Brainworks® - Stephen, The West Texas Roadrunner
Success Stories
Stephen, The West Texas Roadrunner
Stephen Cogan was brilliant. He was 8 years old, memorized TV dialog like a VCR, understood math concepts he wasn't supposed to grasp for another 4 years, and was generally frustrated that nobody could keep up with him in a conversation. Other people just wanted to talk about one thing while he was pulling the topic out in 5 other directions and rolling his eyes when they didn't follow him. He was excited about starting school. That was before he knew what "school" was.
His teacher tried to teach him to write. The idea of funneling the flood of ideas in his head through the tiny point of a pencil seemed impossible to him. "If I have to write, I don't know what to write down. They should just listen to what I have to say. I can't think if I'm having to concentrate on how to write letters, spelling, punctuation... It's too much!" As his fingers tried to keep up with his brain, his handwriting was so illegible that teachers sent his papers back to be re-written many times just so it would be possible to grade them.
His life had gone from the freestyle world of verbal riffing and speaking your mind, which he loved, to a rigid world of lined paper, sitting still, and getting griped at for feeling that writing on lines while sitting still was just stupid. Actually he didn't get griped at for feeling it as much as saying it out loud and often.
He wanted the world to be fun and happy. He didn't fit.
Like most gifted students, he was also a self-critical perfectionist who didn't take failure lightly. "If I'm so smart, why is school so hard?" he asked his parents. The other kids were all so much better at "school" than he was. The constant frustration wore him down. He started getting overly sensitivity and would blow up at little things. He felt stupid. He was breaking.
Jim and Leslie, Stephen's parents, were determined to find someone who could help their son perform in a classroom environment. At an Attention Deficit Disorder Association conference Leslie heard Carla Crutsinger speak about Brainworks. Carla told the audience about raising her three ADD sons, and Leslie knew she'd found someone who not only knew what her family was going through, but Carla had a plan.
That spring Stephen was tested at Brainworks, and Carla quickly mapped out how to deal with his hen-scratch handwriting. During testing, Carla picked up on visual tracking problems that would make reading comprehension really difficult for him. His hyperactivity and communication issues also would get special attention. Stephen's parents were relieved that Carla seemed up to the challenge, although Jim says he "saw real doubt in her eyes" on the first day Carla started working with his son. It was like herding cats.
He put the H in hyperactivity. It took two adults and one student instructor to keep his brain focused! His curiosity kept getting in the way of his learning. If he saw something interesting in the corner of his eye, he had to explore it no matter what he was doing. In a blink of an eye, Stephen would disappear to check out the ticking clock on the wall or a large exercise ball in the corner. Someone would have to go get him and redirect him back to his lesson. Typically, this routine took place every two or three minutes!
Stephen was on medication for ADHD, but it wasn't working. A local developmental pediatrician was consulted and the doctor was willing to experiment with Stephen's medication dose if Brainworks would log regular observations all day for several days. They graphed out his reaction to the medication every 15 minutes and found he needed a lower dose more frequently because his body was metabolizing the medicine abnormally fast. It turns out his brain wasn't the only thing running in 5th gear.
The staff worked on his handwriting, but they also introduced him to typing. "Typing on the Mavis Beacon computer program changed my life! I knew right on that I'd be able to type faster than I could write. I just had to learn where all the letters were. That was huge! I could see a light at the end of the tunnel."
Stephen eagerly came back to Brainworks from San Angelo, Texas for two weeks every summer for the next 8 years. Mostly it was the teenage "student instructors" that had him wanting to come back. Licensed teachers create the lesson plan, but the gifted student instructors are the ones who work with most of the clients. They understood his world and made "the most painful activities" fun. Their enthusiasm made him want to do well to please them. He loved competition and was pitted head to head against the student instructors whenever possible. The day he beat Joel at chess he got a "brag strip" on the bulletin board. He was "king of the mountain" for that moment. "At last," he thought, "I might be smart."
His activities over the years included occupational therapy to correct his gross and fine motor skills and vision therapy for eye tracking problems. Carla even persuaded his mother to enroll him in Karate classes outside of Brainworks, although that one took some explaining. Karate teaches people to think under pressure. It taught him to control his temper. It helped him with listening and following directions. Each of these skills would be needed as he transitioned from private to public middle school.
In the spring of 2008, Stephen graduated with honors. He won several trophies on the debate team, and even went to State for extemporaneous speaking. He tested out of college English and history through Advanced Placement and scored well on his SAT. He sees himself becoming an attorney who might dabble as a football sports journalist who is able to quote stats from memory of any game he has seen on TV.
Oh, and on top of all of that, he's a black belt.