Valentina Bambini was born on August 13, 1988 at the hospital in her hometown, Arezzo, Italy. At her birth, the hospital staff suspected that Valentina had Down syndrome because of her facial features and the transversal lines on her palms. This later became her diagnosis, when it was confirmed by the chromosomal test.
Despite this discouraging news her parents did not give up. They believed strongly that something could be done to change their daughter's future. Therefore, they began to visit many hospital, rehabilitation centers, specialists, and the Association for Down Syndrome Children in Rome, all in the hope that they would learn of the right treatment for their daughter.
While their search continued they encountered Glenn Doman's book What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child, and Raymundo Veras's book Children of Dreams, Children of Hope.
Having read these books they realized that they had found an answer to their daughter's problem, and so they did three things immediately: they enrolled in an upcoming What to Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Video Course in Italy; they met with other parents doing The Institutes program in order to receive more information about the program; and they designed and began a home treatment program based on the information they had obtained.
Valentina did very well with the program designed and carried out by her parents. Encouraged by this fact they attended the course in March 1990, and then successfully created a more intense and effective program for their daughter.
Valentina's parents then applied for the Intensive Treatment Program. At her initial evaluation in October 1989, Valentina was fourteen months old. She could recognize familiar pictures, understand at the 18-month level, and had tactile abilities at the 12-month level. She could not crawl, she said no words that her parents could understand, and she had no cortical opposition in either hand. Her neurological age at that time was 9.47 months, and her growth rate was 67 percent.
One year later the staff saw Valentina for the first time in Philadelphia. She was a completely different child by that time. At 26 months, Valentina could read hundreds of words and over three dozen homemade books, she understood at peer level or above, she could walk a long distance without falling, and she had begun running. Valentina spoke at least 39 words and about 10 couplets, and she had the tactile understanding of an 18-month-old. Her neurological age that time was 23.56 months, and her growth rate was 90 percent of average.
Valentina's home program has included the following:
- Respiratory programs, including masking, respiratory patterning, and, oxygen enrichment.
- Physical programs such as running, brachiation, gymnastics, and ballet.
- Intelligence and problem-solving programs.
- Social programs including the Law and Civil Code.
- A fine nutritional program.
Her progress over the next few years was steady and consistent, and Valentina and her parents again achieved excellent results with her program. When the staff saw her during her revisit in September 1993, she demonstrated that she was well above her peers physiologically, physically, intellectually, and socially. According to her parents, Valentina's only remaining problems were the ability to negotiate steps due to less-than perfect convergence, and difficulty using two hands together for such activities as buttoning, putting on shoes, and tying shoe laces.
At the chronological age of 61 months, Valentina's neurological age was 58.42 months, which is 95 percent of normality. Her overall growth rate in the previous 47 months has been 104 percent of normal, which is 1.5 times faster than her initial rate.
Her parents and the staff agreed that Valentina had made excellent neurological progress during her 35 months on The Institutes program. All that she now needs is opportunity to learn how to survive in real life situations. It is clear that by solving practical and social challenges daily she would polish off her remaining problems. The most effective solution for Valentina became living life itself.
