Hi, I’m Louloua Smadi El Hajj
I'M A NEUROtherapist, AUTHOR, SISTER AND MOM.
Neurodiverse families have a lot of therapy options, but none of them train the parent and child on how to live and be in the real world.
This was where my family got stuck. We tried every program to give my Autistic brother a better life, but his progress plateaued, and he fell in a depression. And it was all because we weren’t applying our learning to his (and our) whole life.
It was only when we started to integrate my brother’s abilities in his REAL LIFE, that he became happy, capable and proud. With the help of Dr. Lynette Louise, we realized that change doesn’t happen from one specific therapy or with a specific person. It’s whatever we do, wherever we go, a way of life that starts with small day-to-day engagement, not trying every therapy, program, and structure.
What we learned from my brother was made even more clear through my work with families as a clinician, where I saw that no matter what I did on 1:1, what mattered the most was parents using day-to-day experiences to teach what their child — not someone else’s — needs to know.
Now as a parent myself, the biggest changes I see in my deaf son are when we focus on the small goals in real life that work toward the person he is becoming.