Emily was born with a traumatic brain injury, leading to cerebral palsy.  She was unable to speak intelligibly until around 1st grade, and remains often difficult to understand.  She was unable to walk without a walker until around the same time.   She fell a lot, and today remains most at risk from falling.  Physically affected with ataxia, something that makes it harder to do almost everything, she had to work harder than everybody else just to do simple everyday stuff.  But Emily is a very determined young lady.  She tries and tries until she gets it!  
    
The special education program, which she entered at age 3, was very good for her, but because of her obvious intelligence, she belonged in a regular classroom, which she started in kindergarten.  She was able to keep up, but by the middle of 1st grade, she was being left behind.  The public school system was way out of their depth, and we searched and searched for the right outside therapists and programs. 
 
Over the years, we had had many evaluations, mostly by speech therapists, physical therapists and occupational therapists.  While Emily needed help in all these areas, what she really needed was a comprehensive and cohesive program that also addressed the learning disabilities that were buried beneath all the physical challenges.  Finally, we were hooked up with a guy down in San Diego who did testing that we recognized as relevant in a way no other testing had been.  He directed us to the PACE program, and that lead us to the Stowell Learning Center.
 
Emily started attending SLC in the summer after 2nd grade, and we've never looked back.  That's because SLC competely opened up the future for Emily.  Such profound changes have taken place in her life because of the work here.  Where there was no hope for ever catching up with the rest of her class, now, as a freshman in high school, she remains fully included in the regular curriculum, where she performs admirably (her current GPA is 3.83!) with the proper supports, which SLC and Emily's clinician have worked so tirelessly to help us identify and implement.  Even after all the years of work she has put in at SLC, she remains motivated and hard-working.  And that's because she can see herself how valuable it is, and how far she has come with their help.  And also because of the close bonds she has with her clinicians, especially Veronica (she's the coolest!), who genuinely care and who go out of their way to connect on a personal level with her. 
 
SLC has changed her life, and all her family's, and we are all so very grateful.  And so VERY proud of Emily!!!!