Neuro-developmental Therapy
Neuro-developmental therapy is a therapy that aims to improve brain function by addressing the reasons for a delay in neuro-development.
Children on the Autism spectrum are not the only ones that suffer from Neuro-developmental delay. When the developmental milestones are not met on time, i.e. a child may crawl or talk much later compared to his neuro-typical peers, or not at all, the child may suffer from Neuro-developmental delay.
A diagnosis of Autism or ASD is made, when a child meets certain criteria, but nowadays many children suffer from developmental delay even though they do not meet all of the criteria for Autism or ASD. There could be many reasons for the delay and these need to be identified and addressed so that the brain can develop again.
Sometimes, a brain integration process is enough to start a child crawling (see Integrative therapy), sometimes a certain nutritional supplement is enough to start a child talking (see Targeted Individualised Nutrition Therapy for the Recovery of Autism & ASD (TINTRA)), but every child has a different story and therefore the therapy needs to be targeted and individualised to achieve maximum benefits.
Primitive Reflexes and Neuro-development
One of the possible symptoms of Neuro-developmental delay is retained primitive reflexes (Reflexes, Learning & Behavior by Sally Goddard, Fern Ridge press, ISBN 0-9615332-8-5).
These reflexes should be inhibited by a certain time after birth to allow higher level learning to occur. When these reflexes persist, they can interfere with neuro-development, balance, learning, attention, muscle tone, tracking of the eyes, eye-hand coordination, mood and behaviour.
Integrating (or extinguishing) these reflexes can have a very positive impact on neuro-development. Specific Brain Gym® exercises can help to promote the extinguishing of these reflexes.
What Can Cause Neuro-developmental Delay?
There are many factors that can interfere with Neuro-development. Toxins being the main culprits. These toxins can come from the diet, the environment, the water and/or the gut. They can cause inflammation, interfere with neuronal communication, brain integration, brain function, mood, behaviour, learning, concentration and neuro-development.
Many children who have regressed into autism are poor detoxifiers. Over the last 5 decades there has been a dramatic increase in the number of toxins children are exposed to. If a child cannot clear all these toxins from their system, they will be stored somewhere in the body until such time that the body can remove them.
Many herbicides and pesticides are fat soluble compounds and because the brain mainly consists of fat, they are often deposited in the brain, where they can cause neuro-inflammation and interfere with neuro-development and brain function. This process can take place without any obvious symptoms for a while, but the next toxic insult may be the straw that breaks the camel's back, which is often the moment children regress and brain function deteriorates quickly.
There is no one path that leads to autism or neurodevelopmental delay and there is no one path that can recover all children. Each child is unique and has a unique history, unique genetic make-up and a unique number of stressors.
To start the recovery process, we need to identify and address all of the stressors that interfered with neuro-development and brain function. Once these stressors have been addressed, the brain can heal and make new connections and pathways again.
Autism Recovery Therapy (ART) was designed to reverse the course of this regression and to optimise brain function.
How to Identify Stressors
If you would like to find out more about how you can identify some of these stressors, please click on the following links:
DNA Tests
To find out about the efficiency of the genes for detoxification, methylation, inflammation as well as the metabolism for dealing with fats, sugar, lactose from the diet and the ability to produce some of the vitamins in their active form (A, D, B12 and Folate).
Functional Pathology Tests
May give an insight into how well the genes are performing. These are DIY home tests that look at what the body is excreting. There is a urine test, a stool test and a hair mineral analysis test to investigate the presence of different toxins as well as a blood prick test to investigate possible food sensitivities.
Primitive Reflexes Testing
Can be tested at any age to see whether any of them are still partly or completely retained.
