Our recent experience shows an alarming increase in children with special needs. These are children who have a variety of development problems. These could be speech impediments, an eating disorder, violent behavior, poor eye sight, walking on tip toes, poor concentration and much more.

The key issue is for parents to recognize the problem first. Many parents will not accept that their children may have a problem, which is the greatest harm you can do to your child. Denial. If you are reading this, you are half way to solving the problem.

As a prospective parent, your obligations begin before birth. We strongly encourage parents have children as young as possible. Sometimes it's not possible, we know. You should not smoke or drink before or during your pregnancy. Not even for a moment. Preferably you should have given up these habits at least one year before getting pregnant. Eat well. Avoid drugs and medication. Play music (classical) during your pregnancy.

If after all these precautions, you give birth to a special needs child, then you need to get them into a preschool program as soon as possible. Montessori schools have a better success rate with these kids, perhaps because Maria Montessori based her teaching systems initially for difficult and unruly children.

When your child is ready to go to Kindergarten, you should contact your school district to get a special needs teacher. Many schools will try to reject your application because their funding is severely depleted by hiring special needs teachers. Don't give up. You need to push.

There are no definitive cures for things like ADD. Yes you can put your child on medication, but is that what your really want? The best way is to use a proactive approach. You need to develop tremendous patience. Develop good routines and habits and be willing experiment to find the solution that works for your child. And we can help you do that.

We think diet has a significant influence on behavioral issues. The US food industry uses so many chemicals (HFC, Sodium etc) it is not unreasonable to think so.

Since we instituted a healthy food only policy in our school we have seen a discernable improvement in children with behavioral issues.

We recommend that parents cook as much fresh food as possible. Organic if possible.

Avoid the TV dinners and sugar laden snacks. Most breakfast cereals, have HFC. No wonder some kids are off the charts.

Some kids are affected by dairy products so monitor that carefully.

We have seen parents give shockingly bad food to their kids. That McDonalds strawberry milk shake or that freezit is loaded with Red.40.

It's time to change the diet. Even if your child is otherwise normal.

We discovered the behavior modification possibilities of special needs children purely by accident. Certain programs or games, especially those that have complex levels of interaction interspersed with good social skills habits (Pajama Sam) have made a remarkably positive effect. It helps to re-enforce good habits, develop concentration and the ability to handle sudden events that SNK kids have difficulty with.