M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Conquering Autism and ADHD
By Beverly Farr Giroux

As the mother of three children who had various diagnoses of ADHD, Autism, Aspergers and speech delay, I frequently meet other parents who have children with similar difficulties. I hear “my son is autistic” or “my daughter has ADHD” in tones that imply that those labels are fixed and immoveable.

From my own experience, I know that those labels, and the debilitating symptoms of ADHD and autism do not have to be permanent.

The cure is not easy, but it is possible. For many weary parents who have exhausted different therapies or treatments with little success, it sounds too good to be true. But it is true, and here is my story.

ADHD runs rampant through my family, so I wasn’t surprised when my first daughter Melissa showed signs of distractibility and high energy. She was a happy, intelligent girl, and I wasn’t worried. Various members of my family had taken ADHD medications. The rest had learned to use day planners to deal with their distractibility or became engineers and computer programmers to appease their desire for order and to take advantage of their talent for hyper focus.

But when Melissa was in kindergarten, she cried a lot and told me, “I just can’t pay attention like the other kids.” I devised various charts and schedules to help her, and made her diet healthier, but she still struggled. She would get a 100% or a zero on papers. I decided to homeschool her in second grade and she often said, “I can’t THINK when the air conditioner is on.” She also had the typical ADHD mood swings, reacting emotionally to things that should be logical.

A Second Challenge

At about this time, I realized that my second daughter, Celeste, age 3, was not progressing normally. She often acted deaf, refusing to respond to others’ comments. She sang songs or repeated dialogue from Barney shows rather than creating her own appropriate speech (I later learned that this was echolalia).

When she graduated from Nursery into the Sunbeams class at Primary, she screamed every week for half an hour to an hour. I took her to the public school to be evaluated. Celeste refused to follow any directions and huddled under a table. The evaluator told me to start reading books about autism, and my stomach sank with dread. Celeste later received a diagnosis of mild autism.

Mild? It didn’t seem mild to me. At four years of age, she screamed for hours at a time, only answered one question in ten, avoided eye contact, and zoned out with shiny things or reflections, often wanting to lick people's jewelry.

She frequently stressed out in public places, getting loud and sometimes violent. She refused to go into the post office (possibly because of the florescent lights?) and often had meltdowns in department stores. But I was fortunate that she could talk — a little — and it was clear she loved her family, so compared to many non-verbal, head-banging autistic children completely lost in their own world, her difficulties could be considered mild.

After learning that Celeste was autistic, I was frantic. I did everything I could to find help. I spent hours reading library books and researching articles on the Internet. I tried various dietary changes, behavior modification techniques (ABA), speech therapy, and enrolled Celeste in a preschool program for children with language delays. She made some improvements, but they were slight. I spent the next eighteen months asking every parent of an autistic child I could find, "What are you doing that works?"

Finding Help

Finally I found a mom who told me about NACD, National Association for Child Development. NACD is a non-profit organization, with national headquarters in Ogden, Utah. They help children with many different challenges, including autism.

Basically, NACD does a neuro-developmental assessment or evaluation of the child and then teaches parents the activities or tasks that can help get rid of the developmental gaps or delays that are holding their children back. Some of the activities on Celeste's program were similar to physical therapy and helped with her mobility and coordination.

Other activities were similar to sensory integration exercises and helped her overcome sensory issues, particularly her hyper-sensitivity to various sounds. (She used the Listening Program; see www.advancedbrain.com.) NACD also taught me how to improve her auditory and visual processing, and how to build her working memory. They showed me how to accelerate her academics and gave me exercises to develop conceptual thinking skills, which are key to social interactions and emotional maturity.

When she began her NACD program, at age 5½, Celeste could not talk about future or past events or have a four-step conversation. Within six months, she asked a “why” question for the first time in her life, and after 12 months she answered a “why” question for the first time. She started sleeping through the night instead of waking for two to four hours around 2 a.m. every morning. She also stopped screaming every time I combed her hair.

