive, we must first see who they are as a whole person, then work backward to address the specific areas that need support.

Beyond Labels: Every Child is Unique

Labels can be useful for categorization, but they do not define a child’s potential. Consider:

• Josh, who has a brain injury
• Olivia, diagnosed with Down syndrome
• Jaxon, labeled as being on the autism spectrum
• Lindy, identified with ADHD
• Ryan, considered “typical”
• Lucas, placed in a gifted program

Each of these children is more than their label. They all have complex needs, unique abilities, and untapped potential. When we focus only on the diagnosis, we limit expectations—but when we recognize the whole child, we open the door for extraordinary growth.

Building a Support System for Success

Helping a child reach their full potential requires a coordinated, individualized approach that includes:

• The Child – at the center of the process
• Parents – the true experts on their child’s strengths and needs
• NACD Developmentalist – a trained specialist who designs a customized developmental program based on a holistic assessment
• Family Coach – available nearly seven days a week to provide ongoing support
• The NACD Team – an extended network of specialists with decades of experience and over 3,000 targeted intervention strategies

This team approach ensures that each child receives personalized, strategic input designed to help them develop the skills they need to succeed.

The Truth About Neuroplasticity: No Magic Pills, Just Consistent, Targeted Work

In today’s world, families are bombarded with promises of quick fixes—from supplements to therapies that claim to offer overnight transformations. But the reality is that meaningful change takes time, consistency, and strategic input.

Brain development follows the principles of neuroplasticity—the process by which the brain creates new neural connections and adapts over time. While neuroplasticity offers incredible potential, it does not happen instantly. Real progress requires interventions that follow three critical principles:

1. Frequency – The brain needs repetitive exposure to new information and activities. Ideally, children receive targeted input multiple times per day rather than once or twice per week.
2. Intensity – Learning must be engaging and appropriately challenging to stimulate growth.
3. Duration – Change takes weeks or months, not minutes or days. Sustainable progress requires a long-term commitment.

Unlocking Every Child’s Potential

Every child—regardless of their background, challenges, or strengths—has the potential to exceed expectations when given the right opportunities. The key lies in seeing the whole child, not just their difficulties, and applying customized, targeted strategies that nurture growth at every level.

At NACD, we believe that no child’s future should be predetermined by a label. By focusing on the whole child, working as a team with families, and harnessing the power of neuroplasticity, we help children break barriers, develop skills, and thrive beyond what anyone thought possible.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 39 No. 1 , 2025 ©NACD

The post NACD’s Whole-Child Philosophy: Seeing Beyond the Labels appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

From Salt Lake City to Ogden, Park City, and St. George, NACD has provided thousands of children with customized, science-based educational and developmental programs. Whether a child has been diagnosed with autism, down syndrome, ADHD, learning disabilities, or simply needs help reaching their full potential, NACD offers individualized programs designed to help each child maximize their abilities in both education and life.

How Utah Families Are Finding NACD—From Across the Globe

Despite being headquartered in Utah, many of our local families have discovered NACD through referrals from parents in other countries. Families in the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Brazil, and beyond have firsthand experience with NACD’s impact and frequently recommend us to families in Utah through Facebook groups, special needs communities, and word-of-mouth referrals. Parents from all over the world recognize the effectiveness of NACD’s approach, often before Utahns do.

It’s incredible to think that families on the other side of the world actively refer Utah families to NACD—yet many local parents are unaware that they have access to this life-changing program right here in Utah. NACD’s international headquarters is located in Washington Terrace, a short drive from Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Park City. We also have an additional evaluation site in St. George, providing in-person services to families in Southern Utah. In addition, families throughout the entire state can work with NACD remotely via video conferencing.

For families seeking the best possible educational and developmental resources for their children, NACD is already trusted by families across the globe—and it’s right here in Utah, available to you.

NACD: A Utah-Based Resource for Child Development & Education

For Utah families searching for the right educational and developmental support, NACD is a local resource that provides world-class expertise. Unlike one-size-fits-all therapy programs, NACD takes an individualized approach, designing a custom program for each child based on their unique strengths and challenges.

We work with children who have:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• ADHD & Attention Issues
• Learning Disabilities
• Down Syndrome
• Speech & Language Delays
• Processing Disorders
• Brain Injuries
• Accelerated & Gifted Learners
• Homeschooling Families – Watch Our Free Homeschool Seminar

In addition to working with children with developmental and learning challenges, NACD also helps homeschooling families, typical children, and those struggling with behavioral challenges reach their full potential. Whether a child needs help excelling academically, improving focus, addressing behavior, or enhancing processing and cognitive skills, our individualized approach is designed to support their education and overall development.

NACD & Utah Scholarships

We know that finding the right resources for a child’s education and development can be overwhelming, especially when cost is a concern. That’s why NACD is an approved vendor for the Utah Fits All Scholarship, making it easier for families to access our services. We are also an approved vendor for the Children First Education Fund, providing additional financial support options for families.

You can find NACD listed as an approved vendor on the Utah Fits All website here.

For Utah families looking for individualized educational and developmental support, NACD is a world-class resource that has been hidden in plain sight. Families from all over the world trust us—now it’s time for more Utah families to discover what’s available right here at home.

Learn More & Get Started

Want to see if NACD is a good fit for your child? Learn more about our Get Started Process or contact us at info@nacd.org to schedule a free informational call.

Check out real success stories, expert insights, and more on our NACD YouTube Channel.

Don’t miss out on this life-changing resource that’s been right here in Utah all along!

The post Utah’s Best Resource for Child Development & Education appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, “Dyslexia affects about 20% of the population and represents 80-90% of those with learning disabilities.” We are talking about as many as 62 million children and adults!

What is “dyslexia?” It’s a developmental reading problem.

