1. What is the difference between The Institutes program for brain-injured children and other programs?
There are many vital differences. Here are the three most important:
The Institutes program is entirely based upon treating the brain where the injury lies, not treating the symptoms. It is not possible to treat the symptoms of an illness or a disease and expect the disease to go away. It will not.
The Institutes objective for every child, regardless of how injured that child may be, is wellness. All of our experience has taught us that no child is hopeless.
The Institutes has learned that when parents are given the knowledge of how the brain grows and why it grows the way it does, they are the very best therapists for their children.
2. Do The Institutes need to actually see my child in order for us to begin some kind of a program?
There is no reason to wait until you have attended the course to begin a home program with your child. Sometimes there is a waiting list to get into a course or a family can not attend a course immediately. The first step is to read the book What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child. This helps a family to understand what they can do immediately to help their child at home.
3. Will the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course give me the knowledge and confidence I need to go home and do a program with my child?
This is exactly what the course is designed to do.
Parents learn how the brain grows and why it grows as it does. They learn how to evaluate their own child's problems. They learn why their child is not developing as he or she should be developing. They learn how to design an appropriate program for their child's health and physiology, for mobility development, and for intellectual development.
Here is what parents who have attended the course have to say:
"[The course] was more than I thought ANYONE knew about treating brain injuries. It was more than I thought there WAS TO KNOW."
–Frederick Trafton, USA
"We can't put a price on its value to our family. You have given us a reason to hope, a goal to work toward. "
–Kimberly Bowman, USA
"There is no other place to be in the world if you want to make your brain-injured child 'well'!"
–David Carnivale, USA
To other parents: "I would tell them honestly that the course was the most important knowledge I could have been given as the parent of a hurt child or a well one, by far."
–John Mitchell, USA
4. Do both parents need to take the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course?
The Institutes program is a family program. This is why we strongly recommend that both mother and father attend the course together. However, when this is not possible one parent may attend. Although one parent may be doing the program with the child, the support, understanding and knowledge of the other parent is vital. When appropriate, adult-age siblings, grandparents or aunts, and uncles often attend the course as well for the same reason. For parents who wish to be accepted into the Intensive Treatment Program, both parents are required to attend the course.
5. Does our child need to have any special tests before we attend the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course?
No.
Parents who wish to enroll in the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course are asked to complete a questionnaire about their child. This is reviewed by the clinical staff of The Institutes before the enrollment application is approved. The Institutes medical staff may have additional questions, depending on the condition of the child, but it is unlikely that new tests will be needed.
6. Is The Institutes program approved by the American Medical Association?
The American Medical Association does not approve any drug, treatment, cosmetic or surgery. It is simply not the function of the American Medical association to do so. The AMA does have a journal. The Journal of the American Medical Association September 17, 1960, Volume 174 issue contains the article "Children with Severe Brain-Injuries: Neurological Organization in Terms of Mobility" (Doman, Spitz, Zucman, Delacato, and Doman) . To our knowledge this was the first article ever published on the treatment of brain-injured children and as such was an historic event.
7. Are there other centers, clinics, schools or individuals approved and certified by The Institutes?
Yes. They are:
- The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Europe, located in Fauglia, Italy.
- The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Brazil, located in Rio de Janeiro and Barbacena.
- Doman KenkyushoTM, located in Tokyo, Japan.
There are Institutes offices in:
- Kobe, Japan
- Mexico City, Mexico
- The world headquarters of The Institutes is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
The staff of these Institutes must be approved and re-certified every year in order to remain qualified. There are no other branches or affiliates anywhere in the world approved or qualified to do The Institutes work.
There are centers, clinics, schools and individuals who may claim to be qualified to do The Institutes work. It is not possible for a non-profit organization to monitor worldwide the unethical practices which may occur. However, when we do know about an improper claim or use of our name, we take all appropriate legal action to handle it.
8. I am confused by the many different labels given to my child. One place says he has "cerebral palsy", another that he is "cerebral palsy with some autism", another that he is "uneducable" another that he is "mentally retarded". ?
When we last studied this problem we found that there were more than 300 different labels that are commonly used to describe brain-injured children. The vast majority of these labels are not proper diagnoses but rather descriptions of symptoms of brain injury.
