ADHD and Autism Beyond Medication: A Holistic Pediatric Path - hosted by Dr Stanley Ekiyor

In this invited conversation, Dr. Hokehe Eko, board-certified pediatrician and founder of Glow Pediatrics, shares a clinical, integrative perspective on autism and ADHD that moves beyond medication-first approaches. She discusses how gut health, immune balance, nutrition, and environmental factors shape behavior and regulation, and offers practical frameworks for supporting neurodivergent children with clarity and compassion.

Guest: Dr. Hokehe Eko, MD
Host: Dr. Stanley Ekiyor
Original Platform: Unstitching ADHD – Urban Education Talks  

Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel!

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Transcript

Redefining Support For Neurodivergent Students

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Welcome to Unstitching A PhD Over Air Talks. The space where we challenge deficit-based thinking and reimagine what support can look like when we design with, not against neurodivergent learners. Today's conversation focuses on holistic and strength-based approaches to ADHD and autism, especially for students who are often misunderstood or overlooked in schools. I'm honored to be joined by Dr. Echo, a holistic pediatrician whose work centers on the whole child, mind, body, environment, and lived experiences. Together we will explore how stress, regulation, nutrition, and strength-based frameworks can shift how we support neurodivergent children in schools and in the community. Dr. Eko, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Thank you so much, Dr. Akiya. Such a pleasure to be here.

A Mother’s Wake-Up Call To Holistic Care

SPEAKER_00 1:52

What led you to holistic pediatrics? And how did that shape how you understand ADHD and autism?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Great question. So my daughter was nine years old, and her lips turned jet black, like the color of my hair, and they used to be pink. And she started not doing well in school, and her grades went downhill. Behavior was changing, and I said, What in the world is happening to my kid? Her face was also broken out. She had all these rashes everywhere, and I could not figure out what was going on. So I took her to see dermatologists, and they said they didn't know what it was. And then I took her to see an allergist and they did the whole allergy panel testing, and she was negative. I got mad and said, Listen, I'm a pediatrician too. Something is wrong with this child. Not even DOS. How is that possible? But they said there was nothing. I was desperate and I started doing some research online, and I came across this group of pediatricians that called themselves integrated pediatricians. I'm like, what in the world is that? Right? Because I've never heard that before. Yeah, I reached out to a few of them and they they suggested I do a specific food test on her. So I did it, and it showed she was highly sensitive to a lot of the food that I was so proudly giving her because I thought I was doing a fantastic job. And so she was really sensitive to gluten, to eggs, to dairy, to cashew, to pineapple. I said, Lord, okay. So I decided, and this is not something I tell everybody to do, but that that was me. I decided I was going to clean up the entire fridge, and everybody in the house was gonna become gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, like immediately. So I did that, and well, that's actually a big key, right? Because when we are talking about parents making changes, you don't want to just do it for one kid because then that child or the other children feel like why are things not the same, right? So it might it's better to just do it across the board. So we did that, and in six weeks her lips turned back to pink, and I said, Oh, because the only thing I had changed was what she was eating. So that's what led me to digging even deeper and going to get retrained. I did a fellowship in holistic medicine because I couldn't unsee what I saw in my own child. Not only did her lips turn back to pink, her behavior started improving, her skin cleared up, and I said, Wow, because when we're trained in medical school, we barely get a class about nutrition, and we're definitely not trained to look at any of that. It's more what are the six symptoms and what medication can we treat that with. That's how I became a holistic pediatrician.

