These COVID-19 Coronavirus times have certainly turned many of our worlds upside down. We now virtually have a world full of homeschoolers; more parents are at home with their children than at any time in the history of the world. Exceptional times and exceptional circumstances can also result in exceptional opportunities. Many of us are rediscovering and redefining basic things like family, work, school, and our relationship to institutions and society. I would like to talk with you about redefining potential and intellect and how while you are all at home, you have the potential to change the lives of every member of the family.

I would like to share a personal story. I grew up in a family of pioneers in human development. My father, a physician, and my uncle, a physical therapist in the ‘50s, worked with brain injured children and discovered that with the proper stimulation, healthy parts of the brain could learn to carry out the functions of damaged areas of the brain. This was ground breaking work that was originally seen as heretical, but is now after decades universally accepted. Changing perceptions is not an easy task, as I can certainly attest to after fifty years of trying to do it.

When I started studying psychology in the sixties, I had a tremendous advantage over others studying and working in the field. I came to understand that all development was possible through this amazing mechanism called neuroplasticity. If you understood neuroplasticity, development was no longer such a great mystery. The brain changed and developed as a reflection of specific stimulation, not because it just got older. Armed with this understanding, I looked at the brain as dynamic, changing, and most significantly, as changeable.

One area of early interest for me was learning and memory. At that time it was just beginning to be understood that there were various components of memory. Memory was being broken down into short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. The focus was on testing it and looking for correlations between these pieces and how people learned and functioned. At that time and for decades, the worlds of psychology and education did not have a perception that you could actually help develop or change memory; and even today, they are not really working to do that. My perception, based on an understanding of neuroplasticity, was that these components of memory didn’t just pop up as adult abilities, but they developed; and what developed changed; and what changed was changeable. I set out to understand all of these pieces and to find ways to change, develop, and accelerate that development.

Decades later I am proud to say that we have developed a great understanding of all of these foundational pieces that we now lump together and refer to as “processing.” Armed with this knowledge and the tools we have developed, we have helped change many thousands of lives. Improving these pieces of auditory and visual short-term memory and working memory is quite simply making people smarter. From our first software that ran on a Commodore Pet computer with a cassette drive in the early eighties, to the Brain Builder software in the nineties, to the present online Simply Smarter program and many dozens of one-to-one activities, we are working to change lives. From brain damaged individuals to those on the autism spectrum, to those with learning and attention issues, to typical children and adults, we can build all of these foundational pieces of memory that literally have the potential to make everyone smarter.

At NACD we work with “whole children,” designing home based comprehensive programs that address everything from a child’s sleep and behavior to how they walk and do algebra, including innovative comprehensive homeschool/home-based educational programs. But there is something that in one way or another is on every child’s program, and that is processing activities.

We are fortunate that we can work via Skype with any family in the world who has Internet access and give them the tools designed to develop and improve their brains. Today everyone doesn’t need to come to NACD to work on their processing. You can take advantage of this expertise and go online and in about fifteen minutes a day put together the pieces that can help you and your children work to become smarter. The tool that is available to you is our Simply Smarter program, a tool that your children can use all by themselves!

Let me help you understand what this all really is and what it can mean for you and your family.

What is “smart?” Can you define it? Do you think you would like your kids to be smarter? How about you?

You can define “smart,” possibly, but even more so, you probably know it when you see it. Smart has to do with being present, being aware, being able to take in and process a lot of information, being able to manipulate that information, think with complexity, put ideas together, focus, and communicate.

Smart doesn’t necessarily mean knowing that the capitol Nevada is Carson City, or that Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded, or that the First World War ended on November 11, 1918, or what your bile duct does, or that “or” is a conjunction. But smart does mean that you are more likely to find such things interesting and you can learn them more easily than most. Knowing “stuff” doesn’t make you smart. (You are going to actually forget most “stuff” unless you are smart enough to make associations and connections between “stuff” and use it.) And smarter also means that it’s easier to understand and learn everything.

What is the foundation of “smart?”

The foundation of smart is the ability to process and take in a lot of information that you see and hear and to manipulate that information and think.

The more you can process and take in what there is to be heard, the stronger your auditory short-term memory. Your auditory short-term memory provides the fuel for the development of your auditory working memory, which is how many pieces or words you can hold together and manipulate, which equals your complexity of thought, or “smart.” How many pieces of visual information you process from what you see, whether from observation of your world or from reading, relates to your visual short-term memory; and as with auditory processing, your visual short-term memory provides the pieces you use to create your visual working memory and visual-spatial abilities. These fundamental, foundational pieces ultimately determine how much information you take in and use, which translates to how much knowledge you gain and your complexity of thought. All this equals “smart.”

How does processing “smart” develop?

Processing develops primarily from birth to about seven years. The rate and degree it develops is a reflection of the targeted stimulation and opportunities that you receive. In general the more quality one-to-one interaction between a child and an involved adult, the faster and the further it develops. The more enriching the environment, the faster and the further it develops. With specific targeted input designed to build processing skills, processing not only can be accelerated, it can be developed to superior levels.

When does the development of processing abilities stop?

Without specific intervention, the development of processing abilities almost comes to a halt at about seven years of age. From seven into our twenties, it typically develops perhaps another ten to fifteen percent; and after our twenties, without specific intervention it goes into a slow decline. You can continue to learn more, but your ability to do so declines, as does your ability to manipulate the information. As you continue to learn, you can become wiser, but not necessarily smarter, unless you are stretching your processing through complex cognitive activities or actively working to preserve or develop it.

How can you build processing ability and get smarter?

Everyone, from infant to geriatric, with input that is targeted to them, can incrementally build and improve processing ability and get smarter. We at NACD have been developing methodologies and improving processing abilities for the full spectrum of children and adults for over forty years. NACD designs specific processing programs for families who are members of NACD and who wish to utilize comprehensive developmental and educational programs designed so that they can be implemented in the home by parents and caregivers. But as mentioned earlier, NACD also has developed a very comprehensive targeted program for all children five years old and older and for adults up to and including seniors—Simply Smarter.

What is Simply Smarter?

The Simply Smarter program is a dynamic online system that constantly develops and modifies itself, adapting to the individual user to help produce maximum change. Specific activities work progressively to address focus, attention, intensity, auditory and visual short-term and working memory, visualization, conceptualization, and visual-spatial abilities, all of the pieces that help make everyone learn, think, and function better. The program first assesses your baseline and then builds from there, tracking and graphing progress. It has the capability of adjusting from basic levels of a child to levels of incredible function.

What can you do with children under five?

Children at or functioning under five years of age generally need specific one-on-one activities that are designed as part of NACD’s individualized programs. But in addition children from toddlers to five years old can use NACD’s Cognition Coach apps to build processing skills.

How long does it take to get smarter?

