"The most distractible child I have ever seen.  We are sure it is due to fetal drug syndrome.  He also can’t seem to learn to read at all, he can’t even recognize letters from one moment to the next." 

These were the primary referral concerns of a mother who had adopted a child out of the foster care system.  The boy, eight years old and in first grade,  had been homeless from the age of one year to three years.  He has been with his adoptive family for most of his life.  They recognize him as an affectionate, well-meaning child.  They tried medication therapy, psychotherapy, and special education  services.  The child was not demonstrating progress in the areas of concern.  It was attributed to the "fact"  that fetal drug syndrome creates irreversible damage.When I saw the boy, he was delightful, open, cooperative for nearly three hours of assessment and presentation of results.  He actively joined me in demonstrating the activities recommended for him to perform for about 20 minutes a day at home with his mother (and siblings, if they so chose).  

The mother, a social service professional, had had a great deal of experience with children born with fetal alcohol and fetal drug syndrome.  She was quite skeptical that our program could help, but willing to try.  She felt that she and her son were a test case for other children.The child’s problems were almost "classic" for the children we see at HANDLE.  The program of activities he received was fairly routine, by our standards, with slightly more emphasis on strengthening weak visual processing.  Three months later (and without medication), his behavior and attention in school were almost exemplary, reading was becoming easy, writing was becoming organized.  We suggested continuation of some of the same activities, and changed a number of them, this time incorporating use of balls (which he enjoyed).  He continued to learn trouble-free through-out second and third grade.  He is now a normal, happy fourth grader.  Not only has the child overcome his problems, he knows that he was instrumental in doing the work himself.  He and his mother are empowered.  They will always have hope, and find the tools to realize their hopes.  The child’s family,  the child’s classmates and their families, and their community--all have been gifted with the return of one more functional, motivated member of the future generation.

 "If you cannot give us some answers, tomorrow we will place him in a psychiatric residential treatment center.  Even when he is on heavy medication, we can no longer be responsible for his life.  He is that disturbed.  He is suicidal."

The mother of a 9 year old boy, in a fourth grade class, together with members of the special services support staff from his school district made that statement to our staff in December of 1994.  The child, diagnosed with Oppositional-Defiant behavior disorder, had in fact made several attempts on his own life in the past 18 months.  He was also abusive to others, both in school and at home, several times a day.  He had to date made no measurable progress in academic learning, despite having a one-on-one aide working with him for 2 years.  Within the first 15 minutes inside our clinic, I knew I had figured out the child’s issues:  (1) He was extremely tactile-defensive.  (2) He suffered from photophobia.  (3) He had a visual functioning disorder referred to as "alternating suppression", and (4) Those working with him misunderstood his responses, assumed he was being defiant when he was being self-protective, and did not allow him sufficient time to process information given the factors he was dealing with.  I continued to work with the child, in order to verify my hypotheses, and to catch on video camera proof of those observations.

The child worked with me cooperatively, at his own pace, for over 4 hours.  We did take a break after about 2 hours.  The only instance of "oppositional-defiant" behavior he exhibited was, while knowing full well that I had demonstrated an exercise on a mat and expected him to copy it, as soon as he lay down on the mat, he jumped up and turned away from me with distrust.  I immediately (and profusely) apologized for forgetting to reduce the intensity of the overhead lighting that he was facing when in the required posture.  The moment I altered the lighting, without redirection, the child got down on the mat and moved through the exercise.
Because the mother felt herself unable to supervise her child’s recommended activities at home, the one-on-one aide agreed to implement them with the child on school days.  By the end of the first week, the child began coming to school regularly, frequently even on time.  (He had had a serious school avoidance problem.)  He began to learn.  His nervous system began to tolerate those environmental stimuli that had been so offensive to him.  He came off all medication.

By the first week in March of 1995, the child was no longer at-risk.  He also was enjoying joining the other children in regular school activities.  He had advanced more in his academic subjects in those 10 weeks than he had his entire previous school career.  During the 1995-96 school year, he completed fifth grade, with no special support services, and with no reported incidences of behavior disorder.  We trust he is continuing to do well--otherwise, I am sure we would have heard another call for help.

"The way he was, that’s the type of children who end up in foster homes,..."

I worked together with an intern to assess a 6 year old boy, who had been referred to us by his speech and language therapist.  No matter how hard she tried (and she was an acclaimed therapist), she could not accomplish anything with him. His attention span was not measurable, even in 15 second intervals.  Neither could his parents, nor his special education daycare service providers find anything that would hold his attention for longer than perhaps 10 seconds.  He was always in motion, destroying physical objects and mental tranquillity in his every waking moment.  And he had a difficult time going to sleep.  His baby brother was neglected by his parents and abused by this older brother, because of this exaggerated hyperactivity.

The intern was a little skeptical when she helped me design a program of 8 simple activities (e.g., drinking through a straw, being bounced lightly in a strong blanket, receiving a special massage, etc.) and make a few temporary suggestions for environmental modification (e.g., working in the dark with flashlights).  The doubts arose from her years working in a special needs pre-school.  She had experienced that these kinds of problems took years to get under control, and that most of the control involved staff member’s learning how to anticipate and ward off problematic behaviors.  As much as she had studied the HANDLE approach, and believed it worked, her past experience told her "This one will not respond.  The activities are too simple and the problem is too severe."