From Nutrition To Results In Six Weeks

SPEAKER_00 4:43

This is interesting. This is the second time I'm having a guest that is taking us into nutrition. Dr. Goldberg was here, and he too talked about nutrition and allergy to food, and talked about the eyelids being dark. I'm really excited that we are having this conversation. So, when you talk about a strength-based approach, what does that look like in everyday practice, especially compared to traditional models?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

That's another great question. Strength-based means I'm looking at the entire child, right? And I'm sure you've um you've your listeners have probably heard this word like whole child. So there's a difference between just looking at, oh, this is Johnny's symptoms. He acts out and he doesn't listen and he's not focused, versus what is going on in in Johnny's life? What does Johnny's sleep look like? What's his GI system like? What's going on in his environment? What kinds of soaps and lotions does he use? In my practice, we're looking at everything. We're looking at nutrition, we're looking at sleep. Did you know that G could also be called a sleep disorder? If we're not addressing what's really going on inside the child, the whole child, not just what you physically see as the symptoms, which we then in a conventional practice, we would just medicate, then we're missing the bolt because those medications are gonna wear off. Then what? Right? We're back to baseline, which is the same symptoms are still there. How about we look at what are the things that we can address? Where can we break this cycle of lack of focus? Where can we break this cycle of aggressive behavior? Where can we break the cycle of speech not being the way it should, and actually address the child with the needs that they have? The other part of the strength-based angle is empowering parents to look at their children, become detectives of their children and see what are my kids good at? Can my child hear a song and play the song? That's a gift. But if you're not paying attention and all you're worried about is my child doesn't focus in math class, then you're gonna completely miss everything else that the child has to do. Always empowering and encouraging parents, become a detective of your child. What are your children great at? And we want to boost that, right? If it means extra therapy, music lessons for your children, then that's what we're gonna do. If it means your child can draw, can look at a tree and can draw it from memory, then you want to increase art classes for that child. So it's looking at the whole child, their strengths, their weaknesses. What can we boost? What can we improve upon, not just treat the symptoms?

Strength-Based Practice And Parent Detective Work

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Thank you so much. You know, the problem, right? The way medication is being thrown around, even though there are cases where it's needed, according to research, uh, is creating a kind of disconnect. People don't want to open up to figuring out if their kids have those challenges because they are like ADHD. Oh, now it's medication. Now I have to, you know. So everybody is about medication, and medication most times, unfortunately, if you don't get the right dosage, there are other side effects that parents truly don't like. And really looking at the whole child, it's something that I think it's important for our society and can get parents to begin to want to be involved in this process, and I'm sure it will be very helpful. So, thank you for that. Now, you often have emphasized the idea of the whole child, like you just described. What do you wish educators understand beyond diagnostic labels? Oh, yes, ADHD, oh, yeah, as autism, what do they need to understand beyond those labels?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yes, I'm gonna share with you something that I like to share with teachers when I do professional development trainings for teachers, is that with our children with ADHD and even with autism, right? And they they come to your sixth grade class and don't know how to use the the planner. You're looking at them like, is this child just being being disrespectful, don't not wanting to pay attention. The truth is, research has shown that the children are really between three to five years behind developmentally. If an educator understands that, you understand that the child isn't just being not willing to do their work. They really do need the help. And then, so it's not about just putting them in one corner, it's addressing, okay. So, what are the things I can do in my classroom to help this child become successful? Number one, recognizing that your brains are really behind and are not firing at the same level as your neurotypical children, right? With ADHD and autism are brain-based, so it's their brain types. So if you recognize that, then you'll be less quick to write off this child. It doesn't mean they don't have intelligence, it just means their brain works differently and they are developmentally behind. So addressing that will help you. And then the other thing is what can we put in place in classrooms to help these children? So something called brain breaks. If you look at the attention span of the child, they can pay attention for 10 minutes and then they need a two-minute or a one-minute break, even if it's something as small as giving them a fidget that they can squeeze to get that energy flow out, and then they're able to refocus. Things like that will help them actually get to the school day better than them being put in a corner or taken out of classroom because they are disruptive. Those are the kinds of things like it's just looking at how can we and where is this child good, right? If the child is great at helping other children, maybe you want to deploy them there, and so it's to help their self-esteem back to saying, Hey, you know, you did so well helping this child here. How about we work on your classwork now? So you've given this child a way to use the gifts they have, they feel good better about themselves, and then their brain has taken a break from what they were doing, and now they can come back to it. And I understand in a classroom with 30 kids, that's asking a lot. But if you just start looking at looking at like changing the way we look at children with ADHD, it's not their failures, it's not that they are not good, it's not that they don't want to do the work, it's putting the support in place for them to succeed. And I think we'll get more out of them. They're already bitten down, right? They know that they're not performing as well as their peer. So it's looking again, looking at where are these kids good at and how can we use that to boost who they are and then redirect that when they feel better about themselves, redirect that back into their schoolwork, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Thank you. They are not lazy, they are not refusing to put enough effort. You talked about choices, interest, urgency, meaning gets their attention. Now, if educators don't understand or don't see that a brain break is good for every kid in the classroom. Everybody needs it.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Absolutely right. Everybody needs one.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