With motivation and consistent use, measurable changes can occur in a couple of weeks; and with continued use of Simply Smarter, virtually unlimited improvements are possible. Over the course of the present lockdown, you have the potential to produce a significant change.

Who has used Simply Smarter and what have the results been?

The range of those who have used NACD’s processing activities and Simply Smarter is as broad as the population. NACD’s Simply Smarter and other processing programs have been used by thousands of typical and gifted children and adults, those with learning and attention issues, as well as those with significant developmental issues such as autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, and brain injuries. Most everyone working on our comprehensive home based programs not only knows about processing, but is actively working on processing every day and understands the correlation between their child’s processing and global function and abilities. We have seen exceptional changes along the path of many thousands of children’s development and are continually heartened as we see their potential being redefined. Processing is a huge key to success and potential.

Please take this opportunity to change your child’s life trajectory. My mission in life has been to help change the perception of potential and to help develop the tools to do it. Today with more parents and children at home than ever before, I see this as a unique chance to change many lives and potentially change the perception of what can be.

To read an incredible testimonial from a couple about Simply Smarter and see what incredible things even a child can do, please read the following article and watch the video.

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

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Anxiety disorders are supposedly the 
most common mental health issue 
today for adolescents, with one
 national study of more than 10,000 
adolescents finding that about 31%
 qualified for an anxiety disorder at 
least at one point in their lives 
(Merikangas et al., 2010). 
Prescriptions given to children for 
these anxiety disorders are
antidepressants that include selective
 serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) most frequently, followed by serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), and rarely benzodiazepines. In other words, we could eventually have one third of our children drugged with antidepressants for anxiety alone if all parents wanted to continuously screen their children for an anxiety disorder and get an “appropriate” prescription.

The obvious question is why is the prevalence of anxiety disorders so high? First of all, anxiety is an emotion we all occasionally experience. Infants and toddlers are commonly apprehensive of strangers, young children are commonly fearful of new situations and any adult negativity, and adolescents are anxious about rejection from friends or crushes, the test they did not adequately study for, as well as any and all issues that threaten their self-images and so on (Beesdo et al., 2009). Every child will exhibit anxiety towards certain things or will behave anxiously for periods of time, and this is normal, especially if there are new stressors in the child’s environment, such as starting a new school, conflicts at home, bullying, having a fight with a best friend, or a dreaded math test coming up. Frequently, what might occur is a teacher will notice a child has been acting anxious for a couple of weeks, the teacher will tell the parent the child has anxiety, the parent will go to doctor and tell her the teacher thought the child was showing signs of anxiety, and then the doctor will write a prescription for an anxiety disorder. This would explain the research that indicates only 20% of adolescents with a current anxiety disorder diagnosis will even retain the diagnosis (Wittchen et al., 2000). Of course, the child most likely does not have an “anxiety disorder;” and moreover, medicating the child does nothing to actually address the developmental issues or neurological disorganization or the environmental/social/academic stressors that are the source of the anxiety in the first place.

For some children, anxiety issues are the reflection of neurological disorganization. In such cases, the level of neurological organization is such that the child has not yet established a strong delineation between the two hemispheres of the brain. When there is such delineation, a dominant hemisphere is established, which assists in logical and analytical thought and helps keep emotional activity of the subdominant hemisphere in check. If a dominant hemisphere is not firmly established, then the child often functions subdominant or emotionally, such as anxiously, rather than with reason. A further aspect of neurodevelopment affecting anxiety is poor auditory working memory. If working memory is weak, the child does not have the capacity to think through and resolve issues, and therefore, tends to ruminate over issues again and again, each time heightening their level of anxiety.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors given to children and adolescents with anxiety include fluoxetine, sertaline, and citalopram; and common side effects include abdominal pain, nausea, headaches, and drowsiness (Birmaher et al., 2003). Furthermore, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a black box warning on SSRIs that describes the risk of suicidal ideation for patients 25 years of age or younger (Emslie et al., 2006). Fluvoxamine, paroxetine, and escitalopram may even be less safe versions of SSRIs used to treat anxiety (Siegel & Dickstein, 2012). The serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor known as venlafaxine is also prescribed to youth with anxiety. Side effects include asthenia (bodily weakness), pain (e.g., headache, abdominal pain), fatigue, and even anorexia (Rynn et al., 2007). Finally, benzodiazepines are sometimes prescribed, despite research that shows they are no more effective than a placebo in reducing anxiety symptoms (Simeon et al., 1992). Moreover, there is a high risk for patients to develop an addiction to benzodiazepines, and pediatric patients are especially vulnerable to disinhibition and aggression caused by benzodiazepines (Mancini et al., 2005). On the other hand, non-drug intervention has the most evidence as effective treatment for anxiety, has the most long-lasting effects, and does not have any of the side effects associated with drugs (Siegel & Dickstein, 2012).

In conclusion, it is normal for all children and adolescents to experience some level of anxiety for periods of time; and in fact, lack of anxiety may be cause for even greater concern for some. Be cautious in having your child labeled with an anxiety disorder due to anxious behavior for only a short time period. If your child does appear to be experiencing persistent and uncontrollable anxious behavior, carefully investigate any relationship or academic issues, or possible social causes, such as bullying, negative teachers, aides, therapists, and so on. Also explore neurodevelopmental issues, such as neurological disorganization or weak working memory. Whenever possible, look for and treat the cause of the anxiety and do not resort to prescription drugs until other avenues have been exhausted.

Sources

• Beesdo, K., et al. (2009). Common and distinct amygdala function perturbations in depressed vs anxious adolescents. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 66, 275-285.
• Birmaher, B., et al. (2003). Fluoxetine for the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 42, 415-423.
• Emslie, G., et al. (2006). Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS): safety results. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 45, 1440-1455.
• Mancini, C., et al. (2005). Emerging treatments for child and adolescent social phobia: a review. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol, 15, 589-607
• Merikangas, K.R., et al. (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication – Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 49, 980-989.
• Rynn, M.A., et al. (2007). Efficacy and safety of extended-release venlafaxine in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder in children and adolescents: two placebo-controlled trials. Am J Psychiatry, 164, 290-300.
• Siegel, R.S., & Dickstein, D.P. (2012). Anxiety in adolescents: Update on its diagnosis and treatment for primary care providers. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Thereapeutics, 3, 1- 16.
• Simeon, J.G., et al. (1992) Clinical, cognitive, and neurophysiological effects of alprazolam in children and adolescents with overanxious and avoidant disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 31, 29-33.
• Wittchen, H.U., et al. (2000). The waxing and waning of mental disorders: evaluating the stability of syndromes of mental disorders in the population. Compr Psychiatry, 41, 122-132.

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The National Association for Child Development is always looking for the best knowledge to further our understanding of developmental disorders and their remediation. Therefore, we are fascinated by the prospects of neuroscience research, but are fully aware of the current limitations. One major area of neuroscience research that has generated a lot of hyped buzz over the last couple decades is brain imaging [1]. Therefore, it is important to understand exactly what brain imaging can and cannot tell us.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical technique used to identify structural issues like enlarged ventricles, cysts, tumors, calcium deposits, and an absent or thin corpus callosum. MRI works great as a medical technique administered to individual patients. The problem is when neuroscientists try to make sweeping general conclusions based off MRI data. For example, one study found that the amygdala, an area in the brain, was larger in children with anxiety disorder [2], and then another study found the exact opposite [3]. Another brain imaging technique, known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), measures changes in blood flow which is associated with brain activity [4]. In the early 1990s, fMRI began to dominate brain mapping research. However, the brain activity for one person’s mental state does not necessarily correspond to another person’s brain activity for the exact same mental state in question. In other words, the brain functions differently for everyone, regardless of whether an individual has a developmental disorder or not.

Therefore, in regards to further understanding developmental disorders and their remediation, there is very little brain imaging (MRI or fMRI) can actually tell us. In fact, this is exactly why brain imaging is not allowed for diagnosing any psychiatric disorders [5], and one of the main reasons brain imaging is not suitable for use as evidence in a court case [6]. The only thing brain imaging can tell us is how brain activity might change overtime for a given individual, which can provide some interesting empirical evidence. For example, as we reported earlier, individuals who engaged in working memory training, such as the sequential processing training of Simply Smarter, showed physical brain activity changes, while there was very little to no brain activity changes for the individuals that did not engage in working memory training [7].

Sources:

1. Marcus, G. (2012). Neuroscience fiction. The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/12/what-neuroscience-really- teaches-us-and-what-it-doesnt.html
2. De Bellis, M.D., et al. (2000). A pilot study of amygdala volumes in pediatric generalized anxiety disorder. Psychiatry, 48, 51-57.
3. Milham, M.P., et al. (2005). Selective reduction in amygdala volume in pediatric anxiety disorders: a voxel-based morphometry investigation. Psychiatry, 57, 961-966.
4. Huettel, S. A.; Song, A. W.; McCarthy, G. (2009), Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (2 ed.), Massachusetts: Sinauer, ISBN 978-0-87893-286-3
5. Siegel, R.S., & Dickstein, D.P. (2011). Anxiety in adolescents: Update on its diagnosis and treatment for primary care providers. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, 3, 5.
6. (2011). Brain waves 4: Neuroscience and the law. The Royal Society, Retrieved from http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/brain-waves/responsibility-law/
7. Schneiders, J.A., et al. (2013). The impact of auditory working memory training on the fronto-parietal working memory network. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 173.

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I just returned from an outstanding trip to Sydney, Australia. I worked with some great folks and evaluated many kids whose potential I can’t wait to help unlock. I also met with some great open-minded folks at the University of Sydney to discuss a research project with our Simply Smarter System and creating NACD courses for their continuing education programs.

You might surmise from the title of this article that it has something to do with brains; but what is the link to Norfolk pines and what is a Norfolk pine?

I have always thought that the little Norfolk pines that I would see in grocery stores around Christmas, overlooking the glitter they often put on them, were rather exotic and interesting. I had never had the time, opportunity, or actual inclination to investigate them; but I still found them to be curious little 18” plants, particularly since they were a species of pine tree. However, upon recent investigation, I discovered why I thought they were curious pines– they are not actually pine trees at all. Okay, lest you think I am having some kind of senior moment and running off on a tangent, let me start trying to connect some dots.

While visiting Sydney we spent a weekend at Manly Beach, just outside of Sydney. Shortly after arriving, we went out to check out the sights. The beach and the area were really spectacular. We admired the beautiful sandy beach, watched the surfers, and started appraising the dozens of tempting restaurants. But some of the most prominent features of the area were these very spectacular, exotic hundred-plus-foot high evergreens that were everywhere. My son, Laird, wondered aloud what kind of trees they were, and I realized that I recognized them as huge specimens of those little plants with glitter–Norfolk pines. I decided that when I got home I needed to go find one of the 18-inch versions for my house and another for Laird and his wife to commemorate our trip to Australia.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks. I’m back in the mountains of Utah, where we have many “real” pines and evergreens. I was home watching the news and dozing a bit when a commercial came on. I rarely pay any attention to commercials, with the exception of the occasional Jaguar commercial, and I really didn’t pay any attention to this one either, or so I thought. But actually, my brain did. Something in my peripheral vision caught my brain’s attention. I stopped the commercial and rewound it. I still couldn’t tell you what they were trying to sell, or why my brain said, “Hey, there was just something of significance;” but after I rewound the commercial, I discovered that in one very fleeting scene, as they were rapidly flashing across an office, there sitting on a shelf was a little potted Norfolk pine. But why did my brain react to that little piece of apparently-irrelevant data, when my sort-of-conscious brain was trying to contemplate what was behind Hillary Clinton’s missing email? The answer is simple: it could, so it did.

Did you ever buy a new car and suddenly start seeing them everywhere? Did a few hundred thousand of them get produced and sold overnight, or did they just start occupying a more significant place in your brain? Could it be that as our brains add more and more importance to these pieces of information, and as we make more and more associations, particularly personal associations, that our brains, like magnets, gather more and more associated pieces? Could it also be that what we know, what is in our long-term memory, provides relevance and helps to determine what we do and do not perceive? That our short-term and working memories dictate how many of those pieces we can sequence and associate, thus determine how large and meaningful our world is? How connected we are to it? How tuned in we are, how significant it all is? How much we are learning?

Yes it could be, and I believe it does.

There is this great connection and loop between our short-term memory, our working memory, and our long-term memory. Our short-term memory determines how many sequential pieces of information we can process. Starting with a newborn, that number is zero and builds based on input/opportunity. The foundation of our working memory is our short-term memory. Our working memory refers to how many pieces we can manipulate and determines our complexity of thought. Together we call our short-term memory and working memory our processing power. What we process goes toward, and perhaps into, our long-term memory, based on the frequency, intensity and duration of the input and what is already in there. Our knowledge base determines what we actually process. And the more we process and the more we put into our brains, the more we stimulate the brain, the more we trigger neuroplasticity, grow connections, build networks, and literally grow our brains. The more we know, the more relevance new input has, the more our brains pay attention to it, and the more we take in, the better we process–it’s a loop. The brain is really very cool. The more you put into long-term memory, the more it can actually hold and the more it has in it, the more new input it attracts.

The significance of this is that what we teach our child impacts the development of the short-term and working memory. If it is relevant and associated information, then it gets into long-term memory, and then in turn it adds relevance to additional new information and builds everything even further.

The degree to which we impact the development of a child’s brain and build their neurological foundation (short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory) is largely a reflection of how targeted our input is.

Targeted input means that it is specific to the child, as reflected by how well it fits their present level of processing and what they already have in their long-term memory. To help you understand this, put yourself into these two different scenarios:

Bad Scenario–You are in college, a freshman English Literature major. Things got screwed up and they placed you in some kind of crazy blow-your-mind advanced math class with a bunch of seniors. You hadn’t taken math since your junior year in high school and then hadn’t gone past Algebra II, which you hated. Saying that everything that went on in this class was over your head is an incredible understatement. The only things you would take from the class were a significantly lowered self-image, verification that you really stink at math, and a lower GPA. In this scenario the odds are that you had no real frame of reference for the material, nothing for your brain to associate/connect with; so what you had in your long-term memory did you no good at all. If you can, imagine a blackboard covered with formulas and figures that you need to process visually. Odds are that being an English Lit Major you are much better at processing auditory sequential information than visual, and that your visual processing probably was not up to the task. Net result: no increase in your auditory or visual short-term or working memory, and nothing added to your long-term memory other than a confirmation of your hatred for math. Neuroplasticity triggered—minimal. Brain change or growth—minimal.

Good Scenario–You are still a freshman English Lit. major. You get invited to a small private dinner party at your favorite professor’s house to meet your favorite author. You have read everything this author has written, and you know your professor’s views on her work. At dinner, in this very intimate evening where you are treated as a peer, you have the opportunity to discuss this author’s novels and short stories and her new project. You take in every word as though it had the intensity of a bolt of lightening. Each bit you take in immediately associates with many hundreds and perhaps thousands of other related and associated bits and chunks of information. This was a targeted educational experience. Because it was so targeted for you, the strong auditory learner and conceptualizer who loves literature and who knew and loved the author and her work, your brain was changed. The experience added to your long-term memory/knowledge base, which in turn would then affect your brain’s ability to process future associated input. The targeted, and thus intense, input would have actually helped build your processing ability as well. Neuroplasticity triggered—immense. Brain change and growth—huge. These are moments you would perhaps recall for a lifetime.

What are the implications of all of this?

What affects, stimulates, and develops our brains is very specific and unique to each of us. We need targeted individualized educational opportunities to encourage neuro-development. The more individualized our education, the more it actually constitutes an opportunity. Random disassociated input does little to really change the brain. Sequential associated information makes an impression on the brain.

How much we take in and learn and what gets into long-term memory is a refection of the strength of our neurological base, our short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. We needed targeted individualized opportunities to build our processing power, utilizing specific processing brain development activities, such as the Simply Smarter System, NACD Cognition Coach apps, and 1:1 processing activities.

What we know of our world affects our processing and memory. It appears that our brain pays attention to what it can identify, what has meaning, and particularly to what it can name and the degree to which it can name it. Observing many thousands of children and trying to crawl into their brains, it appears that our brains do constantly react to, rehearse, and review based on opportunity. Simply being able to name those things that are in our daily world, I believe, helps build and develop our processing and helps keep information in our long-term memory.

The more we learn, the more we can learn. Knowledge, information in long-term memory, produces more knowledge and increases what goes into long-term memory. As we learn and add to our long term memory, the more significant more things become, and the more our brains attention to and learn. Picture your long-term memory as a magnet, a magnet that grows and gets stronger with every new thing that it pulls in. The more you put in, the “smarter” you get, and the easier it is to get even smarter.

What develops changes, and that which changes can be developed. If those involved with child development and education really understood this, this could be a game changer for everyone. What develops changes. Every child begins life not being able to even give meaning to a sound or an image, but learns and changes based on opportunity. Short-term memory develops. Working memory develops. Everything that develops through opportunity can be accelerated with more and better opportunities. And you can teach an old dog new tricks—if you try.

I did find some little Norfolk pines. We have them in our homes, and I have no doubt that our memories of our trip to Australia will remain much longer now that we have our trees.

Just a little P.S.: I’m presently in Los Angeles. I used to live here and I’ve been coming here regularly since the 70s. You will never guess what I was seeing all over the place this evening as I drove through rush hour traffic in Laurel Canyon. Norfolk pines! How amazing it is that during all those years my brain never determined that they were worth acknowledging. Once my brain could put a name to them and had established associations, they became significant. I think that’s very cool.

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by Bob Doman

I have observed a number of problems in our children whose overall development is slower than that of typically developing children, issues that are only indirectly associated with the actual neurological and physical aspects of their function.

The degree to which the brain seeks change is related to the rate of development.          

For most children with developmental issues the sequence and steps of fine and gross motor development are as those of neuro-typical children, albeit often slower and impacted by structural issues. The slower developing area of function unfortunately creates some extra hurdles for our families and children.

In a typically developing child things happen fast. From birth to 3 years, every time you blink the child has started to do something new. During this time they go from being totally dependent and lacking mobility, hand use, or communication, to being able to run and jump, carry out most self-help functions, and speaking in sentences. Often in the period between just six and twelve months, the child learns to crawl on their belly, then pops up onto their hands and knees and creeps, and then are pulling to stand, cruising, and taking their first steps, all seemingly in the blink of an eye and without any specific help or intervention. Their brain is driven to do new things. Change stimulates change. Change is their norm. Slow down the rate of development of motor function or cognition, and homeostasis becomes the norm. The brain appears to learn to be happy maintaining the status quo, staying right where it is and not rocking the boat.

This tendency to stay put, stay in the same place, and not push forward often appears directly related to the rate of change. The slower the development, the less likely the child is to try new things and often to even perceive that they can or could do new things. The longer the child stays at a level, the less likely the child is going to initiate movement to the next level, all of which necessitates not only putting the neurodevelopmental and structural issues in place, but pushing, pulling, and trying to motivate the child to the next level. We can actually use Newton’s First Law of Motion to help understand what is happening.

An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless an external force acts upon it, and an object in motion will tend to maintain its velocity unless an external force is applied to it as well.

I believe we can use Newton’s law to help understand global development, as well as specific function. The slower the overall development, the slower the overall development tends to be without external force; and for specific functions, the longer the child goes without doing something, the more external force is required to get the child to that next step. I believe this is true whether we are trying to get a child to crawl or walk, communicate or speak, initiate self feeding or use a spoon, or process and think. For example, the longer a child goes without doing things for themselves, the harder it is and the more input required for them to even know that they can initiate the function, let alone starting to actually try and do it themselves and then incorporating it into their daily lives.

The slower the child’s development, the more external force, specific input (program) and encouragement/external force is required to get the child moving. Once moving, they will tend to maintain and not increase their rate of development unless we continually provide more input and external force.

Parents and others involved with children with delayed development need to be very mindful that contrary to a child developing at a typical rate, that their child is very possibly not going to just take the next step themselves, but will need constant pushing and encouragement to take that next step. It is often the mindset of those involved in the child’s development that if we put the pieces together, the child will be self-motivated to take advantage of the new abilities and use it to their advantage. Given that the innate personalities of children vary tremendously and that the internal drive varies from child to child, it does appear that the degree to which the child pushes themselves to the next level is directly related to their rate of change in a specific developmental area. If the global development is impacted, the global rate of development can be seen as proportional to the existing rate and is in need of global push. If specific areas are involved, those specific areas will need the extra focus and push. For example, a child with cerebral palsy who has significantly more physical issues than cognitive issues will perhaps only need to be provided with the opportunity to develop cognitively and academically; but regarding their physical development, they will need not only a lot of input, but will need extra push, motivation, and external force to achieve the motor function. Some of the more frustrating aspects of this problem revolve around those whose processing has been slow to develop. Aspects of function that can be linked to processing, such as complexity of thought or language, will often not just naturally fall in place. As with the motor function where the pieces are in place but the child does not seem motivated to take that step, or when we are dealing with improved processing, we often need to provide the external stimuli or force and teach the child to actually use their new processing skills. As an example, you are not going to see real development in conversational language unless you have lots of conversations with the child and push them to say more, regardless of how well the associated pieces are put together.

A child will not further develop or generalize a function unless they use it.

The slower the development, the slower the child’s brain is to move from homeostasis and go forward. But having moved a bit forward, it is in using the function that it really advances and becomes integrated.

We at NACD encourage parents to push their children to do chores and develop self-help skills. As I have told so many families, anything your child can do, they should do.If your child can feed themselves, they should feed themselves. That’s how they get better at it. If your child can take off their socks, then they should take off their socks. That’s how they get better at it. If your child can do double-digit addition, then they should do it without prompts. That’s how they get better at it. And, not only better at that immediate specific function or skill, but at the ones to follow as well.

Parents often get stuck with the wrong perception of “therapy.” Therapy is seen as the begin all and end all. “‘Therapy’ is what is going to get my child to learn how to use his hands together, and when ‘therapy’ has done its job, then my child’s hand function will be ‘normal.’” Not so. Therapy, or therapeutic aspects of program, is what is done to help address specific issues. For example, if a child has low tone and poor strength in their hands, we will do neurodevelopmental therapy (program) to help build the tone, to build the strength and then the grasp and release, finger isolation, finger opposition, etc. But it is the child’s using their hands that really develop the hands. This piece goes back to the preceding piece. If a developmentally delayed child hasn’t been doing something such as spoon-feeding themselves, they often are not going to do this until they are really encouraged to do it; and once they can do it, they really need to do it. It is the actual application of the neurodevelopmental function, combining all of the various pieces, that really pushes the overall development and generalizes the function. Generalizing implies that the child is going to learn from use and encouragement to do new related self-help and play skills that involve the associated neurodevelopmental abilities, and that this use is what really integrates and establishes the functionality. Many chores and self-help activities involve use and integration of many specific functions. The utilization of and integration of these various aspects of the function is critical to the overall progression. For example, if we push a child to do a chore such as matching socks and putting the socks together, even though it is initially quite difficult for them, this task integrates many different important functions that are going to foster the development of many other functional activities.

To many parents, giving a developmentally challenged child a pile of socks to sort, match, and put together may be perceived as an impossible or a Herculean task, and so it might be. But we teach the child to match two socks, then two pairs of socks, and then three pairs. Then we teach a child how to take two matched socks and put the two socks together. The process of doing this is teaching the child to pay attention, to build their attention span and focus. We are also building their central macular vision and teaching them to tune out what is happening peripherally. We are helping them to learn how to converge their eyes, thus building their depth perception. They are manipulating the socks, trying to see if they match, then putting them together, grasping, releasing, isolating fingers, using fingers in opposition, supinating their wrists, strengthening their hands. And they are learning to do a chore and, possibly for the first time in their lives, actually doing something that helps the family, and learning that the universe doesn’t entirely revolve around them. The sock chore is going to help them with washing the dishes, doing the laundry, vacuuming the rug, catching and throwing a ball, scribbling, coloring, writing. This is the real program. This is what really drives the development.

Therapy is defined as a treatment for an illness or a disability. Traditionally a parent took their child to therapy a couple of times per week for a treatment, as if getting a shot of medication twice a week; but that hasn’t really worked for developmental issues, and it isn’t really going to work; nor is merely checking off boxes of a home-based program. A more holistic perspective is needed.

Having used the term “neurodevelopmental” since back in the early ‘70s, I define an “NACD Neurodevelopmental Program” as follows: A dynamic comprehensive combination of specific techniques and methodologies which are provided within the context of life and the home, delivered daily with sufficient frequency, intensity, and duration, provided by parents and caregivers who are working with the whole child and who are mindful of integrating and incorporating the specific priorities and goals and who are preferably impatient for results. Even as such it is important for parents to remain mindful that we are working to improve function, not to check off boxes. Priority needs to be placed on getting the child to use the pieces that we put together and to provide the necessary opportunity, motivation, and push to move them forward.The more difficult and slower the area of development, the more it needs to be defined, emphasized, prioritized, and incorporated into the child’s life.

In the gestalt of a developmentally challenged child, those areas with the slowest movement are those that generally need the greatest focus and push, with special emphasis placed upon utilization and integration of that function into daily life.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 27 No. 5, 2014 ©NACD

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Bruce Haslam, PhD, Director of Research for The NACD Foundation, along with Tamara Knapp-Grosz, PhD, Director of Counseling and Support Services at Savannah College of Art & Design, presented “Brain Change: Simple Interventions to Dramatically Improve Student Functioning” at the 45th Southeast Conference of College Counseling Center Personnel held on November 5-7th in Chattanooga, TN. The presentation provided a glimpse of the preliminary findings of the Simply Smarter Software program, as implemented by Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with counseling center students, administrative staff, and interns. Simply Smarter Software is the outgrowth of Robert J. Doman Jr.’s thirty-plus years of clinical work and application of a neurodevelopmental approach to cognitive development and function in both typical and atypical child and adult populations.

SCAD initiated the “Jump Start” Program as an elective offering during this current academic year (2008- 2009). This program was designed for incoming freshmen who identified themselves as having a disability impacting their learning ability. The goal of the program was to provide the students with the skills needed for a successful transition into college.

The program was designed specifically for students with any of the following diagnoses:

• ADD/ADHD
• A learning disability
• A psychiatric/psychological disability
• High functioning Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome
• A medical disability that might impact learning

Forty students signed up for the program: 23 males and 17 females. Most came in with more than two diagnoses. Their average SAT scores were:

• Verbal – 507
• Math – 476
• Writing – 490

Although the majority of the Jump Start students participated in baseline testing and used the Simply Smarter program a few times, the number of practice sessions (start of Fall 2008 semester to just before the conference in early November) was not enough to create sufficient data. The Counseling Center personnel are now looking into ways to overcome the lack of compliance and follow-through. Robert J. Doman commented, “You cannot expect organized function from a disorganized brain. They will need to have a good structure in place and adequate feedback to achieve the necessary compliance.”

