Our 5 ½ year old son, began EEG Neurotherapy with Dr. Mary Lee Esty in October 2000. He was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder at the age of three, and High Functioning Autism at age four. His main issues were severely delayed language development, impulsive and controlling behaviors (especially around peers), spaciness, difficulty following through on a task, poor fine motor skills, and more recently, great difficulty sleeping. He would wake several times during the night and go through the next day in a zombie-like state. It often would take several calls of his name to get his attention, and he seemed very “out of it”. He was extremely irritable and prone to tantrum, and generally overreacted to the slightest disruption of his routine. He was controlling of everything in his environment – from what songs were played on the radio – to what other children in his classroom were doing. When in one of his rarer good moods, though, he was loving, warm, and charming, with a wonderful sense of humor, and we savored the “good days” when they came. He also learned to read very early, and loves books, numbers, and letters. We first heard about EEG Neurotherapy from my cousin with ADD, who has had great success with it. He had heard that it could work for autistic spectrum disorders as well as recommended that we give it a try.

We were slightly skeptical, but willing to try anything at that point, since his behavior was increasingly intolerable. After the first few sessions, his behavior seemed to worsen, as we were told to expect. But within a month or two, things changed noticeably for the better. His language picked up dramatically, and he began speaking in more complex, fuller sentences. All his teachers and therapists noted (without even knowing that he was in this type of therapy) that he seemed much more “ aware” of his surroundings and the people around him. Happily for all of us, his sleep pattern normalized, to the point where he now sleeps through the night in a regular basis and awakens in a good mood practically every day. Tantrums have decreased to the point where they are extremely rare, and instead of screaming when he sees friends and family and running away (as he did six months ago), he greets them with hugs and kisses. His fine motor skills have improved greatly as well. Prior to this, he never drew an original drawing of anything in his life. He did not color with coloring books and hated anything having to do with a pen or pencil. However, in January, he started to develop a fascination with dot-to-dot puzzles, began using coloring books happily, and soon thereafter wrote his name for the first time. This month (March 2001), he drew his first picture – a person complete with smile, hair, ears, neck and body! Teachers have noted that he is more interactive with other children at school, though he still has some difficulties with impulse control, especially grabbing other children to get them to do what he wants them to do, as well as with flexibility in his routines/

While it is impossible to know exactly which of the changes we see in him are attributable directly to the EEG Neurotherapy and which are the result of other influences, it is important to note that we have not introduced any other major therapies, medications or interventions since we began the EEG Neurotherapy sessions in October. Therefore, our feeling is that most of his progress can be credited to Dr. Mary Lee Esty and her work with him over the past six months. Everyone who knows him has been struck by the transformation in him since last fall, and we are grateful to have found something that for the time being, at least, seems to really help him.

BWB © 2010