So if you are emphasizing, if you are saying, Oh, I have too many kids, every strategy that these kids need will improve your classroom, will help everybody. Organizational skills, who will not want to learn more? Um, focus. Tell me one person that focus, and I always say this focus is not linear. Yes, so uh you cannot say, Oh, yeah, everybody will benefit from it. So, thank you very much for for pointing that out, and that leads us to my next question. Can you walk us through the Glow method? Right, and how it supports kids differently.

Beyond Labels: What Teachers Should Know

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Okay, so at Glow Pediatrics, we believe that every child is capable. The way we see children and encourage our parents to see children is from the area of their strength. When a child comes in, for example, a child having difficulty with focus, I'll meet with them and we'll talk about all the things going on. So it's like a complete, comprehensive evaluation. Like I mentioned earlier, we're looking at sleep, what's going on in their GI system? Do they have constipation? Do they have loose tools? Because all that plays a part. Are they not focused? Are they picky eaters? Are there aggressive behaviors on board? What is going on in the home? What lotions? What soaps? What are they eating? All of those things play a huge role in the behavior that we see in the child, right? And so we do that and then we do focus testing. We have a holistic nutritionist we work with. So we do focus testing to see exactly what is triggering the inflammation. Lots of research shows that the symptoms we see in our children, like all the things I just mentioned, not focusing, lack of sleep, not being able to sleep at night, being aggressive, picky eating, speech being decreased, social behaviors, all of that. And I'm not saying the cause is from the gut, because no, we haven't found one thing that causes ADHD or autism, right? There's a huge role in genetics, but they are both also multifactorial, meaning multiple factors affect what we see as the presentation and what we put together to say this is autism or this is ADHD, right? So we're looking at from our from our vantage point, how can we help this child be healthier on the inside? We do testing to determine what foods are triggering the inflammation in your child. We don't just say go eat healthy, it's very comprehensive. We look at, okay, these are the foods you're gonna take them out. This is how we can take them out over time. I not everybody has to do what I did and throw out the whole fridge, right? And also, we teach you what to do to heal the gut because it does need healing. For example, I'll talk about constipation. Our bodies aren't meant to hold on to toxins called poop, bodies are built to release them, but I can tell you 95% of children if an autism are constipated or they have loose tools, which they shouldn't have at their ages. So, because the body is so backed up, it starts to create inflammation because all that stuff is stuff that should be released, right? And it gets into the bloodstream and the gut and the brain, because the gut is also described as the second brain, right? The gut and the brain are directly connected, so anything going on in the gut is directly affecting the brain. I've seen this over and over. So we come up with a personalized plan for what the child can eat. We give the parents recipes, we give grocery lists, we send you the links. This is where you find the thing. So it's not one of those go and be healthy and eat good. Like, what does that really mean? That means nothing. So, how can we heal the gut? How can we replace what's they shouldn't be eating? How can we because for sure, once you heal the gut and you start making and and then the child is eating better, because even for example, food dies, right? The FDA just banned Red 40. But all of that stuff has been banned in Europe for years, and it's not just the red, it's the yellow, it's the blue, it's the green. Basically, any food that's colored and it's not powered by it's not colored using another fruit or vegetable. Our children shouldn't be eating it, whether you're neurotypical or neurodiverse, because those dyes have been found to be neurotoxic, and all of it will start in the gut, right? Because we are literally what we eat. Food is medicine. That's our mantra at Glow Pediatrics. How can we improve what this child is eating? And it's not just the child, it's the entire family. That's why we're so detailed. We give you the grocery list and recipes within what they are already eating at home, so we're not giving you a whole new, it's very culturally sensitive. We're not telling you to go eat somebody else's type of food. It's what we see what you're eating and how can we make change. Food is medicine, and it's critical that the entire family is on board because you don't want to isolate this one child and say, Oh, yeah, you need to eat different while the rest of us keep doing it. That's unsustainable, right? That's what we promote at glow pediatrics. How can we get the whole family healthy? We do the personalized nutrition plans and the personalized environmental plans and then follow them over a few months. Every child is different. There is no one size fits all, there's no cookie-cutter approach because every child is different. So I'll give you an example of what we've seen in our practice. We had this patient that came in, she was eight years old, having difficulty focusing in school, not sleeping well, highly constipated, and all of that. We put her on a nutrition plan, and in eight weeks, this child went from unfocused to focused, and there was no medications added, right? We didn't start ADHD meds. We were just cleaning up her gut. She was started sleeping all night for the first time, and constipation was relieved. Mom lost eight pounds in those eight weeks, and this kid didn't lose weight, but mom did. And mom's chronic abdominal pain, which she was supposed to get surgery for the next week, resolved because that abdominal pain was also being fueled by inflammation. So because she followed the plan for her kid, she too got results, and that's what we see. So I I put I playfully call myself an adult pediatrician because I'm I'm treating the whole the whole family at this point. So it's like, okay, so all of you come on in here and let's get this together. Because I mean, our children are soaking up what we the parents are doing, right? So parents too have to be on board as well, and yeah, so that's a beautiful story.