Did you know that virtually every child under five could be called “dyslexic” if you tried to teach most of them to read with the same techniques that are used with first and second grade children? The vast majority of children under five have not developed neurodevelopmentally to the point that they can:

• hear/differentiate similar vocal sounds as well as needed to use phonics
• sequentially process a series/sequence of sounds/phonemes
• sequentially process a series/sequence of symbols well
• mentally hold together and manipulate a series/sequence of sounds/phonemes that would permit them to construct a word

In addition, many children under five also have not developed to the point that they have organized their brains such that they have developed a dominant hemisphere, also referred to as the language hemisphere (spoken and written) and are not even sure which hand they should be using. This lack of hemispheric dominance is also what produces reversals (Is it a “b” or a “d”?), which just contributes to the problem.

Logically, if most children under five share the same characteristics as older children labeled as “dyslexic” and would have the same problem learning to read as do the older children that have “dyslexia,” then it follows that “dyslexia” is a developmental problem that can be addressed. It’s not a mystery and it’s not incurable.

For decades millions of parents have seen their children struggling with reading and have ended up having them diagnosed with dyslexia. Generally when they pushed for an explanation and a plan, they were met with the impression that their child had a mysterious, incurable disease and was doomed to having a life long problem, but they would make accommodations for them. But prior to “dyslexia” being widely used as an administrative label, children with reading issues or related problems were perceived simply as typical kids who for some reason were not doing well with reading as it was being taught. Essentially, the uniqueness of each child was perceived as part of who we are; and that we are different; and in the case of reading, some develop differently and at different rates, and some needed different approaches. If the perception was that Johnny was “normal” and had a problem with reading, then his specific problem needed to be identified and addressed.

As special education took root around the country, administratively it became necessary to identify, then label children so that they could receive special placement, have different expectations placed on them, or so that they could receive special services. Once labeled, the door was open for the local school system to receive extra state and even federal funding. Thus all the children who previously simply had a reading problem became children with dyslexia. The result was that the child who had previously been seen as normal now became a child with a mysterious disease—dyslexia. To compound the problem, the disease/label model directly or indirectly implies that everyone with the disease has the same problem, which implies the same solution or cure. If a common cure can’t be found, then no treatment is perceived as valid, as has happened with those labeled as having ADD or ADHD. In the case of ADD and ADHD, when everyone with the “disease” is perceived as having the same problem with a mysterious cause, and if there is then not a universally successful treatment, then the answer is to retreat to a drug. It’s not too surprising that if you look at the list of symptoms used to diagnose ADD, it reads like the description of virtually every three or four year old child: short attention span, distractible, impulsive. As with children labeled with ADD and ADHD, children labeled as dyslexic or who have a learning problem share many of the same developmental issues as younger children. The origin of the problem is usually various issues associated with neurodevelopment. That which is developmental changes, and what changes can be developed. There are solutions.

The answer to the question of why can’t Johnny read changed from, “We need to find the technique that works for him and the root of the problem” to simply, “Johnny can’t read because he’s dyslexic.”

Essentially the term dyslexia means that there is a reading problem. When the “problem” was first identified, it was done so by a German ophthalmologist, an eye doctor who viewed the problem as word blindness. Up until into the sixties, dyslexia was largely categorized as a visual problem that was identified primarily by reversals. Children had difficulty distinguishing between a “b” and “d” or “saw” for “was.” Surprise, many four year olds confuse “b’” and “d” and have reversals. These reversals were, and in reality are still today, perceived as a bit of mystery by most, but are really the reflection of the level of neurodevelopmental organization. The child is young and the brain has not reached a level of organization that has permitted the development of a dominant hemisphere. The recognition that visual issues were involved in dyslexia also led to the belief that the root cause was an issue with visual tracking and convergence. It has been recognized that such visual problems may exist in children with and without dyslexia, but it is not the cause.

Today dyslexia is primarily viewed as an auditory/phonological problem, not a visual problem, because most children are now being taught reading with an auditory/phonological approach–phonics. The trend in perception of dyslexia as being primarily a visual, as opposed to auditory, problem were based on the predominant reading approach at the time.

Elimination of dyslexia can be as simple as using a different approach to reading; but ideally we will identify any of a variety of underlying developmental issues, which once identified are usually fairly easy to remediate. *

When folks ask us at NACD about dyslexia, we tell them that we refer to those who come to us with dyslexia as the “easy ones.”

*Neurologically and functionally there can actually be some advantages to having “dyslexia,” particularly once the actually reading issues have been addressed. When working with specific unique whole children, we can identify their individual issues and their individual strengths and work to help them become successful and even take advantage of some of their uniqueness.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 33 No. 6, 2020 ©NACD

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by Bob Doman

My teacher thinks I’m dumb!

I must be!

The other kids don’t like me!

Something is wrong with me!

I’m just not okay!

Granddad thinks I’m the greatest!

He’s smart—I must be great!

Mom likes me and loves me!

I’m likeable and loveable!

Everyone who comes in contact with our children has some influence on them. The more important the individual is perceived to be by the child, the more credibility and impact the individual has and the greater their influence.

I recall hearing the story about a seven-year-old girl who saw her teacher go into a restroom at school; she came home devastated. She had put her teacher on such a high pedestal that her teacher was perceived as virtually God-like, and as such she shouldn’t need to use a bathroom. Gods don’t poop and pee! If a child perceives a teacher or a coach or anyone in authority as special or important, anything and everything they say can have incredible impact.

In the past 50 years there has been a dramatic increase in the exposure of children to outside influences. Prior to the age of five, children used to be at home and were exposed to a very short list of individuals—family, family friends, and neighbors. Back then it was much easier to supervise and control the input and minimize negative input. Children today are put under the care of many people beyond the immediate family, often almost from birth. Our children are spending a significant part of their waking day under the “supervision” of daycare staff, teachers, aides, coaches, piano teachers, gymnastics teachers, ballet teachers, and on and on. All of these exposures have the potential to be positive and enriching; but the point is that even a single word or look from the “right” authority figure can have a huge impact on the developing child. And many children get a lot more than a single word or look, and, sadly, any child with any kind of developmental, behavioral, or learning issue is much more likely to receive even more negative input.

