Down Syndrome

Parents from around the world have helped their children diagnosed with Down syndrome move along the path to wellness. Using the programs developed by The Institutes, children diagnosed with Down syndrome have been able to improve function and, in many cases, perform at peer level-and above.

The Institutes offers a comprehensive program that focuses on neurological growth and development. Our goal is intellectual, physical, physiological, and social growth towards excellence for each child.

The best way for parents to learn about The Institutes program is to attend the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course. This is a five-day intensive course for the parents of brain-injured children.

The objective of the course is to teach parents about the field of child brain development so that they may use that knowledge to give their children the opportunity to achieve wellness.

Children with down syndrome have a pattern of malformations that are pathogenetically related. It was believed that these genetic problems were the complete explanation as to why these children could not function as well as other children. As a result, it has been assumed that they could not be treated or helped.

This is not the case.

The Institutes does not treat genetic problems. However, after a careful neurological evaluation it is found that these children, as a result of their genetic problems, are brain-injured. Those injuries may be mild, moderate, severe or profound, just as they are in other brain-injured children.

A proper diagnosis describes where the injury exists in the brain, the degree of the injury to the brain, and the extent of the injury to the brain. To be successful one must treat the brain, where the injury actually exists. The Institutes offers a program of neurological organization that parents carry out at home.

Old-fashioned labels like "Down syndrome" are not used in the literature of The Institutes, but rather the term "brain-injured." This refers to the entire spectrum of brain injury from profound coma to mild learning problems and every kind and degree of brain injury in between.

The founder and director of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential of Brazil, Raymundo Veras, was the first to treat large numbers of children who were labeled as "Down syndrome" or "Mongoloid." Over the last forty years it has become the tradition at The Institutes to refer to these brain-injured children informally as "Veras children" in honor of Dr. Veras.

See the following articles for more information:

Veras Kids

What Are Veras Kids Made Of?

Advice from Parents

Ariel Ary

Montserrat Saldana

Valentina Bambini