Child receiving speech therapy

For over two years now there are thousands of children of all ages that have been on a whole food supplement called Nutriiveda, or “NV” as it’s been nicknamed through the Cherab Foundation, a grassroots nonprofit advocacy group to support those with communication impairments.  For the children the rapid and dramatic success rate of this whole food product has been almost across the board with both parental and professional anecdotal reports detailing improvements in various areas for those diagnosed with autism, apraxia, seizures, undiagnosed speech delays, dysarthria, language disorders, growth disorders, tic disorders, cognitive impairment, mental retardation, chromosomal abnormalities,  genetic syndromes, ADHD, CAPD, (results from our survey and private group of  around ten thousand members) have been both rapid and dramatic.

“Of my clients who have tried NV, 100% have had positive changes. I have 1 client who hasn’t been successful in getting her dtr to drink it because her dtr is a picky eater. IF she were to drink it consistently, I bet she would improve too.” ~Barbara A Taylor, M.S.,CCC-SLP CEO, Help Me Speak, LLC

THE PARENTAL AND PROFESSIONAL ANECDOTAL REPORTS ARE ALL WITH THE ORIGINAL NUTRIIVEDA FORMULA Read more

We have learned from professional as well as parental anecdotal feedback of parents putting their children on NV and within 3 months the child is no longer qualifying for services.  The brain responds to multiple stimuli and just because these children have surges on NV doesn’t mean they do not require services to further help them.  The following are actual results the individuals or the family members gave permission to share here, and all are willing to speak with professionals.   Cases like the ones below which are happening with the supplementation of all of the essential amino acids and nutrients from whole foods as in NV document the need to understand the role that nutrition plays on somehow helping neurological function.   We are providing these anecdotal stories in hopes that these cases can be validated in a double blind clinical trial.  Most do not fully appreciate the important role that nutrition has on the body, the brain.  If you would like more detailed information about any of the following reports please email us at info@pursuitofresearch.org

I am a SLP.  I wrote to you a few weeks ago re: increasing the dosage of NV for a 5 yr. old non-verbal autistic client of mine.  She had made huge improvements on 2 scoops almost immediately but when we increased her to 3 scoops she improved even more, especially in terms of behavior and attention.  Her mom is reporting that her behavior is so much more manageable now.  The developmental pediatrician originally put her on meds. for attention and focus but she did not react well.

The doctor was amazed when she saw her 2 weeks later after increasing the dosage of NV.  Her comprehension and ability to follow directions had improved remarkably in such a short period of time.

Since being on NV she has also been feeding herself at the table and eating lots of new foods. Her verbal imitation skills have improved a lot. She is finally able to produce some words. Each week her productions are becoming more accurate.  She is able to produce new speech sounds that she did not produce prior to NV.  She is “singing” songs spontaneously.  It’s amazing how much more vocal she is now.  She is now able to imitate lots of new oral-motor movements with improved accuracy.  Her eye contact has really improved as well.  Her mom also reported that she is now able to pedal a bike with training wheels. Wow……….amazing!!  Thanks again for all of your help!

Sheryl Fleishman CCC SLP, Los Angeles California

*Update a few months later ” This same 5 year old with autism went from being a non-verbal to spontaneously producing words and even some phrases!  Speech intelligibility is still poor but you can definitely get what she is trying to say.  That’s HUGE!”

Sheryl Fleishman CCC SLP, Los Angeles California

Evaluation from Kent University:

The following are excerpts from an evaluation of a boy aged five years seven months who within three months on NV went from a diagnosis of severe to mild apraxia.  Both therapy and NV are credited in the report.  Name removed to keep confidential but information provided upon request to professionals

SLP works with child

Birthdate 1-25-05
Age: 5.7

Excerpts from Statement of Problem, Summary and Recommendation and Parent Input

_____, age 5 years 7 months, was initially diagnosed with severe apraxia extending to his limbs.  Since he was unintelligible a high percentage of the time and he realized this, he would often respond physically to his peers and his brother.

