Many parents can’t wait to hear their kids talk, but a longer wait sometimes means there’s a problem with the child’s development. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be a lifelong problem. NBC25’s Kathy Hoekstra continues her series on medicine free treatment that may change the way we look at learning problems.
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Just a few months ago, three year old Max Hammis didn’t do much communicating at all. His mother, Kelly Hammis, says "He was talking but he wasn't talking back and forth to us and he was having a hard time answering questions like 'what is your name'."
She knew something was wrong, but she wasn’t satisfied with the answers she was getting, including one opinion that he was autistic. "It's really scary... Anytime your child has anything wrong with them.. No matter what it is.... you feel a little bit lost.. You feel a little bit like.. 'is there hope for my child?'
The hope came through family friend Becky Good. She suggested the Hammis’s try sensory learning. It’s a treatment performed in only two places in Michigan. One is in Flint, under the care of Dr. Bradley Habermehl.
Max and Dr. Habermehl demonstrated one procedure to us. Max lies down on a table that moves in circles. As he watches tiny lights about him, he also listens to music. "It's pretty basic.. We're stimulating the visual system the auditory system and the vestibular system in a way that it helps the child learn how to multitask.." and that multitasking can help with many different things, including developmental delays like speech, as with Max. "His ability to communicate.. Answer questions.. I could list probably 10 things he couldn't do back in October that he can do now."
Becky is also a speech therapist by trade, who works with Max. She had a good reason to recommend sensory learning, it made all the difference with her own son. "I was told he's autistic and there's nothing you can do about... and I started looking around sensory learning was one of the things that I did and my son is currently fully included in the second grade class... and just doing absolutely amazing." Max’s mother agrees "He has exploded in his just noticing things talking back and forth with us. He's just really become a different little boy... and I really feel like this has given us hope."
Max had 12 straight days of sensory learning treatments at the doctor’s office, that was followed by 18 days of treatment at home. We are told the treatments are customizes for each person and can treat a number of conditions.
The Sensory LearningSM Program is a supra-modal approach to developmental learning that unites three modalities (auditory, visual and vestibular) into one 30-day drug-free intervention to improve perception, understanding, and the ability to learn. Preceding the intervention, a listening profile and visual field measuring photocurrent are taken. These 'perception maps' help provide baselines that are used to customize the Program for the individual child. These evaluations are done throughout the Program to track improvement in sensory regulation The Program
The Sensory Learning Program is comprised of two 30-minute sessions each day for 12 consecutive days, including weekends and holidays. Each session is an individual sensory experience simultaneously engaging visual, auditory and vestibular systems to work in an integrated way. The repetitive sensory activation of each session builds on the session before.
After twelve days of sessions in the Sensory Learning Center International, the individual returns home with a portable light instrument to continue the program, with a 20-minute session each morning and evening for the next 18 days.
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