Mom says Nikola started creeping, reaching for toys, and smiling at her parents. Nikola's mother says she followed the Institutes' program herself for several months. Ted Kastner, President of the Development Disabilities Health Alliance: "These have been demonstrated to be of no value in children, in terms of them developing motor skills or cognitive skills." He also helped write an updated version of the Pediatrics report in 1999 criticizing patterning. "ĭevelopmental pediatrician Ted Kastner acknowledges he's never visited the Institutes, but says he personally works with hundreds of disabled kids in New Jersey.
Janet Doman: "The criticisms come from people usually sitting in an Ivory Tower who don't ever really get down in the trenches to treat a child.
She says mainstream medical groups won't visit the Institutes to see exactly what they do. The Academy says patterning is based on an "outmoded and over-simplified" theory of brain development. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics says patterning doesn't work, and has stuck by that stance for the last 40 years. Several times a day, adults move the child's head and limbs to simulate creeping, crawling, and other early developmental milestones. One of the methods the Smiths and other parents are taught at the Institutes is patterning. Edward's mother Kathryn says, "So we're going to keep going and get his vision even better." Edward's parents say the Institutes program has helped him start to see, and even read. He suffers from a type of blindness related to his brain injury. The Institutes point to 7-year-old Edward Smith, from Houston, Texas, as one of their successes.
"I am a firm believer in neuro-plasticity, the ability of the brain to re-wire." Neurologist Denise Malkowitz, an Institute consultant, says this all helps heal the brain. The Institutes claim that brain-injured kids can become well through lots of therapy and movement, weaning them off as many medications as possible, including anti-seizure drugs, and a strict diet of all-natural, non-processed foods. To pay for all this, the Rotberga family made public pleas on a Latvian charity website. The child's initial evaluation is another $3,000. Those courses cost at least $1600 dollars a couple. However, the Institutes will not evaluate the child until both parents have been through a 5-day training course, because parents must carry out the program at home. Janet Doman, Director: "Parents come here from all over the world we teach mother and father how the brain grows, why it grows the way it does, and we evaluate and diagnose the children and design a program." It was founded as a non-profit organization in the 1950's by physical therapist Glenn Doman his daughter Janet has been the director since 1980. But Inguna says, "I just try to find a way to help Nicole." She found The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential on the Internet. Her mother Inguna says doctors there say her daughter's condition can't be remedied. We first met Nikola when her family traveled to our area this summer from the country of Latvia. She can't walk or talk, play with toys or feed herself. 5-year-old Nikola Rotberga has Miller-Dieker syndrome, a genetic defect that left her brain malformed and prone to seizures. Action News followed one child and her family through their visit. The Institutes have encountered years of skepticism from mainstream medicine. "Hurt" is the word they use to describe children with all kinds of brain injuries and conditions, including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy, Down's syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. The staff says they have seen more than 20,000 "hurt" kids since the Institutes were founded more than half a century ago. NovemThe Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential are head-quartered in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia.