Matt's Story
As told by his mother, Karen
My
son, Matthew, has been on the DORE Program for over a year and a half now. He
has been diagnosed as having ADHD. Matt was the one who initially came to me
and said he wanted to try the program after seeing an article on DORE in U.S.
News. Our family has been very pleased with the results that we have seen since
he first started on the program.
Matt has always been a very good student, but homework was especially hard on
him because his medication had worn off by the time he got home. One hour's
worth of homework for most kids would, on average, take Matt three hours. There
were lots of tears on both our parts. Occasionally, I would give him a half
dosage of his medicine to help him get through it more quickly. Within a few
months of going to DORE, I began to notice that Matt was able to do his
homework much more easily. In fact, it seemed that his medication was still
working in him. Matt is now in high school and is taking all honors classes
meaning that he has, on average, three to four hours of homework a night. I am
amazed that he can remain focused until nine o'clock at night if he needs to.
Sometimes his workload is such that he will get up early in the morning to
complete it. In the past if this happened, he struggled and needed my help to
stay focused. But since the beginning of the school year, he has been able to
get up and keep himself focused on his own.
Matt still needs meds for school, but this year we reduced his dosage. This is
something that has never happened before. In fact, his dosage usually has had
to be increased during the school year. In the past, we would usually give him
meds on the weekend if he was doing something that would require him to focus
or to help him in social situations. But this year, we have forgone the meds
because he feels comfortable in these situations without them. In the past year
and a half, he has made more and more friends— something that we worried about
in the past because he often came across as immature. We have watched him
interact with lots of different types of kids, and he is able to fit in well.
The most unusual (and welcomed) change that we have seen is an interesting one.
From the time Matt has been able to sit up in a high chair, he has constantly
banged either one or both feet against whatever was available. When he was a
baby, it was the high chair that got the brunt of his kicking. As he got older,
it was a table, a wall, or whatever happened to be near his feet. We have a
kitchen counter that serves as a breakfast bar. Not a morning went by that Matt
didn't plunk himself down in one of the bar chairs and begin banging his feet
against the wooden kitchen cabinets that are under the counter. For twelve
years, I would constantly say, "Matt, stop thumping." He would stop, and then
it would start up again only a moment later. One morning, about two days after
Matt started doing his wobble board exercises, he came down for breakfast, and
for the first time in twelve years there was no "thumping." This is not
something that a mother would miss. I remember being totally shocked at the
silence, but I didn't say anything to Matt as I was pretty sure that he would
eventually start up again. I waited another two full days before I finally
brought this to Matt's attention. Of course, he wasn't aware that he had
stopped anymore than he had been aware of his thumping in the first place. It
has been over a year and a half, and the silence is still deafening. I
attribute it directly to the wobble board exercises because the behavior
changed just two days after starting on the board. I can think of no other
reason for this to have occurred.
Doing the DORE Program takes time, and you must be prepared to make a firm
commitment to set aside the needed time. While it doesn't take more than ten or
so minutes, twice a day, you must decide that it will be a priority. We have
been on the program longer than a lot of people, and there have been days when
Matt is tired or just doesn't feel like doing his exercises. When this has
happened (and thankfully it's not that often), I repeatedly tell him the same
thing over and over, "Doing DORE is important because it will ultimately change
your life." The way I look at it, If we devote ten to twenty minutes a day for
the next year or two and can get him either off meds completely or onto a much
lower dosage, it's worth it. The changes that we have seen in him even now have
made the program worth our time and efforts. He is a happy, well-adjusted boy
with a large group of friends. He has a reputation in his school for being one
of the "good students," and he is involved in extracurricular activities,
specifically the school's marching band and Boy Scouts. I'm not sure that he
would be able to juggle all of this if we had not started the DORE Program when
we did. We're all very happy that we made the decision to do DORE, and I can
heartily recommend it to anyone with ADHD.