The Counseling Center’s administrative staff and interns also utilized the software, achieving greater compliance than the students, although only averaging 14 sessions during the three-month period. However even this minimal amount of training produced significant improvement in processing and cognitive functioning. Dr. Knapp-Grosz reported:

My staff have expressed many positive outcomes as a result of participation in the Simply Smarter Program. Some of the changes we have noticed have been an increased ability to easily recall student information, like student ID numbers and demographic information, better concentration and attention, and increased confidence in retaining information. We really look forward to seeing how continued participation and regular practice will improve our overall functioning!

As a whole, the Counseling Center staff and interns were composed of the following:

• 20 total participants: 5 males; 15 females
• Ages ranging from 25 – 60
• 7 interns
• 1 administrative staff
• 11 professional staff
• 1 staff member chose not to participate

Each participant practiced four sets of activities. Those who had a qualifying auditory forward score practiced one additional activity, an auditory alphanumeric exercise. The number of practice sessions varied by individual within the 3-month trial period.

The mean pre- and post- scores for each of the exercises were as follows:

Auditory Forward Digit Span
Pre: 7.89
Post: 8.58
Change in Score: Increase of 0.69

Auditory Reverse Digit Span
Pre: 6.93
Post: 7.85
Change in Score: Increase of 0.92

Visual Forward Digit Span
Pre: 7.71
Post: 8.65
Change in Score: Increase of 0.94

Visual Reverse Digit Span
Pre: 6.49
Post: 7.56
Change in Score: Increase of 1.07

Alphanumeric Span (15 had the requisite Auditory Forward scores to participate)
Pre: 6.12
Post: 7.0
Change in Score: Increase of 0.88

In analyzing the available data from each of the trial areas, the t-test resulted in statistical significant values of p<.01, meaning that there was less than 1 chance in 100 of obtaining the improved results by chance alone.

The results of this short trial produced significant results that again confirm Robert J. Doman’s contention that these critical functions can be developed – and developed well past the age of what is typically considered a ceiling for improvement. Cognitive function does not have to decline or remain fixed as one gets older. Instead, with specific, targeted intervention one can continue to develop.

In summary, students with learning and attention issues require structure and feedback to achieve the necessary compliance in order to improve their short term and working memories. However, as evidenced by this short study, even with minimal compliance adults can significantly improve these functions. Further, similar programs utilizing Simply Smarter need to be devised and implemented both for college students and personnel to enhance their overall neurological function and performance.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 22 No. 1, 2009 ©NACD

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Vital capacity may not sound like a very exciting subject. However it is a very important subject and one that we address frequently at NACD. So it’s worth your time to learn a little about what it is and why it is significant.

There is a lot of talk about vital capacity (VC) when we talk about what assists good oxygenation. What is vital capacity? When we talk about how much air our lungs can hold, we can say that the entire lung has a total capacity. Total Lung Capacity (TLC) is the amount of air our lungs can hold when completely full. If we blow all the air out of our lungs that we can, then we have some amount still there because our lungs are made never to be totally empty. We call the amount still left residual volume (RV) and the amount that we blew out vital capacity (VC). So our total lung capacity (TLC) equals our vital capacity (VC) plus our residual volume (RV). TLC = VC + RV. That’s the scientific way it is written and talked about.

Why is this important to our health and the health of our children? If our lungs and chest are exercised and well inflated we can maintain our very important vital capacity. Keeping our vital capacity where it needs to be will maintain our oxygen levels; and improving our vital capacity certainly suggests that we can improve our oxygen levels. In most studies, athletes and mountain climbers have larger vital capacities than the average person. Larger vital capacities can help keep oxygen at levels where we have more oxygen available to the brain and body.

That all sounds good. But what does it mean for our health and in particular the health of people that have challenges? It definitely means two important things. First, that we can maintain and improve our oxygen availability to the brain, and second that we can keep our lungs open and functioning well enough to minimize the chances of having health problems. If we don’t keep our lungs open and clear we can develop pneumonia, and small areas of our lungs tend to collapse (called micro-atelectasis) from not being properly inflated. When either of these takes place oxygen availability will decrease!

Remember:

• We know having good supplies of oxygen available to the brain helps us heal, process thoughts, and utilize the brain in ways that help us become more functional mentally and physically.
• We know keeping our lungs open and fit are great ways to maintain and improve oxygenation to the brain. We all need to practice breathing correctly and improve lung and chest muscle fitness.
• We know we need to have our oxygen levels as stable and consistent as possible. Exercising our lungs, staying as mobile as possible, and belly breathing help normalize our lungs’ airflow.

For your convenience we stock breathing exercisers (Expand-A-Lung) in the NACD bookstore.  http://www.nacdbookstore.com/products/expand-a-lung

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 25 No. 5, 2012 ©NACD

Please note: This page is for educational and informational purposes only and may not be construed as medical advice. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by physicians.

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How can I get more oxygen into my brain? We all know that our bodies need some attention in order to grow and be healthy. We know that we need a good diet and exercise. But what about our brain? What does it need to be able to grow, to heal, and to learn in the best way it can? What are the elements of balance that will affect brain function and recovery?

A good diet is a great beginning. Our brain has a lot of structure just like our other body parts, and it needs to be fed well too. But there are other things that our brain needs that are less talked about. If we are going to intentionally care for our brain, we need to know about body balance in ways that we don’t often hear about. Specifically, we need to do as many things as possible to get the best circulation of blood to the brain that we can. This is important because our blood carries the oxygen to our brain, and oxygen is vital to brain growth and healing. Oxygenating the brain well is required to promote brain healing and brain use. Proper brain function requires a critical balance of a) correct breathing for oxygenation b) correct carbon dioxide and nitric oxide levels for circulation and c) a program of brain activities or exercises for growth stimulation.

When we go to the doctor they often clip a piece of equipment on our finger called a pulse oximeter. It gives them a general idea of how much oxygen is in our blood. It is so important that it is often referred to as the fifth vital sign. (Vital signs are body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and now oxygen saturation.) The pulse oximeter tells them how well your blood cells are saturated with oxygen.

To really understand the importance of this fifth vital sign, consider this:

• The brain uses about three times as much oxygen as muscles in the body do.
• Brain cells are very sensitive to decreases in oxygen levels and don’t survive or function well very long without it.
• The brain is made up of very special cells called neurons, and each of them can do the job of any of the other neurons in the brain. That process gives us the ability to relearn most functions using different parts of the brain. So if we have an injury or a sick part of our brain, we can teach our brain to restructure and control body parts and function with other areas of the brain. That is called brain plasticity.

