We Knew There Was A Problem With Learning

 Our daughter knew she was behind and couldn’t read like her friends. She would retreat to Mom whenever she grew uncomfortable with her limitations. It was one of only a few coping mechanisms she had for the internal struggles that ensued. I knew I had to do something, anything, to help her overcome her learning challenges. We suspected Dyslexia when the usual switching of her B’s and D’s lingered. She would skip words, start reading a word she couldn’t decode and fill in the wrong word with one that started with similar letters. She complained of headaches when she did academics. Keeping her on task and getting her schoolwork done everyday put a strain on our relationship and our days typically ended in tears.
 

Some Help Is Not Really Help

I had no idea it would be such a challenge for a homeschooler to get help. Even tried and true homeschool sources couldn’t offer any resources that we could afford. As with many homeschoolers, we have both a large family (8 children) and a single income. So we searched and searched, bet couldn’t seem to find any way for her to be tested or evaluated to see if she truly had Dyslexia or something else. I was also concerned that even a Dyslexia diagnosis would not help us to fix the problem for her.
After trying a developmental pediatrician through our insurance we were told she had ADD and should be put on Ritalin. We knew this was a wrong diagnosis; her issues had nothing to do with an inability to stay on task, and everything to do with her inability to read at grade level. We felt like we were back at square one with no real options to help our daughter overcome her challenges. We were at our wits end, yet we owed it to her to find something to help her reach her potential.

Little Giant Steps ~ A Silver Lining

My frustration came up one day when speaking to a friend and fellow homeschool mom who shared with us that another mutual friend had similar issues with her daughter and that she not only overcame her issues, but advanced to college level work by the age of 16 using the program. Hope returned. We learned about this program called Little Giant Steps (LGS), which uses a neurodevelopmental approach to addressing a gamut of learning disabilities. Nationally, LGS  Neuro-Educational Specialists are part of the International Christian Association of Neurodevelopmentalist (ICAN) network.

The approach has found that certain children have incomplete neuropathways that cause the brain to become disorganized and information is stored and recalled improperly. By doing certain exercises, these pathways are completed and the brain becomes properly organized so that information can be stored and retrieved efficiently and without obstacles.  When our daughter was first evaluated by an LGS neurodevelopmental specialist, we were shocked to discover that she couldn’t skip across a room, crawl or track an object with her eyes. Though she seemed to go through all the stages of development as expected as an infant and toddler, it was clear that there were pathways that were not complete and likely the source of her reading challenges and other physical manifestations we hadn’t realized before.

Our Journey To Healing

We began the journey of healing. And we are so relieved and grateful. In the first four months alone, our daughter improved one and a half grade levels! Along the way, an extra blessing surfaced. Our daughter had also been diagnosed with scoliosis. The curvature of her spine had advanced so drastically and so quickly that the doctor believed she would require a brace. But to our surprise, her scoliosis not only arrested, it receded (which is medically unheard of) due to a hanging exercises required by her neurodevelopmental program.  Our daughter is not even halfway through our eighteen month commitment with LGS, but she has made significant strides and for the first time in a long time we, with God’s help, feel she is FINALLY on the path toward healing… healing for both body and soul.  T.H.