Neurological Problem

Another StoryGlobally Delayed - "At 22 months: feeling right side, walking, running, talking, more advanced that most her age ."

Enjoy this testimony of Evan Repka with a neurological problem, and see the remarkable progress made since coming to Family Hope Center.

Evan Repka

“We first met Matthew and Carol when our son was 20 months old. We had spent the previous six months concluding for ourselves that Evan had a neurological problem, convincing our pediatrician, seeing a neurologist and having an MRI performed, and undergoing an evaluation by our state's Early Start program.  The result was no official diagnosis, but a general agreement to a problem with motor skills.  After the research we had done on brain development, we were thrilled to learn that we had an opportunity for Matthew and Carol to see Evan.

Evan evaluated at an average neurological age of 14 months. This was not surprising to us at that time, given the other evaluations we'd had, and our own research and study of Evan. He seemed to be consistently six months behind. What was most compelling about the evaluation was the thoroughness; nobody else who had seen Evan had asked us as many questions, had looked at all areas of function, had studied him with both breadth and depth.

Matthew and Carol gave us a great program to address mobility and speech, our biggest concerns.  But they gave us other supportive advice as well. Matthew was the first person (but not the last) to notice Evan's pronated right foot and to recommend an orthotic support. He also recommended cranial sacral therapy, as Evan has a smaller-than-expected (given hereditary factors) head circumference. While these are just two of the many things we've done to help Evan, both were enormously important, and would either have happened much later or never happened at all, without Matthew's advice. We also got detailed advice on nutrition, another critical component of our program. Finally, it must be stressed that the Newells gave us a complete program. This is in contrast to most other professionals who make recommendations in one area, but the parent is left with the (daunting) responsibility of determining how to fit it all together. Matthew and Carol detailed everything, and explained priorities. This meant we knew where to concentrate first, and what to do during those times when we felt too stretched to do it all.

When we started our program, Evan could walk but was unsteady. He could not run. He had just a couple of words he could say voluntarily. He had tactility issues (hyposensitivity). Six months later, for our second evaluation, he had advanced in all areas - some significantly so.  His neurological age had increased to 23 months -- a gain of 9 months.  The gap was closing.

It has now been a full year since we first met the Newells. Evan loves to run. He is talking up a storm.  (In fact, a recent evaluation by a speech therapist scored him with language abilities of a 4-1/2 year old.  He's only 2-1/2!) His head circumference moved from the 5th percentile to the 15th.  He now reacts appropriately to even light tactile stimulation. We are thrilled with this progress. He is still behind his peers in mobility and speech (intelligibility, not language), so we are not done yet. But we remain encouraged and determined.

At our last visit, the neurologist said "he's done much better than I thought he would." I wasn't thrilled with this comment because it showed he hadn't been entirely honest with us in the first place. But it was telling: we were on the right track with our approach. Without hesitation I would recommend an evaluation to anybody for any child.

Lisa Repka

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