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I thought my kids were going to be the smartest kids, the best kids. I wanted to do everything
I could for my kids to make sure that they were above the norm. Alex started speaking
very late, he had extreme sensory issues, he would scream every time I would brush his
teeth, he would go up to the other kids and bump them with his head. He just had trouble
functioning. But, at the same time, he had so many good qualities and I could see those,
it's just that most other people couldn't. The kindergarten teacher said to me, "I don't
know what we can do for him, I don't know if he's... if I can even help him." We did
an evaluation with him, he qualified for the autism program. And then he had a medical
diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. It was really discouraging. In middle school he was relentless
- the crying, the screaming, the anger, the temper tantrums, we just, we struggled with
it, we really did. I was withdrawing a lot and I, you know, didn't know how to deal with
him, I just thought, "What am I gonna do with this kid? What kind of life can he have?"
We have used so many different therapies, you know the brushing therapy, occupational
therapy, social skills therapies, and those are all good, however, Transcendental Meditation
is one thing that has an effect in many different areas. He started TM and then about a month
went by and one morning we woke up and I said to my husband, "You know, he hasn't had a
temper tantrum in... when was the last one? A week, two weeks ago?" It was incredible.
And we weren't doing one other thing differently. He loves it. He's done it regularly, he does
it twice a day, and it's easy for him. It was such a relief to be out of that mode where
you were waking up in the morning, just bracing yourself - when is he gonna start screaming?
He's turned into a happy, well adjusted kid, he loves excelling in school now, he was never
interested before. I started meditating at about mid 7th grade and I got mostly A's in
my second semester of 7th grade. I would say TM has certainly, you know, very directly
helped me get good grades. From 9th grade up until now where's he's at, he has grown
tremendously. He's really gelled into the mainstream classes and is starting to become
more social with his peers. He's taking both AP classes and college credit classes and
he's excelling. He's been on the honor roll every single semester since he started meditating.
He's joined the robotics team, he has become an Eagle Scout, which was one of his dreams.
I didn't think that he probably could have a normal, independent life, I didn't foresee
him going to college, and now I see all of that. When I go to college I will certainly
continue meditating. TM has helped me to communicate with others and get along with others and
be able to focus well on tasks. Just seeing how Transcendental Meditation has had such
a tremendous effect on my son and our family, makes me want to really encourage anyone with
kids with autism to give this a try. This is really a tremendous tool to help these
kids.