Patterning
Patterning is also known as the Doman-Delacato Treatment. This approach was developed during the 1950's and is offered at the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, among other locations. The IAHP web site says that children with such varied labels as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hyperactive, autistic, epileptic, Down Syndrome, emotionally disturbed, dyslexic, and attention deficiency disorder, (and others) should be considered to be brain-injured children. The real problem in the majority of these cases, they say, is that the children have brain damage or "poor neurological organization." The treatment they recommend is to increase the level of motor and sensory stimulation so as to "re-train" the nervous system and lessen or overcome handicaps caused by the underlying brain damage. The program trains parents to exercise the child's limbs repeatedly in a specific pattern that is supposed to mimic the normal developmental pattern of infants that the children missed due to their handicap. Supposedly the exercises and other sensory stimulations increase blood flow to the brain and decrease brain irritability. In 1982 and 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued position statements concluding that "patterning" has no special merit, that its proponents' claims are unproven, and that the demands on families are so great that in some cases there may be actual harm in its use. The National Down Syndrome Congress has endorsed the 1982 statement and published it on its Web site.
Patterning Links
The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential® - "The Institutes® is a nonprofit educational organization that serves children by introducing parents to the field of child brain development. Parents learn how to enhance significantly the development of their children physically, intellectually and socially in a joyous and sensible way."
Psychomotor Patterning by Steven Novella, MD - "The Doman-Delacato patterning technique is pseudoscience because it is premised on a bankrupt and discarded theory and, more importantly, has failed to demonstrate any significant effectiveness under controlled conditions, and yet it is being purveyed as an innovative and effective treatment, and even possibly a cure." [From the Connecticut Skeptic Vol.1 Issue 4(Fall '96) pg 6.]
Ouch! That's gotta hurt!
Disclaimer: The author of this web site is not a physician. Do not make any decisions with regard to your child's treatment without first consulting your child's physician. The author of this web site makes no positive or negative claims about any of the web sites linked here. This information is provided for your education only.