So how do we increase oxygen and circulation in the brain? One of the easiest ways to understand is how we physically breathe. We were truly meant to breathe easily and without thought; through our noses, mouth closed, and with what is called belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing. We have structures in our heads called sinuses, oral cavities, and the upper parts of our lung structure that hold a certain level of chemical control agents, such as carbon dioxide and nitric oxide, that help control blood vessel tone and circulation. When we breathe normally and deeply into our belly, we move air and oxygen down to areas of our lungs where most of the circulation of blood is. This is where most oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange takes place. If we don’t learn to breathe naturally with our diaphragm muscle, we do not get the proper amount of oxygen into our blood to be carried to our brain and body parts. If we breathe through our mouth, we do not rebreathe the stored carbon dioxide and nitric oxide that help circulate blood to the brain in order to oxygenate brain cells. Remember, the carbon dioxide and nitric oxide open up blood vessels in the brain so we can get proper oxygen levels in our brain. Nitric oxide helps dilate blood vessels in our lungs so that we can get good circulation there for exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Although some information on this subject does not seem to get taught in science or in medicine, there is a lot of literature that supports these thoughts 100%. There is also adequate information on the adverse effects of chronic or intermittent low levels of oxygen saturation on development, behavior, and academic achievement that has been reported in many well-designed and controlled studies.

Now what were those simple things that must be practiced for increasing oxygen to the brain? Here they are: 1) Breathe easily and normally with your belly in a relaxed way. 2) Breathe through your nose under normal conditions and not your mouth. 3) Take short walks throughout the day. Short walks will increase your circulation and increase oxygen to your brain, whereas while forced walks or runs may be good for you too, they also cause your muscles to absorb much of the oxygen in your system, and that hinders increasing the oxygen being carried to your brain.

Finger Pulse Oximeter available at NACD Store.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 25 No. 5, 2012 ©NACD

Please note: This page is for educational and informational purposes only and may not be construed as medical advice. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by physicians.

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At the moment I’m on a flight from Salt Lake City to Orlando. It’s December 12th, and I seem to have lost a week someplace.  I’ll be in Orlando for the week, and then it’s Christmas week.  I thought I had another week in there to get my shopping done, put up some decorations, and stock up on food.  Oh, well–thank goodness our brains permit multitasking.

I tend to take short naps when I get on planes, and during these naps my brain tends to address issues, problem solve, and come up with some new questions and often some good thoughts and ideas.  Often I wake from such naps with really earth-shattering revelations, such as,  “I forgot to pack socks.”  I marvel at the ability of my brain to review the packing I had done at 5 AM and wonder why it waited until I was on the plane and could do nothing about socks to bring this vital piece of information to my attention. But such earth-shattering thoughts are beyond my conscious control.  My just-completed nap has fortunately produced some thoughts that are far more significant than my socks, which I believe I did remember to pack this morning.

There are a number of really good things that are happening right now.  The economy is not one of them, nor is the financial situation for many of our families or for our organization.  But most of our kids and adults on program are doing well, and some are doing fantastically well.  I have marveled throughout my 40-plus years of doing this work at how much impact we can make on the human brain and how dramatically we can affect lives. Our new TSI: Focused Attention program has been completed, and we are seeing really great results from it; and it looks like the programmers are finally going to get our new Simply Smarter System completed.

Way back when, when I was young and was able to work seven days a week and sleep three hours a night and saw my first kids at 8 AM and finished my last at ten or eleven, I did a seminar at our then-chapter in New Jersey.  There was a reporter there from the Philadelphia Inquire.  This reporter had spent the day with me, observed some evaluations, and attended the seminar I did that night.  This was perhaps my favorite reporter ever.  She began the article that was published in the paper with, “Bob Doman, standing well over six feet tall, handsome and charismatic….”  I forget the rest, but at 63 what does that matter? We savor those few such morsels life throws at us.  But what really stands out about that reporter and her interviews with me was a simple question that she asked, one that I had never slowed down long enough to ask myself.  What she asked was, “Why do you do it? Why do you travel nonstop, work seven days a week, and 18 to 20 hours a day?”  As amazing as it sounds in retrospect, I had not ever asked myself that question.  I gave the question about a half second of thought and came up with the real answer.  What I told her was that most people I had known in my life had never done anything significant to really change their lives, and that I had the opportunity many times every day to significantly, and often dramatically, change a life.  If you can do that, then how can you not?  She then asked me what my goal was, and I answered, “To change the world.”

“To change the world” has always been the goal.   I have always conceived of a new enlightenment.  The Enlightenment of the 18th Century, the advent of the Age of Reason, produced intellectual, scientific, and cultural change and helped pull the world out of the Dark Ages. Part of the change initiated and produced from the Enlightenment was an understanding that people could change society and their own lives.  The Enlightenment opened the gates to a perception that you can move up, you can move forward, you can achieve more.  My perception has been that if we address our individual neurological inefficiencies, we can change our function, move up, move forward, and achieve more.

I was a kid who struggled through school. I was an embarrassment to my family and myself.  Let me tell you a little story to vividly illustrate how truly significant this was and to sum up my childhood and school experience:

At the age of forty-four, while traveling and seeing kids, I suffered a heart attack. It turned out that I had four blocked arteries and needed a quadruple bypass.  At forty-four this was really inconvenient!  The hospital was really backed up, and they told me that it would be a week to 10 days before they could do the surgery. So here I was, unable to move, getting further and further behind in my schedule, in a dirty old hospital in New Jersey, with few people speaking English (at least any English that I could understand).  Lying there like that for a week really wouldn’t work for me, so I faked another heart attack.  I don’t believe I could get away with that today, but back then the technology wasn’t so great.  To make a long story short, they added me to the end of the schedule the next day.  Surgery was at 5 PM, and I was evidently supposed to be out/drugged until the next morning.  Well, they brought my family in to see me (not a pretty sight evidently, with tubes coming and going everywhere), and they said, “Hi,” which started the process of waking me up.  I woke up about 8 PM, not the planned AM.  As I was coming out of the anesthesia I realized that as far as outcomes go, I was still here and in a recovery room with a number of other “bodies” that didn’t move and that a party was going on with the nurses and whomever else was in that place.  I had this big garden hose going down my throat and was gagging and really, really uncomfortable.  Feeling very much alive, but feeling that my tentative life was being seriously threatened by the thing strangling me, I did my best thrashing and banging “Hey, I’m dying over here” attention-getting behavior, which resulted in nothing for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly this really unpleasant (I’m trying to be kind)-looking male nurse appears over me.  (They should reserve all such positions for young angelic-looking female nurses.)  I’m sure I did a great job of indicating through gesture and grimace and around-the-tube desperate noises that I was really freaking out.  The individual peering down at me responded with the reassuring words, “I’m nurse Max, and if you try to pull that tube out, I’m going to strap you down.  When the doctor comes in tomorrow morning, we will take it out.”  In the morning! My entire being wanted to scream out that I couldn’t endure this thing for another two seconds. Morning?!  One thought (plus some self-hypnosis that I had learned) got me through the night: If I could survive school, I could survive this.  (As a P.S., after it was all over and done they told me I had about three years to live if I retired- fat chance! That was 19 years ago.)