___was first seen at the Kent State University Speech and Hearing Clinic in June 2009 for individual speech and language services.  At that time his diagnosis was still severe apraxia and he was also receiving therapy from another private SLP which was continued until late Fall of 2009.  ___ ‘s mother started ___ on NV early April 2009

In July 2010 ___ was evaluated by neurologist Dr. Nevada Reed.  She diagnosed  ___ with mild to moderate apraxia.  Recently (early April),  ___’s speech is more intelligible to unfamiliar listeners, and in addition is exceeding all his long term goals which he had not even met prior.  ___ made excellent improvements with speech sounds this semester.  Examples of some of the long term goals that were met and exceeded.  He stabilized production of initial /k/ and /g/ which allowed transitioning to higher levels of production.  ___ consistently improved spontaneous production of /sh/ in CV syllables and at word level.  ___ will spontaneously produce the appropriate pronoun (he/she/they) with it’s corresponding verb (am/is/are) to describe a picture with 90% accuracy. ___ expressed understanding of what good and bad manners were.

(Information above are excerpts from the professinoal evaluation of a boy aged five years seven months who within three months on NV went from a diagnosis of severe to mild apraxia.)

“Since he is improving, perhaps it is a combination of the intense  (twice a week 45 minute sessions) speech therapy and the Nutriiveda.”

Kent Universiey
Speech and Hearing Clinic
Kent, OH 44242

Professional Anecdotal from the SLP of a 4 year old with apraxia named Colton.  Colton’s school SLP had not seen Colton for therapy over the summer and he received no speech therapy during this time, shared in full with permission from the school SLP and school principal:

“September 15, 2011

"Now Colton brings me books to read"

Tanya,

I am so very happy to see the positive changes Colton has made since the end of the last school year. He is more outgoing and willing to communicate and is easier to understand. Colton is pleasant and eager to learn. He uses more clear speech at a louder volume in a smaller group setting and is even willing to answer questions and make comments in the whole group settings.

Colton has a greater awareness of his speech errors and is able to discriminate correct speech production versus incorrect. He has mastered several sounds in isolation and is able to combine those sounds to produce simple words.
I enjoy working with Colton and look forward to even more progress with his speech.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Thanks,
Tamara Abell

Tamara N. Abell, M.S. CCC/SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
Howevalley Elementary School
Creekside Elementary School

September 22, 2011

“Today on the way home Colton was telling me about hammering ice and saying his sounds. He told me about rain drops and Abell. I just got him down for a nap.. Colton’s SLP Miss Abell calls and asks if I read the journal yet… She was soo excited. This is what she wrote in his journal “:

“Worked on all previous sounds that Colton has mastered. Dropped a rain drop on the flowers to say each sound.  VERY exciting news! Colton said  “k” in isolation today several times WITHOUT GAGGING!!  We paired our sounds with a motor action (hammering out ice in Don’t Break The Ice Game) and he said “k” each time. He did substitute  ” t” for “k”  most of the time, but he said “k”.   YAY!! Using a mirror (me holding it by my mouth) really helped him to open his mouth. Very exciting day for him.  Also did Kaufman cards yesterday and he produced the new ones to 70% accuracy.”
T. Abell 

Read more:

Testimonials From Parents And Professionals

Apraxia Road To Recovery Before and After Videos

NV A Paradigm Shift In The Treatment Of TBI and Strokes

Is Nutriiveda Creating a Paradigm Shift in Treatment of Seizures?

Is Nutriiveda Creating a Paradigm Shift in Diseases of the Elderly?

Professional anecdotal update from kindergarten teacher of a 6 year old apraxic child after less than 2 weeks on Nutriiveda.

“I wanted to let you know how things are going with Dominic. I think it’s safe to say that everyone that works with him has noticed a great change in him over the past 1-2 weeks. He is much more outgoing, much more in tune with what it going on in the classroom, and very talkative.

I think what I’ve noticed the most is that he is talking much more with his peers during work time and play time. He also seems to be much more self-directed when we do classwork. For example, last Monday when we made the Valentine’s Day card, he did very well with the project and did not need much direction from me to complete it. He did most of the project independently, even the sticky tape (which has always been a challenge for him). I also heard that on Friday, during their speech time with Mrs. Kulig, he came into class, took out his ABC book and without any prompting from anyone, read the entire book for the rest of the kids in the group! This is all great!!”

