"Dear Readers,

Last February in Tiburon, California, I had the pleasure to receive training to provide The Listening Program. I am a practicing Speech and Language Pathologist and was looking for a new tool for my old bag of tricks to improve auditory processing skills. I started 5 students from my caseload on the program and began to see immediate results in behavior; everything from improved sleep to reduced anxiety, not to mention better receptive language. Professionally, I was excited and motivated to explore the many applications for this program.

This past March I attended my 7 year old daughter's spring parent-teacher conference. As a parent and a professional with 15 years devoted to special education, I was aware of my daughter's high energy level. I also recognized her intelligence and have tracked her receptive and expressive language skills since infancy. As she has always scored and functioned above average for her age, I have not worried about her academic performance. Well, this conference took me by surprise! Although, Lauren (my daughter) was showing academic progress during the year her citizenship grades reportedly needed work. She received Satisfactory to Satisfactory-minus marks for the following standards:

As if that wasn't enough, this was the narrative written by her teacher:

"Lauren is an extremely bright and capable student who is not able to reach her potential due to her inability to sit still and remain focused on the task at hand. This inability to focus has caused her problems in parent groups and peer relations among her tablemates."

This was followed by the teacher encouraging me to visit our Pediatrician to discuss a treatment program based on medication. At this point in the conference I almost fell out of my "teeny, tiny chair!" My first thought was to react like a mother. A flood of emotions ran through my body and I basically left the conference in a daze. After a cool-down period, my professional side kicked into gear and I had a thought: THE LISTENING PROGRAM!!!!

Medication would be a last resort for me and at the time was not even a consideration. So I plugged her in twice each day for 8 weeks. She did not miss even one session. I was desperate for results and would make no compromises. She was a trooper, and to my surprise actually liked it! What a change... we were heavily into the Backstreet Boys at the time.

I felt we were seeing a calming effect at home, but the true test would be at school. I told her teacher I was starting an intervention program and asked her to fill out the Listening Checklist for Children and Adults. She did this and we were off. A few months later I chaperoned a fieldtrip to a children's museum. I was able to observe my daughter with her classmates listening to an hour long story with explanations of artwork. She appeared to me to be sitting and listening attentively. The teacher walked up to me and said that she had seen a complete turn around in Lauren's classroom behavior (for the better) and asked me if we were using herbal drops. I said, "No, The Listening Program." This would generate further discussion later.

I went home on cloud nine! Wow, we did it!

Two weeks later I received my daughter's final report card in the mail. It read as follows:

Narrative comments: " Lauren has shown tremendous progress in her ability to stay focused and complete her work in a timely manner. Lauren has superb computation skills and has become an effective problem solver. Lauren has excellent peer relations and is a helpful classmate and student."

What can I say? From the bottom of personal and professional heart, thank you Advanced Brain Technologies."

Lisa Krassny
Mother-Speech/Language Pathologist-Believer