The point of this story is that as a kid I had really serious learning issues–not a cool thing for the son of a doctor. The first program I ever wrote was mine. It turned my life around. I had learning problems, but I wasn’t dumb. If I had accepted who the world said I was, I would never had been anything significant, nor would have thousands of others whom I’ve been fortunate enough to help.  The New Enlightenment– We can be more.  Neither our parents nor our schools had or have much of a clue as to how to help us realize our innate potentials.  Today we have the knowledge to help virtually everyone do better, often much better.  Our function today is not a reflection of our innate potential, but of the opportunities that we have received.

I beg your forgiveness. You have been patient in tolerating my verbosity. It’s been a long flight.  I know you have been waiting to hear about the gift.

Changing the world doesn’t just mean helping our kids with issues overcome their problems. It means helping us all perceive and strive toward achieving our potentials.  I have always wanted our NACD families to get that picture, and a few have. In its 30 years NACD has achieved a bit of a tipping point.  There have been dramatic changes over these thirty years, not the least of which is that the “experts” now acknowledge there is this thing called neuro-plasticity.  The vast majority of experts, however, still don’t understand something that almost all NACD families not only understand, but have actually helped change in their children: processing.  To help move things along, I need more “typical” children to become exceptional.  I also need more “typical” adults– you moms and dads–to start reaching higher to achieve your innate potentials.  The example of a few can have a huge impact on the perceptions of the masses.

So, here it is, the gift I promised.

Beginning January 1, 2011 we will be eliminating the initial fee for new family members and lowering the evaluation fee for all additional family members, Mom, Dad, and sister Susie, to $250.  Come once, come every three months, every six months, once a year, but come.  Let’s raise the bar! Let’s all do better in 2011.  I’m not holding my breath thinking that things are going to be getting a whole lot better in the country or the world real soon. I doubt things are going to get easier, but I would bet that everything is going to be more competitive.  Find out something about yourselves, find out how to function better.  Mom and Dad, you might be able to do better helping your kids, better with your jobs and your spouses.  With your typical kids, talk about a little bit going a long way! Just increasing processing, turning your children into readers, and getting your kids to the top of the class rather than the mediocre middle, can change their lives.
Okay- 2011- let’s change the world!

Bob

NACD Newsletter, Volume 3 Issue 6, 2010 ©NACD

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Our pediatrician joked Philip was the only four year old he knew that spoke fluent Russian. No one could reach this precious treasure. We began searching for answers. Philip had a fall at two months of age and had a skull fracture. All the doctors involved gave him a clean bill of health, “No further complications!”

However, we went to many doctors, never getting a clear picture, always hearing, “He’ll out grow it.” We saw one specialist who at least gave us a “label,” a confirmation we were not crazy, something was different about Philip and it wasn’t going away. The doctor said it was “Minimal Brain Dysfunction, Auditory Processing, Minimal Brain Damage possible.” After nearly two years of speech therapy and many many dollars spent, we were losing hope. There was no marked change, and especially no improvement in Philip’s ability to speak or understand.

Tearfully, nightly, hourly, I prayed “Help me Lord to help your Philip! Give me direction!” Oh, God is faithful! As I felt my sweet blonde hair-blue eyed perfect child was never going to be able to experience God’s world to the fullest, I escaped into an old “Teaching Home” magazine. Blindly, I turned pages I had scoured before. Right in between some highlighted articles was a short brief in the speakers section about NACD, National Association for Child Development. The director, Bob Doman, Jr., worked with homeschooling families and their learning disabled children. I wrote a letter to explain our situation and to see if I could get a new direction. New hope. “Thank you Lord,” I prayed, “thanks for the boost of new hope.”

After receiving a response with tons of information and seeing Philip in so many of the articles, we began to check NACD out. I made MANY long distance calls to people who used the NACD program. Only one said their child had not had any benefit, but then they admitted they had not really done the program with their child the way it was supposed to be done. Every other family I spoke with said their child would not be as advanced as they were if it were not for Bob Doman and NACD. It sounded too good to be true. More checking and after numerous confirmations and affirmations we made an appointment to meet with Bob Doman at his nearest branch office St. Louis FOUR HOURS AWAY! It seemed like half a world away at the time! Even as we drove over from Indianapolis, I kept asking the Lord to detain us if this was not what He had for our Philip. A flat tire. Get us lost and miss the appointment. Nothing was too hard for Him if this was the wrong thing. I am glad to report we made it to the appointment and after the evaluation, training, and tears from me, we began our adventure with NACD.

Our scriptural promise we have held on to is from James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” The King James version says this prayer “Avails much.” And we are seeing much!!!

After four months on the program he made more progress than he had in five years! We crawled, skipped, flashed cards, squeezed and squatted our way to fabulous results.

In all our efforts to identify what was “wrong” we never were comfortable with a diagnosis. But we can say his symptoms his disconnected interest in the world around him, his hypertactile skin responses, his emotionality, his inability to make verbal sounds that were meaningful and our inability to get him to understand what we were saying all which once were a source of immense frustration are now, all GONE! They are only memories captured on video tape. Philip doesn’t even remember how he was before program!

After two years of program and on one of our visits to St. Louis to see Bob Doman, we saw a young man in the hotel pool that reminded us of the way Philip had once been. The extreme gesticulations to fill in for words unable to be expressed, the underdeveloped muscle tone, shoes on the wrong feet and the far away look in the young 11 year old boy’s eyes almost brought me to tears. This child hadn’t been given the chance Philip had. The father was amazed I could communicate with his son. I told him my son once spoke the same language. The man couldn’t believe me as he watched Philip play in the pool water. But it was true, after only two years he was understandable most the time by anybody and could understand everyone. He was growing strong and had an incredible amount of opportunities before him.

Now at the end of four years, Philip, by God’s grace shown through Bob Doman and the “program,” is a normal nine year old boy who eats anything, smells correctly, hears what we all hear, speaks as he should, is working academically at and above his grade level, is functioning socially in appropriate ways, knows the Lord as his own personal Savior, laughs and fully enjoys his family, his friends and his precious life. He is a treasure to behold, a miracle and a blessing!

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 10 No. 17, 1996 ©NACD

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