The Glow Method: Gut, Sleep, Environment

SPEAKER_00 19:51

That's awesome. You see, that's I always say it works for everybody. Why do we think it's gonna take away from what we are doing? It's adding to what we're doing, it's not taking away anything. So, thank you very much for that. Now that takes me to hidden stress circle in neurodivergent children. What does that look like, and how does that often get misread as behavior?

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yes, when you see your child dysregulated and being aggressive or shutting down, that's a cry for help. That behavior should be telling parents and educators that this child needs help. They are not being crazy, they are not just a bad kid, they need help. And it just means that their sensory system has been overwhelmed with all the things that they have to do. It's a highly comorbid diagnosis that comes with children with ADHD and autism, meaning it often shows up, right? Because in the world that we live in, right, the children have to mask often, create coping mechanisms to deal with all the stimulation and all the rules they have to follow and all of that, that's that their brains don't quite understand, right? And so when your child is acting in ways not listening and shut down or having a tantrum, the question to be asking is how can I help my child regulate? How can I distress my child? What can I set up in the environment? For example, at home, can we set up a quiet corner where this child can go and regulate themselves? At school, I mean, that might look a little different, but also it's possible, right? You can have a corner in your classroom that's calmer, maybe a tent that they can go into and decompress. It is real. And if and if you don't address it, if you don't look at it from this child needs help versus what's wrong with the child, so that's the wrong question to ask. It's not what is wrong with this child, it is what's happening to the inside of this child's brain that they are acting this way, and it's a cry for help. So I think that will make such a difference in the way our children feel. All the inputs coming at them, their brain is having a hard time processing it and keeping it all straight and trying to follow all the rules we give them. And I'm not saying they should lack rules, they shouldn't be disciplined, but we need to adjust things for them.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Thank you. It's really interesting when people say it's not possible in schools or it's challenging in schools. I was in the classroom. I called it a reflection center. And I called it a reflection center for a purpose. Because that word reflection is powerful. Reflect. I did not use the word coming corner. There's nothing wrong with it. I said to myself, coming corner is instigating or suggesting that there was a problem that you need to come from. But reflection corner is more educational. Where am I right now? What's happening to me right now? What can I do? And you have things in that environment that gives kids that privacy an opportunity to re-engage, you know, and they are in your classroom so they don't miss instruction. So if you are teaching them how to spell a room, R-O-O-M, even if they don't get all because they are in the classroom, at least they can get two letters. But if you move them out of the classroom, they lose everything. And that's on you because you you are creating the bridges getting a large, the deficit is increasing, right? So we you talked about nutrition, you gave an example of the dye. I want you to picture a school environment, cafeteria, for instance. You know, most of us believe in uh the fast food way of taking care of our kids, right? What should educators, families be conscious of, other than the ones you have suggested? Is there one or two things that come to your mind you say, listen, watch out for this?