I recently saw a ten-year-old, Tim. Tim came to us with labels including Anxiety Disorder, OCD, ADHD, non-compliance, and just to add as many labels and as much baggage as possible, dysgraphia*. This boy was a major challenge for his school and his parents. He would incessantly lie and steal, and he was defiant and manipulative. His family was at wit’s end. Tim’s psychiatrist had him on Prozac and Clonidine to “address” his “psychiatric disorders.” Tim hated school and received ongoing intense negative reactions from every authority figure in his life throughout most every day. Truth was, he was a smart, hurting little boy, whose biggest developmental issue wasn’t his weak working memory and essentially an absence of executive function, it was the impact all of the negative reactions/input he was receiving that was defining him. His behavior was largely a reflection of who he was being taught that he was. He was lowering himself to everyone’s expectations of who he was. He was who he was being taught he was.

We gave Tim a program to address his developmental and learning issues and taught the family how to turn his world around, making things positive for him. We encouraged them to take him out of school and do an NACD home education/developmental program with him. Literally, within days of being home and creating a positive environment (before program could have impacted any of his developmental issues), this boy was transformed into a happy, pleasant, cooperative child. Hopefully he will be completely weaned off his medications very soon. It’s amazing what can happen when you view a child as a whole child and address the cause rather than attempt to treat the symptoms.

If we wish to have control over outcomes, we need to control as many variables as possible. Parents are continually and not-so-subtly being encouraged to abdicate their role and position by “responsible” others, professionals, institutions, and society.

To produce good outcomes, it is very difficult to beat what proactive, involved, informed, caring, loving, and trained parents can do. It is virtually impossible to direct and supervise any aspect of a child’s development and education without understanding the whole child. If the parent doesn’t know the whole child, then no one does. Rarely does anyone other than a parent know and understand the whole child as does the parent—or, as did the parent. Children are coming under the influence of more and more people who are for the most part well intentioned, but who neither know or even wish to know the whole child and often don’t realize the power of their looks and words. Their perceived job is to work with their piece of that child, not necessarily contribute to the well being of the whole child, whoever he or she might be.

The whole child is something I talk about a lot because it is so very important. Tragically the reality is that there are often so many fingers in the metaphoric pie that there is virtually no one who even knows what kind of pie is being made.

Children need parents to be in charge; children need the people who know them, know them as a whole unique human being, who are responsible for that whole precious human being, and who hopefully also have a vision for that child’s future.

But lest we forget, the most important people to most children are the parents, and it is critical that parents understand how to interact with their children, how to create a positive environment, and how to provide them with quality feedback. Our children do not come with a manual. Fortunately parents are educable.

I would suggest you read the first four articles in this series and read the ones to come.

Our children cannot become all they can be if we parents aren’t all we can be.

*Dysgraphia – Dysgraphia epitomizes the issue of labeling individual differences as diseases. Dysgraphia has been described as an issue with writing/forming numbers or letters, or simply “messy writing.” It is also used as a label for children who have issues expressing themselves in writing or typing. It is called a learning disability and a neurological disorder. What is it really? It is merely a symptom of differences in rate of development and generally temporary individual weaknesses, that when addressed individually are generally easily remediated. One of the more significant causes of “dysgraphia” is trying to teach children to write before they have even established a dominant hand or even know how to read. It’s difficult to write with the wrong hand and compose a sentence if you can’t read one. It would be nice if the educational system understood child development, individual differences, and whole children.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 33 No. 5, 2020 ©NACD

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Jake is the youngest of three children. He was first flagged as struggling academically in kindergarten and then again in grade one. Jake struggled with saying the alphabet, sounding out the alphabet, math, staying focused, sitting still and making/keeping friends. At home, he was busy physically with sports, but could not get along with siblings, couldn’t take a joke, had multiple meltdowns over silly things and spent a large part of everyday upset and crying. Our family spent the majority of our days walking on egg shells in hopes of not triggering Jake.

Jake’s grade one teacher convinced me to have a psychologist evaluation done in order to help get the support Jake needed in school. I ended up paying $1300 for a 3-hour evaluation where I was not allowed to be present. The psychologist diagnosed him with ADHD and said he was the most severe she had ever seen and that he would never be able to function without medication.

In the fall of grade two, I started Jake on the recommended stimulant drug and within a short amount of time he was a walking zombie, no spunk, no personality glossy eyed, no appetite but he was able to focus. At the 7-month mark, our family physician discontinued his medication due to a 10 lbs weight loss. Jake’s personality returned and so did his appetite and we were thrilled. We vowed never to medicate again.

In the fall of grade three, I was still very concerned with Jake’s academics. I expressed my concerns and our history to a doctor at work whom I had never met before. To me, this encounter was like divine intervention. He recommended a program called NACD. The doctor encouraged me not to wait but to act as he handed me a USB stick with an audio recording of child development. When I left work that day, I had a plan and I had hope for the first time.

We had our evaluation in December of grade three, near the end of 2014. I liked how Sara conducted Jake’s evaluation. I was allowed to be present for the whole evaluation which took maybe a total of 2 hours. Prior to the evaluation, I had filled out paper work on things, like what did Jake eat, how much screen time did he get, physical activity, team sports and how many hrs of sleep he was getting a night, were just a few of the questions. In my opinion, this was actually a head to toe assessment of what was going on in this child’s world. I was sold on NACD from just the evaluation alone.

Within a few days, Sara Erling our Developmentalist, emailed us a program that she’d developed specifically for Jake based on his needs. We started immediately. Within weeks, we started to see changes, but the greatest change happened at approximately the three-month mark. Jake, in a short amount of time, was no longer wiggling all over the place and was able to sit and focus for extended periods of time in class. I was now more determined than ever to continue this program. With the help of NACD and our Developmentalist, Sara, our goal was to get Jake to grade level and able to function without supports.

