Neurological Re-Organization

If you're a parent of children with special needs you've probably heard of neurological re-organization, especially if you're in the adoption community.  Bette Lamont, who is a pioneer in the field and has worked with over 6000 children, most of them adoptive, was at our house this week to evaluate Ella and Emilia for the program.

Even though the girls present very differently, we learned that both of them need to go back to sensory and motor patterns and sequences they should have experienced between two and seven months of age.  They especially struggle with vision-related things as well as weak communication between their brain hemispheres.  The better news is that overall, the girls' brains appear to be in good shape and they are bright and have a lot of potential to tap yet.  We just have to get their brains to fire up more.

Bette Lamont created a program for the girls that will take about an hour a day to execute in-home though it does not need to be all at once.  In fact, much of it will be like play.  She expects that we will see great improvements with the girls in all areas of development over the next 12-24 months if we consistently carry out the program.  Bette Lamont will return in about three months to re-test the girls and adjust the program as necessary.

I am very excited for this opportunity for our family as a whole because the program will eventually also help us address trauma.  Per Bette Lamont's assessment, both girls have developmental trauma disorder which, of course, is not a surprise to us.  It's just refreshing to hear someone confirm what we have known for a long time and not look at us like we're nuts.  And now, instead of describing this in a round about way to professionals and arguing that they are not seeing the whole picture with their suggested diagnoses, I can be much more specific and use the term developmental trauma disorder when explaining some, if not most, of the challenges my girls face.

Wish us luck as we embark on this journey - we'll be doing a lot of creeping and crawling and spinning and squeezing and so much more around here.