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Um, yes, giving candy as treats to kids. What sugar does in the brain of a child and even adults, right? The byproducts of it act like an opiate. If you know anyone that's been on drugs, they act like they're either high and they're like uncontrollable or like they've crashed and they're non-responsive. So what sugar intake does in the classroom is spike that child's blood glucose. Depending on the child, it can set them over the edge. They can become uncontrollable, hyperactive, and all of these things. That happened to me as a mom. When my son was three and he was in kindergarten, he came home and we started noticing he seemed really slow in the afternoon. He looked like he was drugged. And then we started getting reports at school that he was misbehaving and all of this. And we're on the road to labeling him as something he was not. We found out from him that they were giving them these treats at school. I don't remember what they're called. They are really bright yellow or bright orange. They're like, it's all you can't even miss it when you see it. It's like, and it has little crystals in it, anyways. The first ingredient is sugar. I took a package of it to school and then they started saying all the things my son was doing. And at that time, they disclosed that there was another kid that he and the other kid didn't get along, but they never separated the two kids, they always let them next to each other, which made no sense. But then now you're labeling my son as a troublemaker, which is he's standing up for himself because this kid keeps bothering him. So my first question was, Can you please separate the two kids? Second of all, can you please stop giving my son this? Because since you started giving this to him as a snack at school, his behavior has changed. And they were shocked, right? Because they didn't expect me to show up with the candy. But it does such a disservice to our kids, it's unbelievable. So that's what I would say. Let's find other things, give them pencils, give them erasers, something they can use rather than giving them candy as treats.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

What about apples? Give them apples. Yes, fruit. You know, I'm begging.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

If we could just get rid of that one big thing, that would be amazing.

Food Dyes, Sugar, And Classroom Behavior

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Yes. Let's now talk about girls, neurodivergent girls are frequently underdiagnosed. You know, research has shown it, it's not me making it up. What science are we missing, and why does this matter so much in school settings?

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yes, so the first place to start is that historically the tools that we use for diagnosis have been compared in boys and not girls. So we are looking at presentations that most likely show up in boys. The second thing is that our girls are socially like the way we train them at home is to be compliant, right? To follow the rules, to be quiet, to do their work and to take care of things. So that's also contribute, and I'm not saying there's something wrong with that. I'm just saying that contributes to a girl showing up at school and being missed. So the things that would show up in boys, right? And you say, Oh, that boy needs an evaluation, like they're hyperactive and they're all over the place, not paying attention and aggressive, and all of that. In girls will explain it away as oh, they're just daydreaming. Because in girls, the presentation often is they're in attention as inattentive ADHD, for example, right? And even with autism, there's a lot of masking going on there. So it often comes across as, oh, this girl is shy, or she's and she has lots of anxiety, or she's just a perfectionist, she wants things done this certain way, and not recognize that that could be an autistic trait that's being masked as oh, I just want everything done this certain way. That's rigidity. But if we're not looking at it as that, then we're going to be thinking, oh, this girl just not paying attention, she's just in La La Land, and things like that. So that's from the school perspective. But at home, things that parents can look for. Does your child go to school and is seemingly this perfect school girl and comes home and becomes a different human being? She seems really exhausted, like she can't seem to cope, and it's taking her a long time to do homework, but she gets all is that's a clue, right? Does she seem overly exhausted and just trying to keep up with all the things? Does she sound like she's trying to sound like her friends and then at home she sounds like a whole different person? Does she shut down when you're trying to talk to her? So those are the ways that girls show up, but then very easily that can be misconstrued as oh, she has a mood disorder, or she's depressed, which depression and anxiety, like I said, are highly comorbid. They will show up a lot with children with autism and underlying things, right? You will think this child just has anxiety and depression. I'll give you an example. I had this 14-year-old girl, I was evaluating for autism, and on the surface, she's at a highly competitive school, she's at a charter school, all A's. That's the other thing. When educators see a kid with all A's, they say, There's nothing wrong with the kid. How can anything be wrong with the kid? The kid has all A's, but it's more than that. It's the capacity you need to be looking at, the function, not just, oh, they have A's. What does it take that kid to have the A's? That's what to look at. The clue this child gave me that she truly had autism was when she said, But mom, on the way to the appointment, you didn't stop at the McDonald's. You didn't tell me you were going to stop at the McDonald's. And that made me really upset. I said, Okay. Because it's okay if a parent goes on a long trip, but she was upset because she did not know all the steps that were going to happen in the day, and that is rigidity, that's not just regular behavior, right? So those are the things that parents and educators need to be aware of. Looking at the capacity of this child, this child staying up till 11 p.m. to do homework, but shows up with A's. That's too much. Is this child having trouble sleeping or falling asleep or staying asleep? Do they insist on routines? And that shows up at home mostly, right? They may mask it at school, but at home, are they having trouble like insisting things have to be a certain way and completely falling apart if it doesn't go the way they want? So those are all clues to look for.