With our Developmentalist, Sara Erling, we have worked with Jake to meet his specific needs. Sara has done an amazing job supporting both Jake and the family. She has helped instill positive behaviours as well as delivering quarterly evaluations. She continues to set the bar higher and higher to ensure we continue to see the changes necessary to move Jake forward.

NACD isn’t about a band aid solution like stimulant drugs. They are helping parents help their children to get lasting results through brain development aka neuroplasticity. In a short 3.5 yrs, NACD has helped us develop Jake to the point where he can thrive on his own without supports or medication! Not bad for a child who according to one, would never function without medication (heavy sarcasm). We have a confident, happy, thriving child who knows that he can be successful in life with whatever he chooses.

Thank you, Sara Erling, for never using labels and always knowing that we would get Jake to the finish line. You have changed our lives for the better and we are so grateful for all you do!!

—Rachel Schappy (Mother)

NACD Newsletter, June 2018 ©NACD

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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 totally floored, when a voice from the past reaches out after many years. This last month, I heard from a wonderful Mom that I had lost contact with. I worked with her son and his brothers many years ago and am so pleased to hear that Christopher has such a wonderfully fulfilling adult life. For you moms that just need to hear that there is a wonderful future within reach, enjoy this article that Ana Grosshauser shares with us.
—Lyn Waldeck, NACD Developmentalist

What a miracle and wondrous gift to receive our firstborn child! As most new parents and family, we were thrilled! Here was a perfectly formed and beautiful child who seemed so content and peaceful.

Little did we know that this peacefulness and contentment would change so quickly.

From the second day he was born, Christopher cried almost constantly. It was difficult to console him. Breastfeeding was a challenge for him, and so was the bottle. At three weeks of age, he was diagnosed with his first ear infection. This was the beginning of three and a half years of back to back ear infections and antibiotics. Christopher was constantly fussy and crying. He never slept through the night, nor would he nap during the day. Besides the ear infections, Christopher often had bronchitis and pneumonia. He would want to be held, but then felt uncomfortable being held. It was not easy to console him. He usually had to be marched before he would settle down.

Additionally, the vaccinations seemed to make things worse. He reacted with high fever and rashes, and he cried incessantly. As a precaution, his pediatrician decided to give him a second round of vaccinations. This wreaked enormous havoc on his little body. Christopher was miserable and very sick and continued to cry incessantly. As a new mother, my heart was broken; it seemed almost impossible to make our little one smile.

The first few years passed. He babbled and said few words. At three years of age, he had a minimal vocabulary. By the time he was four years of age, the ear infections and the bronchitis/pneumonia episodes finally began to diminish. But now there were learning issues to address.

At age three, Christopher was placed in Project Launch and later, the Early Childhood programs of the school district. He was mainstreamed in the first and second grades with special aides, but there were obvious difficulties in learning, especially with the open classrooms, and the decision was made to homeschool him.

Various evaluators within the school district diagnosed Christopher as having Pervasive Developmental Disorder. In the meantime, Christopher was also taken to an independent neuropsychologist and audiologist who disputed the PDD label, and claimed instead that the difficulty in learning was the result of all the years of ear infections. She gave him a different label of ADHD and pointed me in the direction of an allergist.

Christopher was then taken to several doctors to evaluate him for allergies. Eventually he went to a Chinese doctor and homeopath for several years to treat him for candida, vaccinations, lead poisoning, allergies, and for over-usage of antibiotics.

Christopher was also taken to a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) nutritionist who put him on a strict diet. He also prescribed chelation.

At around age 7, Christopher began having facial tics. These began with the mouth. Later on, they became eye tics. Several years later, the self-stimming became more prominent. There was a lot of spinning, finger and hand flapping, and arm waving. The loud clapping began; often times it would be done right next to my ears! He made up a word and said it a million times a day. He’d “scribble” in the air with his finger. The stimming would change from one thing to another, and they included mouth noises, snapping till his fingers bled, talking to himself, and so forth. At this age, Christopher seemed to almost never get sick. But it was obvious that other things were going wrong.

The OCD developed. Christopher developed an obsession with the computer and his games. He could never go anywhere without caring a container full of computer game boxes. He had the same obsession with photographs. He would line them up and cover the entire family room floor with photos.

In the meantime, the homeschooling continued, but there were constant problems with inattentiveness, hyperactivity, poor short-term memory, auditory processing, sensory integration dysfunction, and manipulative behavior, among other things. The biggest challenge was that Christopher seemed to have very little curiosity or desire to learn about the world around him.

And then, one day, all of this turned around when one of the specialists seeing Christopher recommended that we look into NACD.

After researching their website, I eagerly made an appointment to take Christopher in for an evaluation. Words cannot express the excitement that I felt to FINALLY be given a ray of hope for our child. After trying so many different avenues of doctors and therapies, we were able to implement something that made complete and total sense!

With great fascination, I learned all about the neurological organization of the brain. What a relief to have the support of an astonishingly intelligent and caring group of individuals, and to know that they truly cared, along with his parents, about our child’s success! Following the program meant an enormous amount of commitment on my part, and I found it to be a huge blessing to be able to include this in our homeschooling program. This simply became such a wonderful way of life for us.

We learned so much!! How exciting it was to know that we were working towards building new connections for the brain cells! How encouraging to realize that sensory and motor pathways could be created with the proper stimulation of frequency, intensity, and duration! It made a lot more sense to me to be able to do this within the home every day instead of driving all over creation to visit various doctors and therapists.

One of the most important details that I learned was to do away with the labels and diagnoses. I personally had received about five different diagnoses for Christopher from as many well-meaning professionals. The leaders of NACD reminded me that these diagnoses didn’t matter. What was most important was building up strengths in all the different areas of development. It didn’t matter if a child had special needs, developmental delays, or special gifts. Each one had the ability to grow by leaps and bounds.

I was ecstatic to receive the support of NACD. For many years I had gone round and round in circles and felt frequently overwhelmed. It was so encouraging to feel so understood, and to have their support in writing up the program and lesson plans.

