Testimony of Healing February 28, 1983 Issue

The winter before I began to attend services in a...

BARBARA CAIRE REAP with contributions from CAROLYN S. KARKUS

The winter before I began to attend services in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I was expecting my third child. During this pregnancy I was very sick. I took large doses of medicine and had X-rays taken. Although the child was apparently normal at birth, afterward there was much fear that he might be abnormal.

Later, when he entered kindergarten, he began to have learning difficulties. He had trouble coloring, writing, and using scissors. The teacher considered holding him back for another year but finally decided to promote him. In first grade he was expected to learn long lists of words, something he found impossible to do. It looked as though he wasn't capable of learning how to read. At a friend's suggestion I had him tested at a child study center, where they said he had a visual-perceptual lag. They also indicated that he could be helped by individual tutoring.

Before arranging for a tutor, I got in touch with a Christian Science practitioner, who met with and prayed for the child that day. Then I took our son to a tutor twice a week and helped him myself every night. The tutor was an extremely loving, gifted, and patient teacher, and the youngster never complained about going to her. But she found him to be immature, with little ability to concentrate. After he had been tutored for almost a year, his second-grade teacher sent home a report card that classified him as below grade level in reading, and deficient in language and spelling skills. The day I gave the tutor this news, our son's behavior was very bad. The tutor was upset by this frustrating situation, and I was feeling that it looked quite hopeless. With all the help he'd been given, the child still wasn't succeeding in school. In fact, he seemed to be hyperactive on top of everything else.

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