Dad tells a story of hope and progress

When our son Kush was born in London, through an emergency C-section, he brought so much happiness to our family. For his first two years, Kush was a bundle of joy.

By 11 months, he was toddling around, looking us in the eyes, and saying sweet words like “dada” and “mum.” We lived with my parents for his first year, and their love created such a cosy, happy space for him to grow. We loved watching every little milestone!

When Kush was 15 months old, we moved to a new house and relocated away from our family, but things got tough. The house had a bad mold problem that made it hard for Kush to breathe. He ended up in the hospital twice because his oxygen levels were low, and we used a nebuliser to help him. Thankfully, we fixed the mould issue quickly, and his breathing got better. But around the same time, after his first MMR vaccine, we started noticing that Kush was not progressing like before.

Between the ages of two and three, Kush’s chatter faded away. Words like “dada” and “mama” stopped, and he became very quiet. He stopped making eye contact and did not want to play with others. Even though he was super active and knew his numbers and letters, his trouble with talking and socialising broke our hearts. Later, he was diagnosed with Mild Autism/Language Delay in the UK. As parents, we were determined to help him and knew he was a brilliant boy, and with the right help, he could do well.

Everything changed when Kush was about five. A friend told us about The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. We read the book What to Do About Your Brain-Injured Child by Glenn Doman and signed up for their course. It was like a light bulb went off! The ideas and tools we learned gave us hope and a clear plan to help Kush. We started using their tailored plan, and slowly but surely, we saw changes. Kush began looking us in the eyes again, connecting with people, and growing stronger both physically and emotionally.

The 2020–2022 pandemic made things tricky, but we stuck with the plan and saw steady progress.

Kush is 10 years old now and has come a long way in wellness. He’s earned a Level 5 Green Belt in taekwondo, bounces around in British trampoline gymnastics, rides his bike all by himself since he was 4 years old, plays the keyboard with both hands, and is learning to swim again, which was stopped around COVID time.

He loves playing with his brother and always looks after him.

His writing has got so much better. He also types independently and searches for information on the internet. He likes reading books on various subjects.

He loves helping me in the kitchen, whipping up meals from scratch by following recipes.

He’s talking in longer sentences and getting better at hanging out with others. His routine, healthy meals, and daily activities keep him on track. We chose home education, which lets Kush dive into what he loves—everything from life skills to cool stuff like coding and AI.

We’re so thankful to the amazing Institutes team for guiding us and helping Kush get to where he is today. Their support has been a game-changer, and we are excited to keep working on his growth. We’re sharing Kush’s story to cheer on other parents who might be facing similar challenges. If you’re feeling stuck, we cannot recommend The Institutes enough—they gave us the tools to make a real difference.