Would you send your child into a boxing ring? How about with one arm tied behind his back?

That’s what sending an ADD/ADHD child to school without treatment is like, according to Maria Genco, pediatric nurse and mother in Carmel. She would know, because her 8-year-old daughter Gina has been diagnosed and treated for ADHD. Releasing her child to school each day was a struggle for Genco, knowing the kind of battle that awaited Gina at her desk. "Spelling, math – she was just bewildered by all of it. She didn’t seem to be catching on," Genco noted.

By the time Gina entered first grade, she was prescribed traditional medicine for ADHD. Genco watched her daughter begin to understand more of the concepts involved in learning but also become listless with almost no appetite. It was clear by the summer of 2003 that the medicine was not a feasible answer for Gina. In July, Genco found an answer just off the beaten path of conventional methods.

Around the same time, William, age 12, struggled at his Indianapolis school with poor performance, an inability to pay attention and a lack of organizational skills. His mother Ginny Shaw, a nurse practitioner, explained, "He would fight with me about doing his homework, and his GPA was .8." Shaw decided to take an alternative route to helping her son achieve.

Both mothers heard of a treatment program administered at the Miriam Bender Achievement Center that did not use drugs. Instead it used specific therapeutic exercises (outlined in the sidebar) designed to diminish ADD/ADHD behaviors and symptoms. When each nurse learned the theories and process of change involved in the exercises, both said it all made perfect sense.

However, they felt some resistance about taking unconventional methods. "I would say the teachers did not agree," Shaw said. The pediatrician laughed, and said, "Don’t waste your money," when Shaw revealed her plans to take her son to an alternative treatment. Genco, however, decided not to tell anyone about the treatments. "I’m not tempting the devil," she said.

But both mothers know they have found a solution. "William won an award in the sixth grade for the most improved student," Shaw said. "At the end of this school year his GPA was up to a 2.4."

As to the opinions of others, Shaw’s view is simple and direct: "You can’t argue with these results." Besides his achievement in school, his confidence level has risen considerably. "There is definitely a drastic change in his personality," she added.

Things have changed for Gina, too. "She’s been able to find her rhythm and she’s holding her own," Genco said. "She has an inner drive and she has blossomed. Can I say she’s the smartest kid in her class?"

After taking Gina off her medicine several months ago, Genco reports that no change has occurred in her academic performance. "She’s doing just as well in her school work as she was on the medicine, and nobody at school has

seen a change in her," she said. However, Gina has seen a change in herself. Now, being an achieving child without medicine, she told her mother, "I feel alive. I feel like the other kids."

William is also coming into his own, knowing that he can have success in school. When his report card reflected his new abilities to focus, he came home waving his report card to his mother. "He told me, ‘Mom, I’ve got something you’ve been wanting!’" Shaw said. "That was a priceless moment."

The exercise therapy being used focuses on the Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, or STNR. Success follows after a series of specialized crawling exercises mature the STNR, allowing the body to bend without changing the tension between the limbs of the body. This increased tension occurs when a baby does not master crawling, but instead begins walking too soon.

"These children have to work ten times harder than the rest of us until they are relieved of this constant tension," explained Nancy E. O’Dell, Ph.D., of the Miriam Bender Achievement Center.

According to an article in the Congressional Quarterly publication, CQ Researcher, "The medical establishment dismisses any alternative therapies not proven by double-blind, placebo-controlled studies." However, the program has been studied empirically, with 24 qualifying children at the Indianapolis clinic. "Reading scores on eight different measurements went up significantly compared with a control group," it reported. The CQ also described reports from teachers that reflected "significantly improved" results in inattentiveness and impulsivty among treated kids.

O’Dell explained that because the study was done outside the medical establishment, it therefore hasn’t received support, by and large, from medical professionals. Some medical doctors, however, have studied the theory of STNR, and are beginning to encourage the treatment.