Challenging  Kids, Inc. is the collaborative project of Leslie E. Packer, PhD. and Sheryl K. Pruitt, M.Ed. ET/P.

Leslie E. Packer, PhD
Leslie is a licensed psychologist in New York. She spent more than 30 years in private practice, the last 20+ of which involved treating patients with disorders such as Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, ADHD, executive dysfunction, mood disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder, and other associated disorders. In addition to providing treatment services, she also provided consulting services for school districts as well as workshops for parents, educators, and clinicians.

Leslie served on the board of directors of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Long Island and on the national Tourette Syndrome Association’s Education and Advocacy committees.  She also served on the Professional Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Foundation of Long Island. An active advocate for children with special needs, she was instrumental in creating the very first public school program in the United States for intellectually gifted students with Tourette’s Syndrome and its associated disorders. Consistent with her commitment to eliminating punitive measures for students with disabilities, she also chaired the New York State Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Use of Aversive Controls with Children.

Leslie’s articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Neurologic Clinics and Behavior Modification, and she authored an article for educators in New York State was that distributed to every school district in 1995. She also created highly acclaimed web sites that informed thousands of parents and teachers for more than 20 years. She is the author of a handbook of useful accommodations for students with neurological disorders, Find a Way or Make a Way was published by Parkaire Press in 2009..  With Sheryl Pruitt, she co-authored Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers, (Woodbine House, 2010) and in 2013, a chapter for educators that they wrote for Martino & Leckman (Eds.) Tourette Syndrome was published by Oxford University Press. The second edition of that book is now available from Oxford University Press.

Sheryl K. Pruitt, M.Ed., ET/P
Sheryl (“Sherry”) Pruitt is the Clinical Director of Parkaire Consultants, a clinic in Marietta, Georgia that she founded to serve  neurologically impaired individuals.  She is also an educational consultant, a professional educational therapist, and a certified teacher.

Prior to the founding of Parkaire Consultants, Sherry conducted a State of Georgia exemplary Model Learning Disability Program and taught behavior-disordered students in a psychoeducational setting. She has served on the Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Georgia and also on the national Tourette Syndrome Association’s Education Committee. She has been on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Georgia and South Carolina as well as the Tourette Spectrum Disorder Association of California. She is a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada.

Sherry has taught State of Georgia Professional Learning Unit courses for more than ten years. With Warren Walter, Ph.D., she helped contribute to the Educator’s Guide for the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada. With Marilyn Dornbush, Ph.D., she wrote Teaching the tiger: A handbook for individuals involved in the education of students with attention deficit disorders, Tourette Syndrome or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Hope Press, 1995). Her second book with Marilyn Dornbush, Ph.D., Tigers, Too:Executive Functions/Speed of Processing/Memory- Impact on Academic, Behavioral, and Social Functioning of Students with ADHD, Tourette Syndrome and OCD, was published in 2009 by Parkaire Press. With Leslie, she co-authored Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers: Teaching Students with Tourette’s, Bipolar Disorder, Executive Dysfunction, OCD, ADHD, and More, and a chapter in Martino & Leckman, Tourette Syndrome (Oxford University Press, 2013; and 2nd edition, 2022).