It took months and years of hard work, and we knew that Christopher’s brain was going through many positive changes. He eventually was able to establish his natural dominance. He could be touched without screaming with pain. He was able to master long digit spans easily. He became more pleased with himself and proud of his newfound abilities.

Where once he had great difficulty focusing, he was able to listen more, remembering details, as with directions. His stimming behavior diminished and eventually disappeared completely.

Discovering and learning the NACD philosophy, and then implementing it within our family was the pivotal, most important event in our lives. It has had such a tremendous and positive impact on me and my entire family. I am extremely grateful to this organization, and I carry enormous respect and gratitude for the caring individuals who help run it.

Today, Christopher is a wonderful, well-adjusted 29-year-old young man. He lives a simple life, still at home with his mom, and works part-time at Randall’s. He has an immense love for music and carries close to 50,000 songs on his iPod. Those who know him describe him as extremely friendly and talkative. He is pure joy and love. He has enormous confidence in himself and is almost always happy. He is a beautiful soul.

One day recently, his father had taken him out to eat. Christopher was in his usual happy-go-lucky mood, and his dad was having a bad day. Curiously, his father asked him, “Son, why is it you are ALWAYS so happy??” Christopher looked at him with a smile and simply said, “Because I CHOOSE to be happy!”

We are convinced that he has been sent here to teach all of us around him about love and compassion, patience and tolerance, and happiness! This, to us, his family, is the greatest measure of success.

NACD Newsletter, April 2018 ©NACD

The post Christopher Grosshauser: “I Choose to Be Happy” appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

Abstract

In order to see the effects of short-term memory on standardized achievement scores, this study compared the auditory and visual digit spans of 546 students (from a private school located in the Southeastern part of the United States) to their scores on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT). The data shows that as digit span increases, so does performance on the SAT; it also reveals higher digit spans correlating with higher grade-level function. These results imply that improving their auditory and visual processing would enable students to achieve higher levels of academic work.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 10 No. 6, 1996 ©NACD

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You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make my happy
When skies are gray
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you.
Please don’t take
My sunshine away

How many nights I sang that song to a croupy, wheezing, fussy Sunny. Her arms would fly out, her feet would push off.

“Sunny, Sunny, shh, baby.”

Colds, allergies, ear infections, tonsillitis made her miserable. But Sunny was a bright “Little Bunny” and we kept her going and helped her grow. We were in Pittsburgh at this time, while my husband was working on a PhD, at Carnegie-Mellon University in Design Engineering. I had a BA from the University of Pittsburgh. My work experience, before Sunny, was running Horizon Home, one of the first group homes for severely brain injured children, ages 3-14. The selection process for Horizon Home was difficult because I had to go to various institutions in Pennsylvania and find children with IQ’s under 30. That meant I worked with all types of physical and developmental problems. For each child I would have to analyze their development, plan a treatment to improve their function and get them to the next level. It was all new territory for a state maintained facility and a young staff. But through thirty children and three years, I acquired love, respect and experience that serves me even today.

So, when I got that phone call from Sunny’s school counselor in first grade, “Mrs. Faulhaber, we don’t want to upset you before the Christmas holiday, but Sunny has a problem…” I was already plenty upset. Sunny wasn’t reading, her information was here today, gone tomorrow, she didn’t see the spacing between the words, her balance and coordination were off, and it seemed like she didn’t want to run and jump. The teacher was yelling at her and the kids in the class ostracized her. Her allergies were getting even worse since our move to Florida. Sunny was clearly losing ground despite my best efforts.

During the meeting at the school, my husband and I were told that Sunny had severe learning disabilities, a combination of attention deficit disorder and dyslexia, and she would not learn to read. We could expect her to get some vocational job. Although I didn’t say it, “Over my dead body!” rang in my head. If I could improve the function of the children at Horizon Home, I could do it for Sunny. Just how I had to find out.

What did St. Petersburg, or Florida or the nation, have for children with learning disabilities? It was not quite noon that same day and I was on the phone. The answers were coming up Compensate, Cope and Limit. I tried my sister Sal. Her daughter had been brain injured from a DPT shot and they were doing a program out of Philadelphia for her. I knew that program would not be appropriate, but what did Sal know about Robert Doman and The National Association for Child Development (NACD) that I had seen on a TV interview. My sister gave me the name of a contact mom in Florida who talked to me for three hours.

This, I thought, had a chance of working, but there was no center yet in Florida. So, we got our first evaluation and program three weeks later in Redlands, California. Sunny had a younger brother, a baby sister, I had pneumonia and my husband traveled a lot. I could accomplish a one hour program each day. NACD said that would work.

Back home we did our activities to improve her eye convergence, hearing, balance and coordination, lung capacity, short- and long-term memory, reading and math. Her school environment wasn’t good, so I called a public elementary school featured in the St. Petersburg Times. The principal was receptive and we talked for a total of five hours over the next few months. Later, when I asked her why had she given so much of her time when my child wasn’t in her school, she said, “I never heard a mother like you before.” She did in fact respect my views and nominated me to our county school board committee, selecting the elementary, spelling, writing and reading series for a school system with 100,000 students. I served two years.

Sunny ended up failing first grade, more because it was the school fulfilling their prophecy than Sunny’s problems warranted. So I went back to the public school principal and said, “If Sunny can pass the tests in August, she can start second grade.” Sunny passed AND the psychologist didn’t find the learning disabilities.

Second grade taught her reading and built confidence. Her teacher strongly supported my efforts by doing some of her program activities at school. And during announcements, the principal would call Sunny’s name along with other good students. Then, she’d be presented individually with a listing of her accomplishments and a gold pencil, a small mirror or comb something little that Sunny thought was wonderful.

