but, holy cow, I wasn't ready for an instant return to the argumentative, hyper child who can't listen and respond to what he's told!

Our first few days of the NDD therapy have been exhausting. It's not the therapy/exercises themselves. The home work is one fairly simple exercise that my husband does with my son at bedtime. But the specific stimulation of the brain has led to some unexpected effects. While I did expect him to be more tired than usual, I didn't expect the hyperactivity and impulsiveness to increase dramatically and immediately. The other thing that's interesting is that this child who almost never sings has started spontaneously singing.

I'm finding a great need to be patient as he is having a hard time responding to instructions, especially when he's engaging in impulsive behavior. It seems like my instruction just isn't getting to the "respond" part of the brain very quickly. But we're persevering with the hope and expectation that the next few weeks will show improvement. Our therapist told us we could expect about 6 months of seeing things "fall apart" before they improved as we stripped away coping mechanisms in order to help his brain function properly. I just didn't expect to see it so dramatically so quickly.