Hi all. For those who don’t know me I am the mother of three children with learning challenges. Two are older, 22 and 18 and doing well. My third, Tucker, is seven and although he has never been formally diagnosed he struggles with ADHD and depression. I have been the gammit with school districts and testing shows that even tho he is all but non-functional in the classroom, he doesn’t qualify for special services because of his test scores on the WJR. In other words he isn’t failng badly enough yet :roll: Last year while looking on the web for help with him I came across a website about the HANDLE Insitute (www.handle.org). HANDLE is in a number of states across the US and several countries abroad and is a clinic that uses to some extent diet and supplements and to a greater extent exercises to go to the root of weak neurodevelopmental areas and strengthen them, thus eliminating the deficit. Neurodevelopmental issues include ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder, learning disabilities, autism and more. I think it is worth the effort to visit the website and do some research. We are fortunate that the main clinic for the Institute is in my backyard in Seattle. My husband and I have decided to take Tucker here and his first appt. is March 8. If there is interest I would be more than happy to give updates on the experience we have and the progress we hope to see. Let me know what you think……. :)
Re: New Therapy.....
I agree with you. I believe that school is going to offer an independent evaluation at the MDT meeting on the first of March. If they don’t, I will request one. We also have been talking about a smaller classroom with the special education teacher until the evaluation in finished. The superintendent and I know each other well and he knows that I am aware of Tucker’s rights and how to implement them so we seem to be able to work things out now for his benefit. Only took 3 years :roll: I won’t leave Tucker hanging during the process but wonder how an evaluation of his deficits and working a program to erase those same deficits will work… it will be quite the adventure :D
Re: New Therapy.....
Anita, I sure will. This is a new way to address deficits for me but has been being used for a number of years now and is backed by the major hospitals in our area including Children’s and also the Department of Social and Health Services in WA. I have high hopes that we may be able to alleviate his issues completely and without medication. If my gut instincts are correct this could mean alot for kids. I will let you know how the March 9th evaluation goes. :)
Handle
I have great respect for the Handle approach. My son has been doing a Handle “program of exercises” for 4 months. We went to Seattle for an evaluation and communicate with them monthly by videotape (and any other time we want by email and phone).
They have an extensive web site www.handle.org.
Good luck with the Handle Institute. I don’t have any information about that, but have you considered getting your child privately evaluated and then hitting the school district over the head with your results? Often, the “free” testing you get from the public school system, is inadequate to get a real idea of what is going on with a complicated child. Even if the school won’t give him any services, a private evaluation could show you which educational areas are being affected and, in addition to Handle, you could provide other private tutoring or remediation. No matter how great Handle turns out to be, its not going to fix what he is missing in school right now and the more behind he gets, the harder it will be to get him back on track.