Feature Stories

Each year, Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Development and Learning evaluates and treats several thousand children with ADHD. The evaluation includes a detailed medical, developmental and behavioral history of the child.

Sixteen-year-old Travis Smith can't wait to try out for his Baltimore City high school's football team next fall. He's a lot like most boys his age: non-stop energy. Today, that energy is channeled positively, a big change from when he first started school. Back then, his mother Natasha Lewis was at her wits end, receiving phone calls practically on a daily basis telling her to come pick him up from school. The reasons varied: Travis had hit another child. Travis had lashed out at a teacher or an aide. Travis was threatening to jump from the roof of the school.

For years, people who suffered spinal cord injuries were told that the first six months of their recovery would paint an accurate picture of how they would live the rest of their lives. If a patient recovered any movement, it would probably be in those first few months and, nearly all experts believed, improvement after two years was impossible.

Little Eric Miller* had a rough start in life. Struggling with severe acid reflux from the time he was just a few days old, he spent much of his first few months shuttling from one doctor to another, enduring countless X-rays, CT scans and other tests. Mom Brenda Baker*, desperate to relieve his discomfort, decided to keep him propped up as much as possible, even putting him in his car seat to sleep. She began to notice that his head seemed larger than normal and tilted to the right.

For the Frost family, the first miracle happened when their family survived a horrific car crash that could easily have ended in tragedy.

Ramón and Maritza Casso loved their first born son, Juan, with all of their hearts. Like many parents they wanted far more for him than they wanted for themselves. And when their second son, José, arrived seven years later, they felt the same way.

It has been said that a truly extraordinary man is a man who thinks himself completely ordinary. Hugo W. Moser was such a man. A scientist, mentor, advocate, father, husband, friend, he is surrounded by an acclaim that bears the weight of work well done, personal passion, and a nobility of purpose.

Dominic Maloni could not have been a better baby. He was quiet and easy going. In his first year of life, he met all of the usual milestones sitting up, speaking his first words, walking.

He smiles when his mother cuddles with him, laughs when his sister tickles him, and loves when his father sings to him. As long as he's around other people, that toothy grin and hearty giggle will make an appearance.

To some, Jimmy's happiness may seem surprising. He has faced numerous medical challenges in his short life. But to his mother, Sue Ellen, his enduring smile is proof that no parent should ever take no for an answer.

For those who wonder if childhood adversity really can inspire remarkable achievements, look no further than Tatyana McFadden. Born with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that prevents the spinal column from closing completely, Tatyana spent the first six years of her life in a Russian orphanage.