Hope

I last left off with us searching for a child therapist and finding none.  While doing some research on ADHD and alternatives to medication I came across a website called Brain Balance Achievement Center. I read through some of the info, watched a couple of videos and thought it was really cool, and hey! it just happened to be right next to our gym.  We decided to go in one day and ask for some more information, told them we didn't want her medicated, they told us we were at the right place and then explained the process.  They would assess both sides of Kalie's brain by different tests and then come up with an after school program specifically for her.  Sounds great!  We decided that night to call back and schedule her assessments.  You know those $ signs they use to show how much a restaurant is?  Well I'm going to use that same scale (just picture a bigger number) for this.  Her assessment was this much $$$.  Ok, we could do it especially if it was going to help us find answers.  I paid and then asked how much the entire 12 week program would be.  $$$$$ !!!! Ouch.  So many things went through my head- How would we ever be able to afford that? Charlie's going to have to work a lot of OT, What other option did we have? I'm gonna need to sell a lot more cupcakes!

 Anyways, she went in for two and half hours and two weeks later we met with the director to go over her results.  Going in we were still unsure if we were going to even do it because of the price.  We sat with the director for two hours and discussed everything that Kalie had been tested on.  Suddenly, a huge stone was lifted off my back and tears came to my eyes.  I felt bad for being so hard on her, I felt relief and most of all, I felt HOPE.  Some may wonder why we would pay so much for something that we don't know will for sure help her and why we don't just take the easy way and medicate her.  For us, it came down to the fact that we would do whatever we had to and pay whatever for our child, especially if it would make her happier and healthier. Wouldn't you? Kalie started the program March 18, the day we met with the director.   Now here are some of the results.  Bear with me because I suck at explaining them.  You might be confused, but trust me, it all makes sense.

 

They tested both hemispheres of her brain and found that for dominance she is right footed, right handed, right eyed and LEFT ear.  For a perfectly balanced person, these would all be left or all right. **Side note: I didn't know this but it was explained to us that everything you hear out of your left ear goes to the right brain, everything in the right ear goes to left brain.** 

For her vision they did different tests- eye movements, eye reflexes, processing.  In all she came up short of the goal with a left hemisphere weakness. For processing, as in everything she's seeing and taking in, they found that Kalie's brain is trying to process info seen at the speed of an 11 year old.  Basically, way too much!

For hearing she came up short on one and in the auditory processing she was at an age 8 and her right hemisphere was weak. This tells us that she's hearing out of her left ear, it's going to the right brain, and because it's weak, the words she is hearing aren't being sent to the left brain and its getting mixed up in a space between. In short, she has a hard time comprehending things which we have been told over and over again from Ms. B.

The also tested her smelling and she missed two of the 12 common scents.

Next was the touch - I don't remember how she explained these ones but Kalie's brain is at an age 4 for half of them. 

Then they did like a physical test, and she was above her age on all of them.  (She gets that from my side of the family ;) )

The director then explained to us a WIAT percentile and where Kalie is at on that scale.  This is basically where a normal first grader would be in all academics.  Kalie was above average for all but 5.  This girl is in the 91% in math fluency!! (Does not get that from me!) The ones that she had a low score on were listening comprehension (this happens in the left brain and remember Kalie hears things out of her left ear so its going to her right brain?) reading skills, word reading, oral expression, and pseudoword decoding.  See how this is all kind of coming together?

The director also let us know that kids with ADD/ADHD have a right brain deficiency.  Medication is for the right brain.  Kalie has a left brain deficiency.  So this means..Kalie really doesn't have ADHD.  Medication wouldn't have even helped her! This was all so crazy to us!

Now, you might ask how they know this and how are we supposed to know its true? Remember that four letter word-HOPE? We have to have hope and faith that this will work and that they know what they're talking about, because that's all we have left.