Success Stories:
Learning Differences

Overcoming Challenges Together

Identifying the right combination of therapies and learning methods and putting them into daily practice creates opportunities for success.

Learning Differences

Name: David
Age: 9
Diagnosis: Unspecified, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Functional Challenges: David entered Jacob's Ladder, having difficulty identifying and expressing the full range of emotionality. He displayed low confidence within social and academic settings due to challenges with attention and focus, visual tracking, and near-point/far-point accommodations.

Our extensive evaluation, including a qEEG brain map, found the areas of David’s brain where communication flow was lacking (hypo-coherence) or was locked and overly used (hyper-coherence).

His individualized Model of Care was designed to support the top 10 regions of David’s brain that were under-utilized and the top 10 that were over-utilized to normalize neural connections. David’s goals upon starting his program included:

Goal #1: Manage anxiety related to self-perceived failures.

Goal #2: Embrace emotionality and maintain emotional well-being.

Goal #3: Maintain focus and attention.

“When you have things that are not connecting, it affects a child on every level, from throwing a baseball to completing homework. I feel I lost a lot of time with my son pushing him; now I’m grateful I just get to be his mom. We have discovered some of his strengths we would have never discovered without Jacob’s Ladder. We were so thankful to send our child to a place where he is believed in, loved for who he is, and constantly told how smart he is.”

- David's Parents

David's Program and Functional Gains

Over six months, David worked with his providers using proper educational and intervention strategies to address the root cause of his challenges directly: the midbrain feeding up to the frontal lobe, which is responsible for attention and focus. In an environment of safety and acceptance, he learned to use the Self-Regulation Strategy (SRI) and the Zones of Regulation curriculum, identifying and managing his emotional state. He began to self-advocate to achieve his goals and gained confidence in his abilities and interpersonal connections.

Starting at Jacob's Ladder

Demonstrated challenges identifying and expressing the full range of emotionality
Exhibited low confidence within social and academic settings due to challenges with visual tracking and near- and far-point accommodation
Lacked attention and focus

6 Months Later

Identified his emotional states and utilized his self-regulating tools accordingly
Started to participate in classroom academics and volunteered to read and complete math problems in front of peers
Self-advocated for his wants/needs, which helped his focus and attention (asking for flexible seating, reset tools, and other accommodations that nurtured his learning style)

David's Brain Improvement

The proper connections developed between the affected areas in David's brain, and he experienced immense gains in his emotional, behavioral, and relational functioning. Connection improvements seen in his follow-up qEEG brain map are shown below.

The communication flow within the Inferior Frontal/Prefrontal Gyrus lacked by -4.39 standard deviations from a normalized connection.

Through David's individualized Model of Care, activities were implemented that improved the communication flow to -1.23 standard deviations from a normalized connection.

The communication flow between the Somatosensory Cortex and Temporal Lobe was locked and/or overly-used by +3.83 standard deviations from a normalized connection.

Through David's individualized Model of Care, activities were implemented that improved the communication flow to +1.94 standard deviations from a normalized connection.

Areas of Focus

Inferior Frontal/Prefrontal Gyrus – Part of Broca’s Area (Left)

Verbal language functions – Broca’s Area
Mirror neurons and imitation of social interactions
Deductive reasoning

Inferior-Frontal-Prefrontal-–-Part-of-Broca’s-Area

Somatosensory Cortex (Right)

Sensorimotor integration
Mapping of sensory input – homunculus

Temporal Lobe (Right)

Auditory working memory, perception, and processing
Comparing present input with past experiences
Episodic memory (remembering events) and declarative memory (remembering facts)
Detection and understanding of non-verbal aspects of language: emotional tone in voices (happy vs. angry) and nonverbal sounds