To me, it was a miracle. (To read the description of her progress in her first year of program, click here.)

Treating ADHD

In the beginning, helping Celeste was my highest priority. Her NACD program took two to three hours a day to complete — in five and ten minute segments throughout the day. But I was also concerned about Melissa, with her ADHD symptoms, so I did a very simple NACD program (about half an hour a day) with her. Melissa’s progress was rapid, and in nine months, she had no more symptoms of ADHD.

Later, I also realized that my youngest child, Joseph, two years younger than Celeste, had developmental delays as well. When he was three, we could understand less than ten percent of what he said. He received medical diagnoses of Aspergers, ADHD and speech delay.

Needless to say, for several years I was a very busy Mom. Some days I wore a timer around my neck to be able to get all the therapy done. But it was worth it, and now I am reaping the harvest of those years of work.

Success Story

So where are they now?

At 16, Melissa is a very calm, capable young woman with no symptoms of ADHD. She received her Young Women Medallion at age 15. She attends early morning seminary and received 100% attendance this past year. She is homeschooled with an independent correspondence course for high school and will start attending a local junior college in the fall. She knits, plays the piano, is teaching herself French and plans to start Spanish soon. She often helps young mothers in the ward, helping them clean their houses or taking care of their children.

At 13, Celeste is a bright, active young lady. She is kind and has a good sense of humor. She likes to read and is writing a time-travel novel. She is on grade level or above for almost all her classes. She knits baby hats for a local hospital, takes piano lessons, and is learning how to cook. She is eager to participate in church and social activities. She sets goals for herself.

She often sits beside me on the couch and says, "Mom, we need to talk." Those words are music to my ears after the years of her avoiding conversation. Celeste isn’t "finished" yet. Her behavior is 98% in the normal range. Sometimes she is still socially and verbally awkward, but it looks more like ADD than autism. People who didn't know her seven years ago find it difficult to believe that she was autistic. I believe that in time, her awkwardness will disappear, too.

The author's children, Celeste (13), Melissa (16), and Joseph (11)

At 11, my son Joseph is an eager Boy Scout. He reads at a post high school level and is on the brink of starting algebra. He edits a humorous family newsletter. His NACD program took about two years of work (about two hours a day) to get rid of his Aspergers and ADHD symptoms. Several years ago, he used to stress out at Cub Scout and Primary activities, crying and having meltdowns. Now, he handles the rowdy basketball games like a pro.

Other Successes

My children are not the only ones that I have seen progress through an NACD program. My good friend Vickie Oehring, who was in my ward, saw Celeste’s progress and took her son Jason to NACD. Jason was verbally adept, but he couldn’t read and couldn’t deal with crowds and many social situations. When he was six, he used to crawl under the chairs and cry during Sharing Time at Primary.

Now he reads for enjoyment and can handle the day-to-day changes in schedule calmly and goes to classes with different teachers without problems. Recently he bore his testimony in sacrament meeting, a milestone achievement for him.

A few years ago, one of my friends (who was a Primary president in another ward) was struggling with a 4-year-old Sunbeam with autism who had no concept of language. He could not follow a one-step direction and he would hit children or babies who were crying — the sound was too distressing to him. My friend asked me if I’d speak to his mother, Heather Somoza. Heather is now one of my good friends. After two years with NACD, her son Jacob follows two- and three-step directions, can read more than 600 words, and is using spontaneous speech (some phrases and sentences). Since starting the NACD program, he has learned to show affection and is interacting with other children.

Sometimes I want to stand on the street corners and shout, letting people know that there is hope, and that ADHD and autism do not have to be forever.

I know that NACD may not be the answer for every child, but I would encourage parents to go to the website (www.nacd.org) read the articles and seek inspiration. There is a wealth of information that would be helpful, even if parents decide not to use NACD’s services. For me, it was the answer to months of fasting and prayer. Those who wish to learn more about my journey can email me privately at dgiroux@sbcglobal.net.

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