By third grade she was on the Honor Roll. In fifth grade she won third place in the County Science Fair for a waterway lock, the Presidential Academic Fitness Award and the Pride Award in Social Studies. This award was given at Ruth Eckerd Hall, a very large concert hall in our area, to the best, eighth and twelfth grade students in Creative Writing, Science, Math, or Social Studies by the Superintendent of Schools and the School Board. As the awards were presented, I couldn’t just sit there. I had to see her face. So I worked my way slowly down the left outside aisle to get a good look. Sunny was bright and beaming, just a little self-conscious. I could hardly see that much through erupting tears. Oh, I had been frightened for her. But now, much relieved.

Winning in the Social Studies category was no surprise. My husband traveled for business and sometimes we went. But many more times when he left, my children and I left in our own directions. To date, we have been all over Europe including the Scandinavian countries and Russia, the United States, including Alaska, twice to Central America, the Bahamas, Hong Kong and China, seeing art museums, historic and scientific sites, experiencing new foods and cultures.

However, Sunny found her forte when in ninth grade she entered the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) at Gibbs High School. PCCA is a magnet school with visual art, literary, performance, technical and musical theater, instrumental music, vocal training, or dance. For three periods a day the students take classes in their art. For four periods, they are enrolled in college prep classes. Sunny learned visual art, drawing, 2D and 3D design, all types of print making, metal and plaster sculpture, photography, watercolor, ink washes, acrylic and oil painting, large installations and art history. In class, she took math to trigonometry and analytic geometry, AP history, AP English and honors chemistry. Sunny teaches art history in her AP European history class, three times a month. Her English teacher loves her, and her chemistry teacher recently questioned her, “Why aren’t you taking more math? You are so smart in chemistry.” Last year, as an apprentice to the Renaissance Festival, she made costumes and acted. With four friends, they produced a haunted house, “Foreboden,” which they designed, then coordinated the volunteer efforts of many children and the monetary contributions of area businesses to benefit Girls Clubs in our county.

But last Sunday was truly spectacular. Sunny collected and we organized all her best art work for National Portfolio Day at the Ringling School of Design. All the best art schools and universities meet to critique the areas of art work. Sunny’s art work was accepted to her first choice, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They further nominated her for a merit scholarship with benefits of 10%, 20% or 40% for all four years. The Rhode Island School of Design spent 45 minutes talking to her about the depth and breadth of her work. “Do you know how many applicants we get who can do all this and costume design and make haunted houses, too? Not many. We want you, too.” But when Carnegie Mellon University, her dad’s alma mater, started saying good things, and “tell me about this piece,” Sunny responded with what the representative called, “the best of the right answers. You’re good, Sunny. You and Carnegie-Mellon are a seamless match. You have an excellent creative attitude and we are going to highly, highly recommend you. Please apply.” Sunny beamed. When Sunny told her dad, he said, “I’m so proud of you, and they never begged me to come.” She laughed, “Dad, that’s because I’m better than you at what I do best…”

But really, isn’t that what we want. We would like to provide the opportunities that cause our children to exceed us in what they love to do.

You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make my happy
When skies are gray.
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you…

Thank you to Robert Doman and The National Association for Child Development (NACD) for first providing the expertise to eliminate Sunny’s learning problems, but also the continued benefit of that association for my son, younger daughter and myself. I more clearly see how to improve function and help families than I could have ever thought possible in my early days in Pittsburgh.

Thanks again and thanks forever.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 10 No. 8, 1996 ©NACD

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He repeated Kindergarten even though his teachers thought he was a “genius.” We knew he was very bright, but functionally he was very behind. He could not dress himself properly, eat or stand and walk without losing his balance. He seemed so young especially when our second child arrived. He was simply not moving on developmentally. Many people feared they added to this by babying him, but it was impossible not to. The fear of him wandering into danger was a constant.

He was tested through Special Education near the end of the first grade. After much soul searching we tried a short trial of Ritalin (5 mg. 2 times a day). Quickly we saw it wasn’t right for him. Fortunately!

We took Dane to Mr. Doman in March of 1994. He was not reading pre-primer. He was memorizing words. Mr. Doman evaluated Dane and told us he was “The most disorganized child” he’d seen in 25 years. But also he told us it was fixable. Of course we were stunned and perplexed. But we had reached a critical stage where we felt we were losing Dane to his imagination. He was moving into a sheltered world of his own. We were very frightened. But the word “fixable” gave us hope. Had he told us we had to walk on our hands the rest of our lives I think we would have!

We asked how this could have happened and he told us it probably was before birth. He also told us that Dane’s “mind didn’t know where his body was.” This is basically what the special ed. tester had told us days before.

We started an intense program with NACD immediately. Fortunately we had a willing subject. When I told him he could read and be strong like the other children, he said “Show me how!” He began to crawl around on the floor, which was part of the program. We were going to make him right-dominant which was the hand he used for most functions. We were to patch his left-dominant eye for the bulk of the day and occlude his left ear. When implemented this did appear to help him hear us better.

That first week we noted some slight improvements. But, by the end of the week which was a whirlwind, an amazing thing happened. I had a ‘revelation’ as if I saw a movie in my mind. Dane was sitting on my aunt’s lap, with her holding his right hand and forcing him to eat with it. When I excitedly told my husband “Dane’s left handed”! he thought I’d lost my mind. I told him what I saw and about my father and brother, who are left-handed, and how they had experienced the same thing with teachers, and how it used to be the practice to force right handedness, with the idea it would help them. I went to my aunt and she delighted in telling me how she had forced him to use his right hand.

After consulting with Mr. Doman it was decided that we would make Dane’s left hand his dominant hand. We immediately began patching his right eye and occluding his right ear. But how was I going to get him to use his left hand? Simple. I told him that it would help him read. His reply, “You mean I can read anything about God and Science I want? OK!” Very soon we saw dramatic results. Everyone noticed. He recognized himself in the mirror for the first time, could catch a ball, acknowledge people immediately, speak promptly when spoken to.

Within three months his performance in reading excelled his previous test scores.

The beginning of second grade presented a new child, the same sweet considerate one but, one who could find another room or the playground on his own. One who didn’t need to be led by the other children. The children exclaimed “Dane’s really smart this year!” I would just say “He was always smart, he just couldn’t show you.”