The first step in solving any problem is to be able to state clearly what the problem is. Brain injury is in the brain–not the elbow. The problems with labels that describe symptoms is that they often lead to the attempt to treat those symptoms rather than the brain where the child is actually hurt. This could not possibly work and, in fact, does not work.
The following labels are commonly used to describe brain-injured children:
Athetoid | Learning Problems |
Attention Deficit Disorder | Mentally Deficient |
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder | Mentally Retarded |
Autistic | Persistent Vegetative State |
Cerebral Palsy | Pervasive Developmental Disorder |
Developmental Delay | Reading Problems |
Down Syndrome | Retarded |
Dyslexic | Spastic |
Educable | Special Education |
Emotionally Disturbed | Special Needs |
Epileptic | Trainable |
Hyperactive | Untrainable |
9. Are there other common diagnoses for certain types of brain-injured children?
Yes. They are:
hydrocephalic
microcephalic
congenital absence of the corpus callosum
spina bifida
neurological problems
CNS problem
10. I am not sure whether my child is brain-injured or not. What are some of the most common symptoms of brain injury?
Auditory Hypersensitivity | Inability to understand words |
Blindness | Inability to walk |
Coma | Inability to write |
Deafness | Inappropriate behavior |
Feeding problems | Learning problems |
Hearing problems | Poor attention span |
Hyperactivity | Respiratory problems |
Inability to crawl | Runs poorly |
Inability to creep | Seizures |
Inability to make sounds | Sensory problems |
Inability to move | Sleeping problems |
Inability to read | Strabismus |
Inability to read at grade level | Tactile problems |
Inability to run | Talks poorly |
Inability to sit up | Temper trantrums |
Inability to speak | Visual problems |
Inability to stand | Walks poorly |
Inability to understand equal to peers | Writes poorly |
11. How much time and energy is needed to actually do the program?
Each family decides the amount of time and energy that they wish to devote to the program.
Parents who read the book What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child use whatever part of the knowledge that they gain to create a more effective and stimulating environment at home for their child.
Parents who attend the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course are encouraged to design a home program which they can do consistently and which they feel is best for their child and family.
The Intensive Treatment Program, as the name implies, is designed for those families who wish to devote themselves intensively to the treatment of their brain-injured child. This is a full-time job for one parent and requires considerable time and energy.
12. How do I balance the needs of my severely brain-injured child with the needs of his younger and older siblings when I am doing a program?
Parents of a severely brain-injured children know only too well that the care of a severely brain-injured child is a full-time job regardless of whether the child is doing The Institutes program or no program at all.
The Institutes program is a family program. When a member of the family is hurt, it is of the greatest importance that the siblings have the opportunity to help the hurt child. Our families make sure that brothers and sisters are educated on the development of the brain so that they truly understand the problems of their brain-injured brother or sister.
In The Institutes view, no matter how busy a well sibling's life may be, there is nothing more important that being a part of a heroic effort to save the hurt child. If we succeed then the well children in the family share in that superb accomplishment and if we fail they know that did their best to help in every way they could. Wise parents always include siblings in everything they do.
The brothers and sisters of the brain-injured child often participate in the program side-by-side with their hurt brother or sister. It is only natural that well children wish to do what the hurt child is doing. Since every effort is made on The Institutes program to provide the ideal environment to stimulate the brain and provide opportunity for intellectual, physical, and social development, the well children in the family often benefit substantially from this environment.
13. Can my child remain in school and do a program?
Children who are succeeding in school with their well peers do not need a program. The program is designed for children who are not succeeding in school. If a child is doing poorly in school, parents are encouraged to read What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child and to contact the What To Do Course Registrar of The Institutes to learn more about the best course of action for their child.
14. Once a child is on the program does The Institutes work with our physician?
Yes. Contact with the child's physician may begin before a child actually comes to The Institutes. This is vital, especially for those children whose conditions are physiologically fragile and the child may be at risk.
The vast majority of the children who come to The Institutes live hundreds, or more often thousands, of miles away. Each child must have his or her own medical doctor who is responsible for that child's day-to-day medical care, emergencies, and any other routine procedures. The medical director of The Institutes and her staff oversee the child's neurological program. They keep in close contact with the child's physician as needed and wanted by that physician and the family, but they do not assume medical responsibility for the child.
15. How can my physician or other health care professionals learn more about the work of The Institutes?
The Institutes have welcomed thousands of physicians and health care professionals from all over the world. Please contact us by calling (215) 233-2050.
