Many of the children Sherry sees today in Houston at the Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics at Texas Children's Hospital also have problems learning to read. The young patients she evaluates and the residents she instructs as a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine have no idea what Sellers went through to be able to help them. I thought about getting a Ph.D. in reading, but one of my students was coming to the Meyer Center, and I asked the staff here what I should do. Physicians there treat patients with conditions hampering motor or cognitive language development. They see premature babies and children with genetic or chromosome syndromes.
Some young patients have neuro-degenerative diseases caused by infection or genetic problems.
Some have behavioral or learning challenges. Seven of the Meyer patients are the surviving Chukwu octuplets born in December 1998. Sellers and two other physicians conducted the developmental assessments in March when the tiny babies were dismissed from the hospital. The doctors will continue to monitor their progress. The international publicity accompanying the octuplets' birth made for a higher profile than usual for the self-effacing physician.