When Jessica and Ken Myers adopted their son Beckett, they were fully aware that like his new mother, he was going to face some cardiac issues.

But when Beckett took longer than usual to speak and kept his fist in a ball most of the time, a new set of worries appeared. If the biggest aspect of fear is that of the unknown, then the Myers Family certainly got a crash course. Here's Jessica, in her own words:

So began our immersion in speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy. We soon learned a whole new vocabulary: Dysarthria. Aphasia. Autism. Deafness. Auditory Processing Disorder. Brachial Plexus Injury. Cerebral Palsy. Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Apraxia. Dysphasia. Each one sounded scarier than the last. I quit working so that I could take him to 12 hours of appointments every week. There were no answers and very little progress, but then we found hope.

That hope was found inside the doors of The Allen School in Little Rock, a local preschool and day-habilitation center for children with developmental disabilities. Learn more about The Allen School – and the outstanding progress Beckett Myers has made since those diagnoses – in the latest edition of Little Rock Special Family, available in the digital issue or online.