Parents add “his teacher is not aware we have him on Nutriiveda.  We are pretty excited since it has been six years with nothing like this until now.”

Professional anecdotal update from the child’s private SLP after 3 weeks

“”Today my 6 year old son Dominic had speech class with his private speech therapist who see’s him once to twice per week, and after therapy, she mentioned to me there seems to be an improvement in his sense of humor and general enthusiasm.  She has seen him for going on 3 years now, so I don’t believe this would be a fluke.  Sense of humor is definitely not an area i would have thought would be what she told me improved, but i will take any positive. The other thing i wanted to mention is Dominic has since about age 2 used a lot of jargon that nobody understands, and lately i am starting to understand more of the jargon as actual words..”

Professional anecdotal update from same 6 year old child’s school SLP after one month on NV.  School SLP is also unaware the child is on Nutriiveda

“Since his IEP in February, Dominic has had an “explosion” of language.  He typically is producing 5-6 word sentences, commenting spontaneously, stating his likes, dislikes, using prepositional phrases, using conjunctions, following along in our group and volunteering answers.  His speech also appears more fluent and less halting.  It appears that he seems to have less difficulty finding the words that he wants to say.”

3 month update

“My 6 year old son Dominic’s private SLP came out after Dominic’s session and said, “Oh my god he is saying 5 and 6 word sentences, telling me stories!”  She was so impressed with his progress that she asked about what he is on where i got it from.  Dominic still has alot of trouble with articulation but the fact that he is telling a story is a good thing because he used to just use one and two word sentences.

11 Month Update January 12, 2012 (sometimes they can talk ‘too’ much)

I got a letter from Dominic’s school today that says the following “Since coming back from Christmas break, he is very talkative and sharing without prompting. He even had to take a break during class because of too much talking. Ms. Mary also noticed a dramatic difference and asked me if there was a change in vitamins or medication”. Since the beginning of January Dominic has gone to 4 scoops. He has also become very naughty since then talking back alot more. I am glad to hear improvement.”

Parent is asking children’s SLP for professional report on the following:

I am a mother of 39mth old triplets. It’s been about 3 weeks that my boys have been on NV. It was amazing in the beginning, they had no problem taking it, and then they refused it. I found that taking them off for a day or two gave them a break…I snuck it in their vanilla pudding, and I think once they got used to the taste, they expect it in the morning before breakfast.

A few months ago, one of the 3 was diagnosed with moderate to severe Apraxia.  With combination speech therapy, and fish oils, there was a surge….then I tried NV….I did all the research, read all the posts, spoke to a Natural path doctors and had my boys pediatrician review it….they were all impressed.

Now 3 weeks into NV (we’re almost at a heaping scoop) My son has gone from moderate/severe apraxia, to mild apraxia. He is much more coherent, and is making 4-5 word sentences….all three of my boys are. They too are humming and singing, the tantrums are rarely happening, and they play so much better together. There coordination in tracing, and there new found love in the alphabet and numbers (both in English and in Spanish) has blown everyone away.

I wanted to let the parents who are still on the fence read this. I was skeptical, very skeptical, bombarded Lisa with so many questions. Once the doctors gave me the go ahead, I had no reason not to try it.

Also, my boys are heavy boys, they weighed over 40lbs, and although they didn’t look it, felt very heavy. Since NV, they feel lighter, and have more energy ( in a positive way.

I am very thankful for this product, and for this site.

Mary Mejia Canada

The following is compiled from a number of update reports from a mother who is also a research scientist so I feel she qualifies to fall under professional anecdotal herself.  Her son was diagnosed with apraxia and some hypotonia in his lower lip and tongue by two SLPs and a neurodevelopmental doctor in Chicago.  Her son is also on fish oils which were started when her son was 20 months old.  Prior to fish oils her son had no words and made very few sound other than grunting and pointing and fish oils helped with a small surge in soft vowel production.  Prior to starting NV her son was evaluated to be at the expressive level of a 12 months old and remarkably within one month, 2 weeks on NV–he was evaluated again to be at the expressive level of a 21 months old.  The two weeks are well documented in our group and Katie has provided permission to share this in hopes her son’s story will raise awareness about a new trend happening in our group for children on NV.  They are surging so quickly that ignorant professionals no longer believe the child needs services. Katie is now having trouble securing services for her son, but instead of lowering the dosage of NV so that perhaps he’d regress and she could secure services again, she’s increased the NV dosage and her son had more surges.  Keep in mind when reading the following that this child went from a 12 month to a 21 month old expressive level in 2 weeks on NV.

