My name is Tessa and I’m the mother of three very different children: a set of twin girls and a son. One of my twins, Bella, was diagnosed on the autism spectrum right before her 2nd birthday. Every year that went by after that was another year we had hoped and prayed that my daughter could talk to me, play with her sister, make friends, use full language… It was so sad and frustrating to me as a parent to not fully understand my child. I was first introduced to Neuro-Education in the spring after Bella’s 7th birthday. Honestly, the first time the theory and strategies were explained to me I was overwhelmed. As a busy mom the thought of drawing stories with my daughter to help her communicate seemed very time consuming, not to mention that I am no artist! I had tried so many other things throughout the years that just didn't work, so I was hesitant, but I knew as her mother I owed her every single chance to provide her with as much information and ways to learn as I could. Bella and I started by drawing pictures together, labeling those pictures, adding Bella to all of those pictures as the agent to everything and then adding people, starting with our family, around her. We would draw and write hand-over-hand while drawing ideas, using picture dictionaries, pointing to the pictures, and labeling them with words. I also made sure Bella could see my mouth move while talking to her so she would have several forms of input while we were working. We assigned meaning to EVERYTHING. We started out simply and started assigning meaning to things we did on a daily basis, such as getting out of bed, getting dressed, taking a bath, eating breakfast etc.. The more language provided for Bella the better. This all made a huge difference! It was amazing to me the change I saw just after a few weeks. One example that comes to mind was our breakfast routine. For most of her life, Bella could never tell me what she wanted. Some days I would make three different things before she would eat. However, after just two days of sitting with Bella drawing cartoons and picture dictionaries of our breakfast options, she can tell me in her own words what she wants for breakfast each morning. My ability to stop a meltdown just putting pen to paper is worth its weight in gold! She is now initiating requests on her own and is more interested in following and trying to participate in what other children, including her siblings and what they are doing."