The intern helped me demonstrate activities which I explained to the mother.  The explanation of the neurodevelopmental root of the behaviors made perfect sense to the mother.  The suggested activities naturally flowed from the explanation.  All the activities were do-able at home with no special equipment.  They could be performed a few seconds here and a few seconds later.  The mother went home after a very long day, feeling invigorated, empowered, and --yes--hopeful.

Ten days later we heard from the speech therapist.   She wrote to tell us that the child was sitting and attending for ten to fifteen minute sessions, and they could now work on language and articulation.  About two months later, when we saw the family again for a follow-up evaluation,  the child was almost unrecognizable.  He was well mannered, interested in activities presented to him.  He still had spunk enough to have fun, but without endangering himself or anyone else.  When his relaxed mom left our clinic that day with her two sons, she left with full energy, and tears, knowing her prayers had been answered.

As she was leaving, and I commented to her how much fun it was to work with her son, and thanked her for sharing him with us.  She said, "He is great now!  But the way he was--those are the children who end up in foster homes."  It still tugs at my heart to think that this family was on the verge of destruction--either by keeping their son with his neurobehavioral disorders or by making the conscious decision to give up on him.  He is having success in a regular classroom, and his mother is one of the many HANDLE parents willing to share her experience with anyone and everyone.

This is a series of brief case summaries presented by Mary Howell, Certified Handle Practitioner, in August, 2000:

I relish the time to share HANDLE experiences with anyone, as I believe it to be the most inclusive and effective method of improving education and personal growth that I have encountered in 20 years of teaching. I was an English teacher, an administrator and for the last four years a teacher in a self contained middle school special education room with severe behavior problems and very serious syndromes. 

The most severe behavior problem (a whole list of diagnoses) ranging from setting fires, to striking out at school, to property destruction, theft etc, etc., most of the time refused to do the HANDLE activities but he would watch. The previous year he had been allowed to be in school 1/2 time with a large one to one aide, special busing arrangements and was searched for items that weren't his before and after school and 5-6 hours a week of case manager support. During the year I did HANDLE work in the classroom, he got one hour weekly support from his case-manager. He also only missed three or four days of school for suspension (mostly noncooperation). He attended full time with no aide and even some days went unattended to the regular classrooms and sometimes did work. 

Downs Syndrome girl: greatly improved articulation, much improved social skills and slight academic improvement. 

Cornelia de Lange girl: Usually 50% but sometimes 75% decrease in problematical preservative behaviors, great increase in managing her own life, spent 3/4th of the school day in the regular classroom, learned to read at third grade level, for the first time began to write her own sentences and she spoke regularly in complex sentences including being able to say how she "felt" about problems. (Top of the line for this syndrome is a three-word sentence). I did start work with this girl the year previously as a pilot project and her mother has continued the work at home. When you are coming from a place where genetic materials do not exist it takes longer to develop the neuropathways. We don't know where this will end, but wow it is progressing. This girl also received craniosacral treatment for dural tube maladjustment and electrical misconnections. 

Williams Syndrome Boy: All year long we worked with this guy and he needed physical help to do the activities daily and saw very little gain. Next year in high school an aide I had trained kept up the activities and included new ones (I had received more advanced training and knew better what to do). All children with this syndrome have NO math ability. (I know now that they have very severe proprioceptive problems in addition to visual problems). This boy has increased his academic skills in both math and reading and has less fear when walking around school where he could easily lose his way or become frightened of the masses of other kids. 

When I did the work at school I had had only a two-week training course and I simply did the basic activities without a thought to individualizing. I did not do any of the dietary work but did play some games to develop interhemispheric connections. This was time consuming to do in the classroom, but brought about more changes than ANY of the academic or social skills work or behavior modification. 

Regular Boy is bright but could not read: Because administrators had decided that what I was doing was great, but was for "retarded" kids, I dragged in a boy willing to get out of reading instruction and worked with him. Fifth grader, first grade reading level but could talk about physics and anything he heard. We only had two months with him, but during that time he increased his reading skills two grade levels. 

Now that I have completed my internship and doing this as a private practice I have seen the incredible difference it can make when an individual program is designed and done. And I can only imagine the spectacular differences if neurodevelopmental work was understood by teachers and we could stop saying, " If only they would try." Instead we could design programs in the primary grades that would enhance everyone's interhemispheric connections, ability to differentiate and be aware of what children with special needs need. I am rattling on here, but I want to tell you of two clients I have worked with. 

One 18 year old girl, autistic, could not walk up and down stairs without help, could not speak, could not physically manage to sit in a chair without holding on to the back and inching her way down, could not dress herself or groom herself. She had received auditory integration, which had helped her become not so overwhelmed by noise, but she still remained "autistic" (but probably really severely dyspraxic). Currently six months after treatment was started she can swing her leg over a chair and sit down, she can comb her hair, bath herself get her PJs on, go up and down stairs, go to bed without fear, stopped poking at others for social attention, and she is fairly regularly speaking in three word sentences and has started to sing entire but simple songs. She doesn't need to be tutored at school academically, because by being there and listening and looking at the book quickly she understands, she cannot yet produce the assignments. She can even tie a bow. 

Another 19-year-old boy, who most probably has Aspergers Syndrome, has only been doing this work for 10 days. For the first time in his life he is sleeping, he voluntarily got his hair and beard cut, he is speaking more rationally, and he is considering ways he can put his computer talents into a job. This dramatic improvement is not always the case, but when it is, it feels good for everyone.