After receiving a recommendation from Mr. Doman, we had Dane receive Auditory Enhancement Training in March of 1995. This was very beneficial. His speech had been very robotic and monotone, and although improved, was still very noticeable. During AET there was sudden improvement in his intonation. Improvements in many other areas occurred in the ten days of training. The first day back at school, for the first time in his life he walked up the steps without stopping when another person was walking or running by. I cried.

This school year (third grade) is half way over. He has received A’s and B’s. He’s still a little behind socially. Some motor skills are a little delayed but, we are confident with the program and realize some things are going to take a little more time.

“One step forward and two steps back.” A phrase we heard and said many times has become a thing of the past.

We know that our son can reach his potential. We now hear “One day I’m going to say, ‘I knew him!'”

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 10 No. 8, 1996 ©NACD

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As a preschooler, Brian was a happy, busy, normal little boy. The third of four boys, he was extremely creative, very energetic, and a lot of fun. He loved to wear costumes all day every day. He and his friends chose to entertain themselves with their imagination instead of toys. They loved to put on shows with costumes and props. They transformed our playroom into the dog pound, McDonald’s, a castle, or an island with sharks all around it. Brian’s development was normal. As a young child, he crawled, crept, walked, and talked at a normal time.

When Brian was 5 years old, we decided to home school our children. The activities I did with him were almost all oral and kinesthetic to match his development and interest. He had absolutely no interest in even trying to learn letters, which I dismissed as his temperament. He wanted to be busy, not sitting still looking at letters.

Because he was born August 31, in a school district with a September 1 cutoff day for beginning school, we decided to wait until Brian was 6 to start kindergarten. That way, when he did enter a traditional school, he would not be the youngest in his class. He loved math because it was all oral and he got to play with the manipulatives. No matter how many different ways I tried to teach him his letters, though, he simply could not remember them. We played games with letters, drew letters with chalk on the sidewalk, traced letters with pudding finger paint, sang songs about letters, and anything else we could think of to help him learn. Even after all these activities, he still struggled to recall even a few letters. We both were increasingly frustrated. I knew that either he was not very smart (although he showed certain areas that seemed very bright) or something weird was going on. We decided to have some testing done on him.

In January 1991, when Brian was almost 6 1/2, we took him to the Minirth-Meier Clinic for a psychoeducational evaluation (I.Q. test, etc.). He was given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the Beery Test for Visual-Motor Integration, and the Wide Range Achievement Test, Level 1. On his I.Q. test, his verbal score was 119, and his performance score was 82. In a normal child, the I.Q. will be within five points on the two parts of the test. If the scores are 16 or more points apart, the child is labeled learning disabled. Brian’s scores were 37 points apart, which was a huge difference. The Beery Test showed an Age Equivalence Score of 5 years, 6 months (10 months behind his actual age). This was considered a severe difficulty in the areas of visual-motor integration and processing. According to the evaluator, “Brian was not able to write the alphabet in sequence and duplicated many letters, left out letters, and wrote letters backwards. He was able to write his numbers from 1 through 20, although the writing was from right to left. All numbers were written backwards except 4, 5, and 6. Brian was also unable to name the months of the year or to count backwards.”

On the Wide Range Achievement Test, Brian ranked at a preschool level in reading and spelling, and a 1st grade level in math. The comment was, “Brian was not able to actually spell any words, but he was able to duplicate some designs. He was also able to write his name. Brian was unable to read any words. He was able to do some arithmetic in his head, although when given paper and pencil, he was unable to write it down accurately. Brian has severe difficulties with written expression, both with letters and with numbers and will need special interventions in order for him to begin learning at his potential.”

The bottom line was that Brian had a severe learning disability and motor problems. They also felt that he had ADD or ADHD and gave me a brochure on the subject with the suggestion that I talk to my pediatrician about medication. I chose not to put Brian on Ritalin because he was already on numerous medications for his severe asthma.

Even at age 6, Brian was struggling with a sense of failure. The evaluator commented that throughout the testing, Brian kept saying, “My little brother can do this, but I can’t do this.” We had never put our children in a position where they were compared, but Brian knew intuitively that there were things he ought to be able to do that he couldn’t do. He felt stupid. His self-esteem was already suffering.

It was suggested that we apply to have Brian tested at the Learning Disabilities Laboratory at the Scottish Rite Hospital, and in February, we were thrilled to hear that we were accepted for an appointment in July. It seemed so far away, but I thought they would really help us.

The results of the testing at Minirth-Meier were very discouraging. The diagnosis helped explain some of the problems we were having, but did not offer very much hope for the future. I started reading everything I could get my hands on. One of the articles I found was in Teaching Home Magazine, (June/July, 1990), a magazine designed for home schoolers. This article stated that there were two camps when it came to learning disabilities: cope and cure. By far, the majority opinion was that the best you could do for your child was to help him cope with his lifelong disability. There was a program, though, that aimed at “curing” the child. That got my attention immediately. The only choice in the “cure” camp was NACD, and I started tracking them down. I ordered a set of tapes from NACD and found them intriguing. I approached NACD as a skeptic. I did not believe that Brian’s learning disability could be cured, but I thought this program might help, and nothing else I was doing was working.

We took Brian to be evaluated by Bob Doman in April 1991, when Brian was 6 1/2 years old. Bob does not like labels, but he agreed that Brian’s brain was very disorganized. What he offered us was hope. Brian’s digit spans were 4 and 4, which means he was processing and storing information in short term memory like a 4 year old. He was right-eyed, right-eared, right-footed, but his hand was mixed dominant. He wrote and colored exclusively with his left hand, but he ate with either hand, threw a ball with his right hand, and seemed to use both hands equally for most tasks. His “handwriting” at this point was almost impossible to read. Bob chose to switch his dominance to the right, which meant changing him from “ambidextrous” to right-handed. In order to change the dominance of his hand, we did many exercises and activities to strengthen his right hand and ignore his left hand. Because most of these activities were fun and certainly better than “school,” Brian gave us very little resistance to the program. We also worked on his digit spans, his balance and coordination, his lung capacity, and his academics. The hardest part of the program was the self-discipline to do it every day. Like any therapy, it gets boring and tedious. We found that we had to exert a tremendous amount of discipline on ourselves to do what needed to be done. The only thing that kept us going was the possibility that this could really work for Brian. We had to keep our eyes on the goal.

