After performing a brain scan, doctors discovered that in four parts of her brain, young Lauren's brain cells were killed off, with no blood flowing to them. As a result, her motor skills were not developing at a normal rate.

Roberts says that after learning of their daughter's condition, he and his wife enlisted the help of state-provided, in-home services to try and help Lauren learn to develop her motor skills.

"She was making progress, but it was really slow," remembers Roberts. "She could see her sister and knew she wasn't doing the same things Courtney could, so she would get frustrated." Roberts says Lauren's muscles were fine, but the signals being sent from her brain to her muscles were not operating properly. He said that they needed to find a way to teach other live parts of her brain to take over for the parts that were dead.

At the time, Roberts was working in the air-conditioning business, and his wife was a local mortgage banker. One night, the couple caught the tail end of a news report on a "conductive education" center that was located in Berkeley—a center that helped children with cerebral palsy or other "developmental delay" problems.

Roberts explained that "conductive education" is a concept that was first developed in Budapest, Hungary, by Dr. Andras Peto about 65 years ago. It is a program based on an educational model, rather than a therapeutic one—children are taught to develop their motor skills at the same time that they are taught normal school subjects. The goal is to help them develop both functionally and socially, so that in the future they can hopefully transition into public school and function at the most normal level possible. Peto started the Peto Institute to help children with these kinds of disabilities through the conductive-education model. His program was viewed as widely helpful, and centers began to pop up around the world. The concept has now been in the United States for about 10 years.

After seeing the newscast, Roberts called the school in Berkeley, and was put in touch with a woman who was trying to open a conductive-education center in Millbrae. Roberts eagerly volunteered to help her get the center started, and plans were made for his wife to enroll Lauren once the center was open. However, as plans continued, Roberts said he began to get more and more interest from Bay Area families in a center in the San Jose area. Finally, in addition to helping the Millbrae center open, Roberts decided to quit his job in the air-conditioning business and open his own center in Los Gatos, working as the school's executive director. The Beginning Steps to Independence school opened in March of 1997, just as his twins were turning 2 years old. Lauren was one of the first students enrolled. Today, she is 9 years old.

"She may not be able to go to the mall and walk from one end to the other shopping; that's just not in the cards for her," Roberts admitted. "But Lauren came out of here being able to tell you when she needs to go to the bathroom ... she can communicate her needs, feed herself, and more."

Beginning Steps has four teachers—three from Hungary and one from England, which are currently the only two locations in the world where one can train to be a conductive-education teacher.

Roberts' school differs from all other centers in the United States in that its teachers are not specialists, but are trained in all areas. Normally, a different teacher would be assigned to each of the different motor skills—one for gross motor skills such as standing, sitting or walking; one for fine motor skills done with the hands such as grasping a pencil or eating with utensils; a pathologist for speech and language, and so forth. Since all teachers at Beginning Steps handle all areas, they are called "conductors," in that they are like conductors of a symphony, leading all the different instruments together to help them achieve, says Roberts.

Beginning Steps mostly helps children up to 8 years of age. Recently, the school added its infant program and can now take children shortly after birth. It also includes its "Mommy and Me" program, in which parents can attend alongside their children. Roberts says this helps them learn not to do everything for their child, but rather help them learn to do things for themselves.

"As a parent of a child with a disability myself, I know we tend to baby them and do everything for them, rather than learn to foster a sense of independence in them," he said.

A special program on the Peto Institute and the concept of conductive education was aired on 60 Minutes II in February of this year. According to Roberts, one of the show's producers had a niece with cerebral palsy who attended the Peto Institute for a long while, and when she returned, the family was "blown away by the progress and change in the child." The 60 Minutes II crew flew to Budapest to film a special, and focused on two American families with children enrolled at the institute.

Roberts says everyone in the industry was excited when they learned a special on conductive education and schools would be featured on such an influential show. However, when the show aired, many were disappointed to see that the show focused solely on the Peto Institute, and American schools were not even mentioned as existing.

Roberts says the episode is scheduled to air again on Aug. 18, but says the staff of 60 Minutes II has said it will be aired in its original form, with no corrections or additions. Therefore, Roberts hopes that news of Beginning Steps to Independence will let local families know that moving across the globe to attend the Peto Institute in Hungary is not the only answer—schools such as his and others do exist in the United States.

Beginning Steps to Independence is located at 14969 Los Gatos­Almaden Road in Los Gatos. Visit the school's website at www.conductiveed.org or call 408.371.5620. "60 Minutes II" airs on CBS Wednesdays at 8 p.m.