Noriko, from Japan, was a well child at her birth on September 25, 1979. She continued to develop normally until she suffered a traumatic injury at the age of six and a half.
In May 1986, Noriko was hit in the head by a kickball while playing with her friends at school. Staggering a few steps away, she fell and went into a coma that lasted three days. After she became conscious, her intellectual and language abilities gradually returned to normal, but the right side of her body was severely affected. She had no use of her right hand, little use of her right arm, and a rigid right leg and foot, which made walking difficult.
Noriko tried to improve using standard physical therapy methods and to continue her life while attending regular school. Although performing very well academically, the condition of her right side was steadily getting worse.
Her mother and father, desperate to find help for their daughter, heard about The Institutes What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course, which they attended in Kobe, Japan, in January 1989.
After attending the course, her parents designed their own home program. Noriko accomplished 1000 meters of crawling and 2500 meters of creeping daily for 14 months. In addition she was patterned 30 minutes a day, did 60 masking sessions a day, and did a full reading program.
At her initial evaluation at The Institutes in March 1990, Noriko was diagnosed as having a moderate, relatively diffuse midbrain injury. Intellectually she was equal to her peers, but physically she could not ride a bicycle, swim, or hang on a bar. She walked and ran poorly. Her right hand was a little less rigid, and she was beginning to use it. She could hang from a bar for up to ten seconds.
Over the next two years of daily program, Noriko undertook many physical, physiological, and intellectual challenges. These included: crawling, creeping, brachiation, gymnastics, and classical ballet, plus respiratory and intelligence programs.
The staff then proposed that Noriko spend a period without a formal program to see if leading a normal life with a small physical and physiological program would polish off her remaining problems. This is called "Graduation to Life," which Noriko received in July 1992.
Six months later her parents reported that Noriko was ranked in the top fifteen percent of the entire school and was in a special class for academically elite students. She continued to be a superb swimmer, gymnast, and ballerina. She was running 5 km easily in less than 27 minutes, and was able to ride a bicycle with great speed and agility. All of these difficult abilities, along with the tremendous ability to brachiate in all directions independently, proved that this young lady was physically superb on both sides of her body, and in many areas better than her peers. While Noriko's right hand was not yet perfect yet, she was using it with greater confidence and skill.
In 1993, Noriko became a full graduate of The Institutes Intensive Treatment Program. In high school she excelled academically, became active in student government, and continued to train in gymnastics. Following graduation, she began her university studies in Kyoto, Japan.
