Amy O'Dell knew her son could learn.

O'Dell's son, Jacob Wuttke, was diagnosed as a toddler with pervasive developmental disorder —- meaning something was wrong but nobody seemed sure what it was.

Parents with children such as Jacob weren't given much hope for the lives of their children, but O'Dell simply refused to accept the limits placed on her son by doctors.

"I knew there had to be a way to reach him," she said. "And I wasn't going to stop trying until I did."

It took her two years to teach him the first five letters of the alphabet. But now, there are few traces of the once silent toddler in the chatty 15-year-old.

More than a decade later, O'Dell is still working, but not on Jacob. She's working with Jacob to help other kids like him.

"I'm so glad he's here," she said, "because the kids will say things or do things for him that they'd never do for us."

Jacob's Ladder, a specialized not-for-profit private school in Roswell, was started by O'Dell in 1999. She and her staff teach and treat two dozen children with neurological disorders, such as Asperger's syndrome and cerebral palsy, using the techniques —- such as intense visual and mental exercises —- that helped Jacob.

In 1998, when O'Dell's family moved to Atlanta, she was only going to put on seminars training parents and caregivers. But dozens of parents asked whether she would take on their child personally. The need for a school was evident, she said.

The school has a student-teacher ratio of 1-to-1, the only way this type of brain-based therapy can work, she said.

The private attention each student gets also makes the cost of Jacob's Ladder rather high. The initial evaluation is $900, and monthly tuition is in the neighborhood of $3,000.

"But it's worth it to see your child responding to the world," said Christy Kaiser, the mother of a 5-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. Kaiser said a dedicated group of friends and family help with daughter Lexi's tuition expenses.

If parents are unable to swing the monthly tuition, O'Dell's evaluation comes with a lesson plan.

The center has its academic critics and its champions. Some parents might balk at turning their already fragile children over to a woman whose methods haven't been studied by a major university, but others do it without blinking. Jacob's Ladder is listed, along with more than two dozen other places, on the Web site of the Marcus Institute, a treatment facility for children, as an early intervention option.

"Nothing else was working," said Clyde Clem III, whose grandson Harry was a student of the school for two years. "It is more art than science, but it sure did work for us."

Harry, who is autistic, was nonverbal when he started at Jacob's Ladder when he was 2 years old. By the time he was 4, "we couldn't shut him up," Clem said.

Clem was so grateful for what O'Dell's school did for Harry that his construction company is overseeing and financing the construction of new space for the school nearby, scheduled to open in August.

"I guess it'd be about a $2 million job once it's all said and done," Clem said. "I'm paying for everything that's not being donated, and there's going to be a whole lot given to us by people who understand what Jacob's Ladder is all about."

Clem said he's not doing the project for notoriety, but so kids like Harry and Jacob will always have a place to learn.

"This is so parents won't have to lose hope," he said of the construction project.

"My family and I know what it's like to go from night to day, and I want to make sure other families experience that feeling too."