About
Hemispheric Integration Therapy
Most people are aware that if you damage the brain, such as with a stroke, it affects the body. We have all seen people who have suffered strokes and have unique postures and gaits. But the system works both ways. There is feedback between the brain and the body and between the body and the brain. It is the receptors in the body that feed up to the brain. The receptors are the starting point of your nervous system. This may be something as familiar to you as light receptors in your eyes or sound receptors in your ears.
However, most input to your brain comes from less known proprioceptive receptors in your muscles and joints especially anti-gravity and postural muscles. The brain uses receptors to understand your environment for interpretation. If these receptors and the pathways leading up to the brain are not working because they were damaged or it did not develop properly, the activity level of the brain will be decreased and different areas of the brain may not communicate with each other properly.
The functional neurology approach is to evaluate the receptors and pathways to determine where the areas of dysfunction and miscommunication are occurring. We will then strengthen weak areas by exercising those pathways in the same way that one exercises their muscles. This may include visual stimulation, auditory stimulation, olfactory stimulation, vestibular stimulation, rhythm and timing exercises and cognitive exercises among others. In the end, this all has to be fused together in order to allow for multimodal processing so that the child can function at a high level.
This approach addresses both processing disorders as well as sensory integration disorders. This targeted stimulation allows the neurons to become stronger by increasing their DNA activation which in turn allows each cell to produce all the cellular contents it needs to be healthy. This increases the connections between neurons. In Hemispheric Integration Therapy we find that we must correct problems from the receptors to the brain. In addition the right and left sides of the brain must be balanced in order to allow for proper communication to take place between the different areas involved in higher brain function.
In general, more neuron connections means better brain function. Although, there are some common areas of dysfunction, this treatment cannot be standardized as child’s developmental delay and sensory integration patterns are different and therefore their treatment plans must not only be different in the beginning but adapt and change as the child progresses.
The Defeat Autism Now! Philosophy:
We believe autism encompasses spectrum of disorders with multiple provoking stressors and multiple possible susceptibilities. The Defeat Autism Now! Philosophy does not endorse a set protocol for treating autism because our approach is based on paying careful attention to the unique symptoms, history, examinations and data of each child. We offer a process of choosing various options for biomedical intervention. Autism and related problems reflect dysfunction of the neural, metabolic, immune and/or digestive systems in individuals genetically predisposed to such problems as sub-optimal nutrition, food, intolerances, microbial overgrowth, metabolic abnormalities, immune deregulation and reduced ability to eliminate toxins. People with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty processing sensory, perceptual, cognitive, biochemical and immunologic messages and have faulty mechanisms for regulating, organizing, expressing, processing and detoxifying various inputs.
We believe that a combination of environmental factors may interact with genetic predispositions that are due to variations in the human genotype. Timing of the appropriate treatment is important because certain insults appear to occur at vulnerable times in human development when the brain’s neuronal network connectivity is being established.
Appropriate treatment involves identifying and alleviating the problems causing symptoms in a particular individual, rather than attempting to suppress symptoms through the use of psychoactive drugs. Our focus is on biomedical balance in the individual emphasizing two questions: Does he or she have a special unmet need that would advance healing if it were met? Does he or she have a special need to avoid or get rid of toxins, allergens or metabolic by-products?
The answers to these questions come by a careful sequential process in which the patient is recognized as the expert who, by his or her history, physical examinations, lab results and responses to therapy, helps practitioners choose the best options for each diagnostic and therapeutic step. With our patients and their parents, we conduct collaborative conversation with an abiding respect for the intelligence and intuition of parents and their children. We involve families as full participants in the search for answers and recognize that the child is often listening, even when he or she appears inattentive.
We reject one-size-fits-all strategies while including the broad range of diagnostic and treatment modalities that are appropriate to each patient. We look for ways to support nature’s strong impulse toward healing.
We also value relational, occupational, physical, speech, educational, and other external therapies, many of which become far more efficacious once underlying biomedical conditions are addressed. While our focus in on biomedical interventions, we look for opportunities to collaborate with our education, behavioral, physical, and speech therapies and colleagues.
We draw information and inspiration from the fact that autistic children are treatable by systematic means that address the need to restore deregulated biochemical and immunological processes to the virtuous pathways from which they descend. We believe that autism is also preventable by paying greater attention to environmental issues and parental health. We endorse Dr. Bernard Rimland’s position of trying to disregard our egos and remembering that most of the important elements in our understanding of the treatment options for autistic individuals have come from listening to parents.
MOM TO MOM…PARENT TO PARENT…DAY TO DAY
My name is Kimberly Larochelle. Writing is my passion…and writing on subjects that I am passionate about is truly one of my favorite things ever to do. My other passion is my family, and my children ARE my heart!
I have four wonderful sons, and my 3rd son is on the autism spectrum. Almost from the moment of his birth, I felt that something didn’t feel exactly the same with my 3rd child, and now I know that I was sensing and recognizing indications that he was on the spectrum. I developed many questions that I couldn’t find answers to. Many other parents feel the way I felt, as I have come to know over the past 10 years. As I searched for answers to the many questions I had about my son’s development, I would run into many of the same moms, parents…just like me…looking, looking for answers to their questions…and searching for some small glimmer of guidance.
As parents we would sit and chat in the many waiting rooms of pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, therapy centers, etc, etc, etc… and we would often share the bits and pieces of information that we had gathered with each other, desperate for direction and help.
The purpose of my writing and blogging is to SHARE!!! I have come to the opinion that there is not enough information in a practical sense (mom to mom), (parent to parent) and (day to day) living with autism spectrum. There is also a great void as well in an emotional sense, and the toll that autism can take on a family, on a marriage, on the siblings, grandparents and friends, etc, etc, etc.
People strengthen people…and my hope is to share valuable and practical information from a mom’s perspective, and provide up building encouragement and support. It is extremely refreshing when someone understands…in other words…when someone speaks the “same language” as we do.
Support in the challenges that face us in this wide and diverse spectrum of autism is not just a nicety…it is an important and vital need that we must fill in order to face these challenges successfully.
Support helps us maintain our happiness, and endure the rough times.
Support makes our outlook better and thus motivates us to develop and maintain hope.
Support is what we can give to others, receive, and gain grand rewards in the process.
Support is what I wish to accomplish by means of my writing…it has become a cause very dear to my heart!
As one hand touches another…who touches another…who touches more…and so on and so on… One heart inspired… inspires another…who inspires another…who inspires more…and so on…and so on…