We just started our 25month old son on NutriiVeda on February 1st. I did have it approved by his Pediatrician before I started him on it. He takes ½ of a scoop in the morning and ½ of a scoop with dinner. I have already seen some good results! He has just begun with two word sentences (approximations) which he had never done before. I was waiting to post until after he had been on it for a few weeks, but we are so excited about the progress he has made in just 4 and ½ days!…

Our 24 month old has been on NV for just over a week now. We have seen some tremendous increases in his speech. He is attempting many more words and is now “singing” along to some songs. I was very worried about trying this with my son at first as well. I did have it approved by his Pediatrician and plan to take it to his Pediatric Neurologist on March 1st.

I do have my degree in science and have asked many other scientists where I work what their thoughts were about the product. No one thought there would be any problems. I also tried the product before I gave it to my son…

It has been two weeks and we have seen him go from 1-2 word approximations to well over 50 word approximations! He will try to mimic anything I ask him too. He even has some two word approximations: “la oo” for love you! He can make all consonant sounds now except for “j, t, d, and s.” I did not tell his speech therapist when I started him and she could not believe the difference! She said he was mimicking and trying any word she asked! I can now get him to mimic whole sentences: I will say one word at a time and he will repeat it. He will say “I – wan – moe – ruck – pees” for I want more truck please. He has many more spontaneous approximations as well.

He can even say some words spontaneously and perfectly: “pop, happy, me, my, mama, baby, go, up, yeah, wee, uh-oh” and I am sure there are a few more that I am not thinking of right now. He will even sing along with his new CD aimed at children with CAS “Drills on Wheels!”

(Note: as Katie’s son was so young, I encouraged her to take him off NV to see if the surges were developmental.  This was her update about that week off)

Hello Lisa,
I apologize for not posting sooner, but our family took a short vacation this week so I didn’t want to spend much time on the computer. We just got home this afternoon. Anyway, Jack has been off of NV ( and his NN fish oils) for 1 week and 1 day now. (His last NV shake was Thursday night 02/18/2010.) I guess I have some good and some bad news to report (depending on how you look at it. )

The first two days he was off of the NV, I didn’t notice any differences. On the third day, I began to see the following changes. The good news (and suprising news) is that we have not seen any regression in the words that Jack has recently picked up! The “bad” news is that I have noticed a significant regression in his focus and attention span. (This was also noted by his SLP during his last therapy session – Monday.) I think he is babbling less and doesn’t seem to be picking up any new words as well.

The other negative thing I have noticed over the past few days is Jack has been hitting more frequently. He used to hit (me, my husband, his brother or anyone around him) almost as a reflex. (I don’t think this correlated with his speech in anyway because he didn’t seem to do it in relation to speech frustration. ) You could tell by his face that he didn’t mean to do it immediately after it happened. It seemed as though he didn’t have control over it. It stopped a little while ago, but I think it was before we started the NV. Either way, the hitting has started again. This is something I will be interested to keep an eye on when we start back on the NV Monday evening. I can’t wait to put him back on it.

Lisa, I feel like you may be right in your thoughts that NV may be repairing the problem areas in the brain. This would explain Jack’s ability to keep the new words he has learned, but stop any new progression now that he is off of it. You may have been seeing verbal regression in the older kids because there may be more long term damage there. Perhaps because Jack is only 25 months there is less damage to repair and therefore less regression?? ? Just a thought. I will keep you posted if we see any other changes now that we are back home and back to our usual schedule.

