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be at a stand still on the growth & development charts. Specialists just couldn’t quite
figure her out! Deb, her mom, always tried to tell the professionals that Tracy ate a
lot, but her growth records never showed it.
Deb got the feeling that the professionals didn’t always believe her. She wanted to
get Tracy to eat even more food. You see, Tracy had a very hard time concentrating
on anything for very long at a time. Deb decided to have her eat for just 3 minutes at
a time. Deb grabbed the little 3-minute egg timer and sat it in front of Tracy’s plate.
The result was incredible!! Tracy would eat for 3 minutes, then take a 3-minute
break, then eat for 3 more minutes. Mealtime became pleasurable!!
When Sara, one of the professionals, joined Tracy’s family for dinner one evening
she was amazed at the effectiveness & results of that little timer. Sara told Deb that
she should be using a timer for a lot of other activities during the day. That gave Deb
an idea! She had used larger timers in the preschool room where she worked
everyday. An in-between size would be useful, she thought! So, she put dirty, old
river-sand in a soda pop bottle & taped another bottle to the first one. It wasn’t pretty,
but it worked great! Deb continued to evolve the looks of the timer over the next 20
years.
Today the timers look PDA (pretty dang awesome)! And the results are still
incredible! Before Tracy turned 25, Deb decided to quit her daytime job so she could
have more time for making timers!! She knew it was time for her to share the PDA
timers and their incredible results with everyone!!
As for Tracy, she has grown into a fine young lady!