Why Girls Are Missed And How To See Them

SPEAKER_00 31:32

This is quite insightful. Is there a personal or professional experience that connects you to this work in a deeper way? I know you talked about your child. So is there any other thing that really struck you other than that?

SPEAKER_01 31:55

My first patient that I worked on after this whole episode happened with my child was a nine-year-old girl with autism and ADHD and very aggressive, not sleeping, constipated. And I just told parents, hey, this just happened with my kid. Just try her off two things, dairy and gluten. In four months, this child was no longer aggressive, she was sleeping better. By month six, for the first time in her life, she said, Mama, speech started to come back. That made a lasting impact on me between her and my child. That's why I went back to go get retrained as a holistic pediatrician because I recognized that there's so many children hurting. I call it a God moment. Why did I start go pediatrics? I felt like God was leading me to learn how to do the medical evaluations because there was such a huge need in my state. That was like a two-year wait list of children waiting to get diagnosed. And understanding that first five years of life is critical, right? For any child, if you're gonna make changes, you want to do it as early as possible because that's when brain growth is the highest. And just understanding that if we don't have enough, if we are not getting the support around these children, they're going to get mislabeled as something they are not, as not good enough and less than. And so that has made an impact as I continue to do the work I do. Seeing parents desperate enough to drive states to come and see me just to get the medical evaluation and seeing what a difference it makes when a child can sleep. I had a two-year-old, I was evaluating for autism, and mom came on the call and was crying because this two-year-old had just slapped her so hard her glasses broke, and she said to me, I'm scared of my child. And she has seven other kids, so you know she's not scared of children. She's scared of a two-year-old because of how aggressive he was. But then just doing the evaluation and asking her all the questions, I found out he was highly constipated and was drinking a ton of milk, like a gallon in three days. Like that's an excessive amount of milk. Well, anybody talk uh more or less a two-year-old. So I asked her to try him off dairy for two weeks until the next time I saw her. She told me two weeks later that she thought I was crazy, but she hadn't, she was at her wit's end, so she tried. By the time I saw him two weeks later, he was no longer constipated and was now sleeping, so the aggression was literally gone. And I'm not, I still diagnosed him as having autism, but she was no longer afraid of her child, and she was no longer walking on eggshells. So just seeing the just the one change, right? How it impacted this family, and now they could go out again as a family and enjoy this little person they had in their house and not be so scared of him was just amazing. And so that's what answers your question, keeps me going in what I do, and yes, so thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

You know, these are I always ask those questions because lived experiences are more powerful than when we try to just speak from that knowledge expertise base. There's always been this difficult connection, this bridge between research, the medical profession, and education, right? And how do we connect it? So having you make this type of connections, I think is so powerful. Now there are people out there looking at you right now and wondering, how do we get to her? How do we, you know, so you have the floor. How can people reach out to you? What services do you provide?