Feel free to give me a call again if you want to discuss this further!
Thanks!
KatieIL

(Jack continued to improve back on NV again)

Doctor with patient and his mom

So it has been about a month now since he was evaluated to be 12 months expressively and I took him to Chicago to see a Developmental Pediatrician (to get a formal diagnoses) on Friday. There was a speech therapist, a developmental therapist, an occupational therapist, a child psychiatrist, and the Pediatrician in the room for his evaluation. They determined that his expressive speech is now at a 21 month level! That means he went from a 12 month level to a 21 month level in less than a month (and two weeks on the Nutriiveda!) We were amazed and so was the group that evaluated him!

Update from Katie about her son after 7 months on NV

Hi Lisa,

Jack is doing great! He is talking in 3-6 word sentences now (He is 32 months old now.) He is able to say almost any word spontaneously now. I feel as though he is catching up but is not there yet because he will say three fluid words then pause where a pause is not needed and then a 4 word related phrase. “Horsee eat hay…in big red barn.) He is using adjectives and verbs. We worked hard on “ing” verb endings. He can say “man riding big red bike.” or other phrases like that. He has made tremendous progress considering he could only say maybe 5 words total in January of this year! I do attribute a lot of that to the Nutriiveda which he started early February.

EI has reduced his speech from twice to once weekly since his last evaluation in August. I was not real happy with that but not much I could do. Our private speech therapist as well as the EI therapist put him at around the 24 month mark for his speech (although I think it is a little better now.) Unfortunately our private speech therapist had to take a full time school job so he hasn’t been able to see her anymore and we can’t find another private therapist around here with good credentials and references. He is having his speech therapy at a local hospital once a week now. I am not pleased with the speech therapist there either. Jack has not taken to her very well and they make us sit in a pretty confined room (which is hard to ask of ANY two year old boy. She has also not done anything except play with him. I have been there for all but one session and I don’t see her using any technique at all much less any specifically designed for Apraxia.

She even told my husband that she thought Jack’s speech was that of a typical 3 year old and that if she had evaluated him, then he would not be receiving services at all!  NICE…probably why she is just playing with him and not working/drilling him to advance speech. So, I am in the midst of working with his Service Coordinator to get us either back on the waiting list or working with a different speech therapist. It is frustrating.

Jack is still receiving 1 – 1 and 1/2 scoops a day. The good news is that when Jack has been off of the Nutriiveda for 2-3-4 days, I no longer see any regression! That is the great news! I am thinking about bumping him up to 2 scoops a day. I agree with you in your thinking that there is some sort of repair going on. Jack isn’t totally there yet, but considering where he came from, and the fact that he won’t be three until January, I am very happy with his progress! I think I will probably always keep him on at least one scoop for general health purposes. He is a very good eater and he LOVES fruits and vegetables so I know he is getting all of nutrients he needs, but it can’t hurt I figure! Well, thanks again for all of the support and guidance! For monthers like me and most of the others in the group, we would be lost without the group and people like you!   So, thank you Lisa for bringing this wonderful product to our group and I hope that all of you see as many great changes in your children as we have seen!

Sincerely,
Katie
IL

UPDATE from Katie a few months later:  So Jack had his 3 year early childhood services evaluation last month.  I had taken him completely off of NV for 4 weeks prior to the evaluation to see if there were any regressions.  The good news is that there were none!  The bad news is that the ST that evaluated him at the school said he tested at or above his age level for all speech related tests.  The school said they will not provide him ANY early childhood services.  I know he is doing GREAT but I still think he will benefit from Speech therapy.  I am at a loss right now.  Jack has been diagnosed with Apraxia.  How can they determine he doesn’t need services in a 2 hour evaluation (and they said he wasn’t very cooperative which is likely because they wouldn’t let me stay in the room with him?)  They told me I could have him re-evaluated in 3-6 months if I thought it was necessary.  A little more about Jack…He is now saying up to 9-10 word sentences with little or no omitions at all! He is doing great in swimming lessons and makes the most hilarious facial expressions! He has no noticeable hypotonia at all anymore either!

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Written by  Lisa Geng, mother to two boys that were both “late talkers” who are doing great today. President and Founder of the Cherab Foundation, and Co Author of The Late Talker book St Martin’s Press