We recently received this wonderful testimonial from a family with a little girl that won over all of our hearts. She came through our doors every day with a huge smile on her face, and a boisterous hello! She loved to share her toys with us, she brought a different one every day, and no matter what she worked her hardest. We are so proud of her and her family. They dedicated themselves to seeing this program through, and we are so thankful for the feed back they they were able to provide us with. We miss you guys! Hope to see you soon!
To the entire Brain Balance Team,
It’s been a few months now since we left Brain Balance after
Maegan’s program and we are still talking about the great things Brain Balance
has done to improve our lives. I say our lives because what Maegan goes
through we all go through. Maegan has
always been a happy-go-lucky girl. She
developed normally from infancy through early learning years, but we knew she
was developing differently than her twin sister. She was physically more active and less
afraid of doing things that seemed risky or dangerous. When we enrolled the girls in a preschool run
by Franciscan nuns, the nuns would always tell us that they used every trick
possible to keep Maegan from getting up throughout the day or during circle
time.
When she started kindergarten, she showed the same behaviors
of fidgeting and disrupting the class with her constant need to keep moving,
touching things or not following instruction and at times throwing fits during
class. She had to be removed from her
classroom several times during the year and placed in the pre-school classes on
those days. Maegan would come home
crying saying she was placed in the baby classes because she was behaving like
a baby. We would discipline her at home
only to see her do the same thing over and over again with some good weeks and
some very bad weeks.
First grade was a lot like Kindergarten, but fewer bad weeks
as she started to make friends and socialize more. Challenges at home were similar to challenges
in school. She would often get
frustrated when she could not figure out the answers to homework on her
own. She would throw fits and toss her
books and pencil across the table and refuse to complete the homework. Maegan would cry hysterically and it would
take her hours to finish her homework assignments when her sister would do it
on her own and in a fraction of the time.
This would frustrate Maegan even more.
Before 1st grade was over we received Maegan’s Tera Nova test
scores (these are the state-wide academic tests) and we were disappointed to
see Maegan score in the 15th to 25th percentile of the
average scores of a 1st grader.
The teacher told us she never finished the exam because she got
frustrated and simply stopped trying. We
were all worried about Maegan at that point and realized this was not a
maturity problem, but that this was a much bigger problem so we took her to the
pediatrician for an evaluation. That’s
when she was diagnosed her with ADHD. Now
we knew what the issue was and we went looking for help. That’s when I found Brain Balance.
When we started Brain Balance Maegan was often too afraid to
try new things and was too afraid to read out loud. She would read very slowly and often lose her
place on the page. She was easily
distracted and was difficult for us to bring her back to continue the task of
reading. Maegan was skeptical at first,
and honestly so were we, but we had to try something to help her. We started her sessions during the summer break
and she enjoyed going to each session.
Some days she would say she was working really hard and other days she
would say she had a lot of fun. Her twin
sister Lauren would wait outside and play with the toys and she also enjoyed
going to BB each day with her sister. Mid-way through the sessions I could already
see a change in Maegan. She was eager to
read and she was reading much better.
She was attempting to sound-out words when before she would wait for me
to sound them out for her. Maegan was also
not afraid to do new things anymore. I
was amazed with her new found confidence in herself.
Maegan continued BB into the early part of her 2nd
grade and she started the year with a better view of herself. At this point she was assigned a school aide
to her class as part of the school program.
Her aide happened to be the aide that was with her during
Kindergarten. After the first week in
school, the aide pulled my husband aside and mentioned that she had seen a
tremendous change in Maegan. She said
she did not fidget during class, she didn’t disrupt the class and that she was
indeed a better reader. She asked us
what we had done to achieve such changes and we said Brain Balance. We are now mid-way through 2nd
grade and Maegan still has her days but she and her teachers tell us she’s able
to manage herself out of those situations better. What would take her hours to get through an
emotional breakdown now only takes 10 minutes at most. She knows and is aware of those situations
and tries her best to avoid them. It’s a
work in progress but we know this is now easier for her and us to deal with
thanks to Brain Balance. As she grows
older and deals with different situations, I will always think back at what
Brain Balance has taught us about ADHD and I would not think twice about
putting her through another session with BB if we think it will help her again. We enjoyed the teaching sessions with Dr.
Milello and Dr. Scire – they both offered great learning and tips on how to
deal with Maegan’s issues.
Thank you to the team that was so patient and kind with
Maegan. Maegan continues to ask me to
bring her back to say hi to her teachers.
She has her star posted to her wall to remind her of all the great
things she’s achieved! See you all
soon…
Yours truly,
Sharon B.