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Well, on all the social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. I have a podcast called Brainpower with Dr. Echo. Same name on YouTube. I'm trying to educate as many parents as possible on the changes they can make today, that they will see a difference in their child's behavior. And it's not about changing the child, it's about how can we improve quality of life for both the child and the family so they can be the best version of themselves, right? In our practice, what we do is we do medical evaluations for autism and ADHD in about 14 states, and we do that virtually. You don't necessarily have to travel to come see me, but our goal is to cut down that wait list and get as many kids the support they need so they can be the best version of themselves at school. In addition to that, we provide the holistic root cause services, so we're addressing root causes of inflammation and focused behavior and all of that, and we also address allergies, eczema, asthma from a holistic standpoint because all of those things play a part. I tend to see all of those in my patients. Another big thing we do is empowering parents. We host monthly masterclasses to teach parents as much as possible, and we have two programs, one for ADHD and one for autism. So the one for autism is parent-led ABA, where we are teaching parents how can you implement, how can you help address your child's behavior at home using ABA strategies, but from an empowered place, right? And not we're not making you into therapists, but it definitely helps if the child isn't just getting care at the ABA center, right? It doesn't replace that, but the parents need to know what to do with this child at home as well. And that's those are the children that you see thrive and do well because they're getting it in both places, so it's community-based. So parents know what to do, and therapists are working with the child. And then with ADHD is empowering parents. How can we parent this child with ADHD better? So that we are reducing friction with parent and child, we're increasing bonding, we're increasing the whole family health. Everything is infused with holistic principles, the one without the other. So that's what we do.

Stories That Changed A Practice

SPEAKER_00 38:06

That's interesting, and I'm smiling because you said ABA. And I love that. I love that you because that's my area of one of my area of specialties, right? I am last board certified behavior analyst. So when people talk about ABA, I'm like, yep, you know, it's not just medication alone, it's a combination, and now you are bringing the holistic picture, which is key. We can't look at one and not rule out other areas. So thank you very much for that. As we wrap up, I want to center educators, families, and clinicians listening who may feel overwhelmed by systems that were designed with neurodivergent children in mind. Dr. Echo, what's one takeaway or mindset shift you hope listeners will walk away with after today's conversation?

SPEAKER_01 39:08

That your child is valuable and they want to be seen and heard by you, and their behavior is communication. They are crying out for help, and we the adults need to be regulated as well so that we can reach out to them and meet them where they are and teach them the skills they need to regulate themselves better and to be the best version of themselves. It's a holistic approach. So it's not just therapy by itself. You need to address what's going on inside of your child. I like to tell therapists that send me the children so we can get them healthy and they can sleep. So when they get to therapy, therapy actually works. I like to describe it as your child's brain is on fire, the child is inflamed, and that's what you see. Your therapy will not be as effective as it could be. So, how about we do this all together and create the best win-win situation for the child, the family, the educators, and the therapists. It's for parents asking for help. There is no shame in asking for help and just reaching out and knowing that it's possible for your child to feel better and do better, and for your home to be peaceful and for bonding to happen. And for educators, it's possible to make a difference in the lives of the children that you see in front of you, and you can make small changes like Dr. Akio mentioned, the reflection corner, right? That will help your children feel their best so that they can do their best.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Thank you so much for collaboration. That's why we have areas of specialty. If we work together as a team, then our kids will succeed. So thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience with us today. We are honored. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

My pleasure. I'm also on LinkedIn, and you can reach out to us on our website, www.glopediatrics.com.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

So to our listeners, if this episode resonated with you, please share it, reflect on it, and continue these conversations in your own schools and communities. Like I always say, the sun is behind the cloud. It will always shine. It's always done that for those who are patient and persistent. So until next time, this is Dr. Stanley Akeo, and you have been listening to Unstitch ADHD urban ed talks. Thank you very much.