NACD Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 5

"BRAGS"

All About Sarah
By Ellen Doman

Sarah 8th Grade

This is not so much a brag as it is an acknowledgement of how far this girl has come. My friend, Sarah, is an eighth grader. She sequences nines and tens with ease. She loves sports and has a passion for playing golf. She's a great student and has scored very high on our testing and the school's testing as well. The girl is gifted. I'm glad that the school has finally realized that.

Sarah has been with NACD since 1998 when she was only two years old. She has worked hard to gain control of her gait, control of her finger and hand movements, to get her eyes to work well together and to get her processing and thinking good enough and fast enough to do her intellect justice. She has always been soft-spoken and shy until she really gets to know you.

Her mother sent us an e-mail last week that gave some insight into how Sarah is doing:
"She had 5 speech meets this fall, placed well in all but one, took first place in her school's meet. She was thrilled, because speech team is one of those 'a bit out of her comfort zone' activities, and she NEVER thought she'd get a first.

Last Friday was Parents' visiting day at her school. On Friday mornings, the students in grades 4-8 gather for 15 minutes for announcements, awards, and general school news. Her speech teacher had her give her speech to this group, which also included the faculty and the visiting parents. In all my years at the school, I've not seen a child do this before. Her teacher introduced it as "a speech that needed to be heard before a wider audience." So she gave her speech, which begins with a few lines about her being born early at 25 weeks, at one pound 6 ounces, the doctors said she'd never walk, etc. etc. And how her parents found NACD and what it had done for her, including what a difference it has made to have a digit span of 9's and 10's. She explained what a digit span was, asked everyone to go to the website and take the test, and then to purchase the Simply Smarter software.

It was a very moving speech; several parents got all teared up. She is now a minor celebrity at school, and VERY proud of herself."

It is truly my pleasure to work with Sarah and to know her. She is not only an excellent student but also just an excellent kid. She has come a long way and has such a brilliant future ahead of her. So whether she decides to be a physicist or a sports journalist, I know she'll do very, very well.