The Cunningham Family

"I mean it got to the point where I was like "am I going to have to quit my job so I can homeschool my child?" I felt very helpless and she was just losing her confidence every day but this program just empowered me to make the best choices for my kid when the public school system told me no.

My name is Alison Cunningham I wasn't born in Russellville but pretty much raised up in Russellville along with my husband Will Cunningham he was born and raised [in Russellville] so we live up on Crow Mountain. We have two children together: Eliza Cunningham, she is seven and Ridge Cunningham, he is four.

I did put Eliza in pretty early, she barely made the cut off and the pre-k teacher had mentioned she thinks Eliza might have ADHD. I kind of brushed it off thinking you know she is way too young to even be talking about that but whenever I put her in kindergarten I had a discussion with the teacher and I said 'You know, this is what the pre-k teacher said please let me know if you see any signs of ADHD.' We'll go ahead and go to the pediatrician and we'll start working through that because kindergarten isn't what it used to be. I remember when I went to kindergarten, we had nap times and we learned how to use scissors and color in the lines and our ABCs and I think it was more like pre-k now.

With kindergarten they're expected to read by the end of the school year so it's really intense and it feels like there's a lot being pushed at her and just when things would start to click for Eliza they were on to the next thing and my girl was constantly feeling overwhelmed and left behind and I just felt guilt like I don't want her to have that same experience that I had with ADHD.

Kids like us have to try extra hard to pay attention and it's like we know we're trying really hard but it's hard for our teachers to see that so like little things like line leader and student of the month those were things I never experienced as a kid and I couldn't understand why. Now that I'm older, I understand why so we get through kindergarten and boy was it an emotional roller coaster. We get into first grade and it is about the same constant messages from the teacher. 'I'm worried about Eliza, she's really struggling here.' Eliza is showing frustration at home doing her homework. She's not engaged she doesn't want to go to school. She feels very overwhelmed and it just felt helpless.

How do I help my kid?  don't want her to have that rejection sensitivity that I had and still deal with today and so I called my parent advocate and that's when she recommended, I reach out to you.

This has been a blessing. Valley Christian, they were able to take Eliza as a first grader and there's only 13 kids in her class which is great. There's no need for intervention, there's just 13 kids in there within the first 9 weeks. Eliza made the Honor Roll. I'm so proud of her. No 504 meetings, no tier three interventions. Itit worked so I'm so thankful. My family is so thankful for this program.

Before when I'd bring out the book it was like oh, I don't want to do this and she'd shut down on me. Now, it's she's excited to do it because if she reads then she gets a pom pom and then she gets a desk pen after she's accumulated so many pom poms so it's like it's fun to her now.

It's just exciting to see her get excited about reading and just like I said, just the improving her confidence academically. I just I didn't see that when she was in the public school system so I want to educate Eliza like you've got ADHD that's a superpower you know here are some ways you can help yourself cope or stay organized. I didn't really have that and so I want to be able to educate her on that and it gives me the warm and fuzzies because her teacher actually wrote me a note, she said 'Eliza let me know that it was really loud and she was getting a little overstimulated so she took a step out of the classroom' but I want that for her because her brain processes things a little differently and that's okay and she's got a lot of things that she's really great at and I just love how the teacher is understanding and willing to work with her on that and I think that having that understanding will help her be more confident and not feel that rejection sensitivity."