We asked God for a girl and felt very blessed when Ruth was born. Now we had a boy and a girl. Ruth’s birth was complicated only by a need for the doctor to turn her head before birth. Although she was slightly blue when she was born, she seemed to do everything a newborn should do, including nursing immediately after birth. We were also excited that Ruth was the first baby to be born in Clackamas County in 1980.

Ruth seemed to develop normally. She sat up at 7 months and walked at 15 months. I cannot recall her crawling much, probably because she spent quite a bit of time in either the walker, the Snuggly, or having me hold her. I did not notice any difficulty until Ruth was three years old. We knew that we could not depend on Ruth to get something for us, she would quickly forget, she became distracted by anything.

Ruth had learned to read in kindergarten, and with a little help from us at home, became a good reader. We did not really notice any big problems. In first grade, the teacher repeatedly kept Ruth in during recess to finish work not completed in class. We had her eyes checked and tried vision therapy. At the end of first grade, I heard something about attention deficit disorder. Her first grade teacher thought it might be a good idea to do a work-up. We scheduled an appointment with the Education Service District for the beginning of the next year.

In second grade, the problem became worse. Ruth rarely finished any of her work. Ruth had no friends. At home and school she was impulsive and would hit any other child who agitated her. It could be as simple as one of them stepping on her foot.

After the evaluation with ESD, we had a meeting with our pediatrician, the teacher and myself. Ruth began taking Ritalin. We noticed no positive effects from Ritalin and the babysitter said that it was making Ruth violent in the afternoon. Instead, we tried Cylert, with no noticeable positive effects. I went to the school for part of the day, specifically to help Ruth with her work. It did not help. I took her to counseling, which did not help either. We had her eyes checked. The ophthalmologist diagnosed a “lazy eye” and she began to wear a patch over her right eye many hours each day.

Third grade was uneventful, due to having a very understanding teacher. Fourth grade was so terrible, that I home-schooled her for fifth grade.

Fifth grade was uneventful, due to the low demands put upon her as a home-schooler. Sixth grade, she went back to public school and seemed to do fair. In seventh grade, all the old problems came back to haunt me. Ruth was late to every class, especially if she did not like the class. She never handed an assignment in on time, and so would flunk the course although she would get an “A” on the test. Almost always, whether at home, school, or church, she was “in her own little world.”

In spite of this, she stayed at grade level. Trying to help with unfinished work at home was impossible. Even though she often worked until 10:00 p.m., she rarely finished her assignments. After many tries, I quit trying. It was too hard to continually spoil an evening with nagging. I cannot begin to tell you about the high level of frustration and low self-esteem connected to Ruth’s inability.

For eighth grade, I decided to put her in a Christian school. The classes were small and I thought the teachers would be better able to deal with her. On open house night, a teacher told me “Ruth is ignoring me.” Class after class, revealed that Ruth was not doing well there. I went home heavy of heart. I decided to home-school.

At home, it was almost impossible to get her to accomplish any task. It took repeated reminders to get her to finish the task at hand. A simple chore could take hours. She had no sense of time and was late for everything. I determined that although she had problems, she would learn to do for herself. She would do everything else that our two boys did, even if she could not do as much. I nagged repeatedly. I reminded her that she was 14 years old, not two. I should not need to tell her over and over what to do. Our home often felt like a war zone. None of it worked, except that she did learn things in spite of her problems.

Schooling was very frustrating. Math took three to four hours to complete 30 problems, even with my help. Often, she would not remember what we had done the day before. We completed four months of home-schooling and she did well on the tests.

In the fall of 1994, I attended a home-school conference, where another parent happened to mention some therapy that she was doing with her own children and how it had helped them. I had already heard of Northwest Neurodevelopmental Training Center from a patient in the hospital where I work. Although previously unable to find the number in the phone book, this time I found it and made an appointment. We had an evaluation, and the results surprised me.

At home, it was extremely difficult to get Ruth to do the therapy. She did not want to crawl on the floor, or do anything else. With much perseverance and several calls to the Center, we made it through the first two weeks. We started to see a change for the better and Ruth became more cooperative with doing therapy. Since we home-school Ruth did not do any schoolwork from December 1994 to April 1995. (This is because she was taking five hours to do ten math problems and so it was counterproductive.) In late April, she started schoolwork again. At test time, she did better than last year.

We first noticed a change for the better after two weeks of therapy. We noticed a small change at two months, and an even bigger change at six months. During this time, she earned a scholarship to camp by reciting memory verses. She did this completely on her own, with no prompting from me.

After six months of therapy, Ruth began to get comments like “You are growing up!” This was very encouraging to her. Also, she noticed physical changes such as increased upper body strength, being able to hop on one foot, and an increased sense of balance. I can remember many times she’d say “Look, Mom! I can do this!,” and show me some simple (to me) physical ability that she could never do before.

It has been eleven months since Ruth began therapy. She is now about halfway through her therapy. I cannot begin to describe the relief and joy I feel to know that Ruth will be able to make it. She will live on her own someday, something that may not have been possible before she started therapy. I no longer nag her repeatedly. She often does things the first time I tell her. Last month, she began to bake cookies, on her own. (This is something most girls do at age ten.) All this summer, she has been a tremendous help to me with canning. She helps cook dinner and sometimes cooks the whole meal. It is such a relief to have her as a helper instead of the “infant” she was. She is a big help with her two-year-old sister. She and her brother are beginning to be friends. Our home is more peaceful. She continues to have some difficulty with concentration, but is so much better!

When I look back, it amazes me that Ruth has done as well as she did. I thank God that he gave me the strength to not give up. I am so glad that even when it looked as if she was not learning anything, she was learning everything.

This year, she begged to start school and when we did, she had much better concentration. I praise God for making us aware of this therapy. I wish I had known about it ten years ago. It’s difficult to describe all of the positive changes in Ruth. There are so many changes in such a short time. A couple of weeks ago, Ruth began to have a sense of smell for the first time, and her sight began to improve. Her piano playing has improved so much. Her speech is more fluid.

Ruth has another year of therapy. I look forward to more positive changes. Praise God for the Northwest Neurodevelopmental Training Center!