One idea that we came up with helped Brian tremendously with his self-esteem. When we first understood the idea behind NACD, (that learning disabilities and ADD are a result of neurological disorganization), we shared with Brian that we had just gotten the best news in the world. The reason he was having problems learning letters was that he had a “tricky brain,” and we had found a way to fix “tricky brains.” We invented a character named “Mr. Tricky,” and every time Brian wrote a letter backwards or couldn’t remember a letter, we would say, “Stop it, Mr. Tricky! Leave Brian alone!” Then we would assure Brian that it was only “Mr. Tricky” who was messing up his brain. It was not his fault that he couldn’t remember that letter. It took the guilt off of him and put it on a neutral party (“Mr. Tricky”) that we were in the process of banishing from his life. This helped him also see that there was an attainable goal in the future, which was no more “tricky brain.”

After 3 months, in July 1991, we had Brian re-evaluated by Bob. His digit spans had improved to 5 and 6, and his dominance was showing some improvement. With a few changes in our program, we were set to press on for another 3 months. We saw very little change in Brian, but we still held out hope that it would work. This evaluation came just before our appointment at Scottish Rite.

At the end of July 1991, we had Brian tested at Scottish Rite. The results of this testing were discouraging. They diagnosed Brian with Specific Developmental Dyslexia, ADD (moderate to severe) and a 2-year motor delay. They were most kind, but not hopeful that Brian would be easily able to overcome these problems. They told me to spend the next year (until he was almost 8 years old) trying very hard to teach Brian his alphabet. When he was 8, if he had learned his alphabet, and if he had increased his attention span, then they would put him in their Dyslexia Laboratory Class. They felt that within 2 1/2 years, by the time he was 10, they could probably teach him to read. I told them about NACD, which they had never heard of. The doctor told me that they found in their studies that 95% of all learning disabled children were mixed dominant, but in their opinion, it didn’t mean anything. I asked if anything we were doing on the NACD program would hurt Brian. They answered that it would not hurt him, but it would not help him. Little did they know what was going on inside Brian’s brain!

In October 1991, shortly after Brian’s 7th birthday, and after we had been on the program 6 months, we had a major breakthrough. Within two weeks time Brian went from struggling to remember his alphabet to reading! The phonics curriculum we were using had small, simple readers. It would take us sometimes two or three weeks to get through one reader because we had to take it one letter at a time. One day in October, Brian picked up a new reader and read the whole thing in one sitting! I couldn’t believe it! He soon was devouring books. His attention span also improved. This was especially evident to his grandparents in Atlanta. We had visited them the previous summer, and Brian was a whirlwind of activity. We were in Atlanta again at Christmas time of that year, and within hours everyone was commenting about Brian and how calm he was. What a change they saw in him! He was acting like a normally active boy instead of a hyperactive boy. We were so excited!

Another dramatic shift we observed was in the area of working jigsaw puzzles. The summer that he was almost 7, Brian could not even work a 12-piece puzzle. He could not visually process enough to tell the difference between an edge piece and a centerpiece. He also did not have the attention span to work on it for very long. When he was 7 1/2, I will always remember the day he chose to get a 100-piece puzzle out of the cabinet and work it by himself! He not only could visually process well enough to put the pieces together, but he also had the attention span to stick with it until it was done. We were thrilled!

In January 1992, we saw Bob again. This time, Brian’s digit spans were 7 and 7, and his dominance was 90% on the right. He was reading on a 4th grade level! Remember that only 5 months previously, he had not been able to read at all! His balance had improved tremendously, and his eye convergence was complete. What progress he had made!

We continued on program, but due to many unusual circumstances, we were not able to see Bob again until October. By then, Brian was doing marvelously well. He was reading on a 6th grade level (at the beginning of 2nd grade). Brian had graduated from NACD as a normal child; no, he was well above normal!

Since then, Brian has used the same advanced curriculum in home school as his older brothers. He continues to test 2 to 5 grade levels ahead on every area of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. When asked what his favorite subject is, he always answers “Reading!” without hesitation.

Now in 4th grade, we call Brian “Mr. Observant” because he never misses a thing. He plays on football and basketball teams, loves to ride bikes, rollerblade, and everything else a 10-year old boy ought to do. He is a natural leader, extremely reliable, very focused, and will be a huge asset to this world. It is hard to believe that at 10 1/2, he is such a different person than we were led to believe he would be. Gone is the dyslexia, gone is the ADD, gone is the motor delay. Here to stay is a high achieving, focused sports fanatic. We are so thrilled to have found NACD and experience the joy of normalcy! Thank you Lord, and thank you Bob Doman!

UPDATE, April, 2003

Brian is now 18 and graduating from high school next month. He has continued to excel in all areas and has never again shown any signs of dyslexia or ADD since he was “cured” by his NACD program. He is salutatorian of his high school and has been accepted into the highly competitive Business Honors program at Texas A&M University for next year. He scored 1280 on his SAT’s, and other testing has shown a dramatic increase in his I.Q. Without specifically working on it, his visual digit span has risen to 12, and his auditory digit span is at 8. We just tested him for fun last week and discovered this. We agreed he should work on his auditory digit span to get it to that superior level of 12! He is an Eagle Scout, works part-time, played football at his school, has earned the school’s highest award for character three years in a row, and is one of the finest young men you will ever meet. We are very proud of him and thankful to NACD for removing the stumbling blocks that would have kept him from becoming the man he is today.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 10 No. 8, 1996 ©NACD

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