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All children who are struggling deserve a fighting chance to be well

Insight and understanding for your child with a real plan for a better future.
When a health care professional assumes that your child has little or no chance of getting significantly better…

What Can You Do?

Dear Parent,

Often our parents feel alone and unsure of what to do next.

Usually they have been everywhere searching for an answer. Often they have worked hard to do every treatment they found but often with little or no result.

Our parents know better than anyone that as each day passes their child falls further behind their peers.

WTD Consultation

"We are positive the goal should be to make brain-injured children well, and we sometimes do. The world believes that to be impossible and therefore never does."

The Problem

Our children are called by dozens of symptomatic labels which are confusing, misleading and inaccurate. These labels waste our parents’ time as they seek answers and solutions to “diseases” that are considered “incurable.” These labels can be devastating to parents who understand that these labels can be destructive to their child. What a nightmare.

A few of the most common “boxes” are:

  • Cerebral palsy
  • Autism
  • Down Syndrome
  • Dyslexia
  • Learning Problems
  • Developmental Delay
  • Epilepsy
  • Attention Deficit Disorder
  • Mental Retardation
  • Persistent Vegetative State

There are more than 300 symptomatic labels used to describe children who have problems in the central nervous system. In some cases, these labels are old-fashioned terms that are meaningless and should be retired. In other cases, these labels simply describe a symptom that the child is experiencing which is already obvious.

Symptomatic diagnoses lead to symptomatic treatments. 

Treating the symptom will never make the problem go away.

Never.

Our parents recognize the potential in their children. No matter how many others may deny that potential our parents persist in believing that there is hope for their child.

They are right. 

Glenn Doman holding a brain

Terrific News For Parents: Neuroplasticity​

The brain has an incredible capacity to develop when provided with stimulation and opportunity

The brain can recover, because it is only hurt. Brain-injured children are not damaged, they are not diseased, they are hurt.

That is why we often used the term “hurt kid”.

It is a softer, more accurate and, we hope, more civilized way to introduce the brain-injured child who has been tragically called by so many names that are libels more than labels.

What Makes Us Different

For treatment to be effective, we begin with a genuine diagnosis, a diagnosis that states:

  • The area of the brain involved
  • The degree of injury
  • The extent of injury
The next step is a careful evaluation using The Institutes Developmental Profile. This is the oldest and most sophisticated neurological assessment profile that exists. Most of our children have never had a detailed evaluation before they come to us. This evaluation yields an accurate neurological age and the child’s growth rate compared to his or her well peers. Based upon the diagnosis and the neurological evaluation, we create a treatment program for our children that addresses the injury through sensory stimulation and motor opportunity, rather than medications or surgery. Our program is a home program which combines the energy and love of the family with a carefully designed program for brain growth and development.
WTD Course
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When it comes to children – parents are not the problem, they are always the answer.
– Glenn Doman

Understanding is the Key

When parents understand why the brain grows the way it does, and how it grows, they have the potential to become the very best therapists their child will ever have. We see children who may range from profoundly brain-injured to moderately or mildly injured. For this reason, our children can have a wide range of problems. We see children who may be blind, deaf and immobile or even comatose, all the way to children who may have learning problems and who otherwise may appear to be completely well.

Our children may have problems with:

  • Seeing
  • Hearing
  • Crawling
  • Creeping
  • Walking
  • Running
  • Understanding
  • Talking
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Health
  • Medications

We have created a course just for our parents where they can learn:

  • Who is brain-injured and who is not
  • What brain injury really is
  • What causes injury to the brain
  • Why the therapies of the past have not worked
  • How the brain can be stimulated effectively
  • How the brain grows
  • How to evaluate your own child
  • Understanding diagnosis
  • How to design a physical, intellectual, and physiological program
  • Why the family is so important to the progress of the hurt child

“The single most important thing that we learned from the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course was that they believed in our son and all he was capable of. They gave us hope for his future and told us they would show us the way.”

He Went From 15 Words To 200…

WTD Consultation
Thomas is not stuck with a dead end diagnosis anymore. We believe that Thomas has a great future – as full of possibilities as is the future of any child.
– Mother of Thomas, Brasil
WTD Consultation

Paralyzed and Speechless

Hope for parents help for Hana.

Hana was born 72 days prematurely. At first, she did not have any problems, but after a month, her ultrasound showed abnormalities and she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy due to bilateral periventricular leukomalacia.

Prognosis: Hana would never walk or talk

The doctor’s explanation was superficial and impersonal. Basically, we were told that she would probably never breathe and swallow on her own, let alone talk and walk. At that moment, our world collapsed. We always read about such stories and never thought that we would ever have to face such problems. As it is usually done in our country, we started a physical therapy at a Rehabilitation Institute and hoped for positive results. After a few years, it was clear to us that this program was not sufficient for her…

What You Will Learn

Each day provides “the why” behind what is being taught.  This is essential.  Our parents always want to know why, not only how.

Results

“The only thing that matters in the world of brain-injured children is results.”

Sara – Age 25

Sara – Age 25

Cerebral Palsy, Developmental Delay
Sara – Age 25
Cerebral Palsy, Developmental Delay

“With this program you always have goals to achieve to improve your life. It must be done with tenacity and believe in what you do. It is the only way to improve and be patient, you will definitely notice the results.”

Henry – Age 11

Henry – Age 11

Deafness, Developmental Delay
Henry – Age 11
Deafness, Developmental Delay

Henry was born deaf, with a serious developmental delay. In response, Henry and his parents fought for an ordinary life... and got an extraordinary one.

Julia – Age 5

Julia – Age 5

Down Syndrome, Trisomy 21
Julia – Age 5
Down Syndrome, Trisomy 21

Is Down Syndrome an incurable disease? Week after week, our parents who have children diagnosed with Trisomy 21 come to The Institutes and tell us their story. Stories like that of little Julia, who has one of the most inspiring paths toward wellness we’ve ever seen.

Haylie – Age 21

Haylie – Age 21

Learning Problems
Haylie – Age 21
Learning Problems

“Brain Injured or disabled kids can be fixed. The cause of my daughter’s problems was an injury to her brain... When the cause is treated, the symptoms go away.”

Matvey & Timofey

Matvey & Timofey

Cerebral Palsy
Matvey & Timofey
Cerebral Palsy

Matvey and Timofey are twin brothers. One month after they were born, their MRIs showed brain ischemia. This is one of the many cerebral palsy causes in children. The Institutes helped them find wellness.

Adele & Leah

Adele & Leah

Cerebral Palsy
Adele & Leah
Cerebral Palsy

One little girl proves that brothers and sisters are a powerful force to help save the lives of brain-injured children and help with cerebral palsy treatment.

The Institutes Today

Janet Doman, the daughter of Glenn Doman, became the Director of The Institutes in 1980.

As a youngster she was lucky, at nine years, she was given the opportunity to help her parents with brain-injured children. At fourteen, she was asked to illustrate one of the first books ever published that was written and designed to be read by two and three-year-old children. This was part of The Institutes groundbreaking work in early reading. While still in high school, she documented the mobility progress of each child on The Institutes program and made a film archive. Six hundred and fifty children were filmed at every visit – it was the first such archive of its kind ever made.

Janet with her medical team and child brain developmentalists have been creating the field of child brain development and designing the unique programs and curriculum for hurt and well children ever since. Today The institutes has a 65 year legacy of hurt children who are now well and well babies who are now outstanding adults. Along the way, the programs, courses, books and materials this team has created continue to be updated, expanded and added to every year

A Pathway To Wellness for Your Child

We have worked with thousands of children and their parents over the last 65 years, and we are here ready, willing and able to help you, if we can.