anyone here used Hope and a Future, a neurodevelopmentalist?

[DebonLI]

doing research for my daughter. I'd appreciate any input, pro or con.

Thanks!

[PeterPan]

Not that particular one, but there was another neurodevelopmentalist that came to the Cincy convention last year. Nothing they said was bad, and they even pulled together a lot of pieces and issues. However they were unqualified and had HUGE gaps in their understanding and the advice they gave. We talked about dd's lack of crawling as a dc, bilaterality issues, pain with writing, headaches, etc. When I asked them straight-up if dd's vision and headache problems would resolve using their suggestions or whether she would still need VT, they hummed and hawed. Absolutely my dd needed VT, and she needed OT too.

 

Personally, I think the neurodevelopmentalist movement should be taken with caution. They know just enough to help you in some areas. They DON'T know enough to make sure you get help in ALL the areas you need. And the money you spend on them and time and energy should have been put into someone who could give you more thorough evaluations. For instance, the neurodevelopmentalist sold digit span cards and said to do auditory and visual digit spans. Well a more knowledgeable professional knows it's a lot more complicated than this, with more components and aspects that should be considered in the therapy (working memory, expressive language, visual processing, etc.). I mean they're screwing around with important stuff that affects our dc's lives, and they don't know the total picture.

 

Like I said, nothing I was told was wrong, it was just so incomplete a picture as to only be tipping the iceberg. Use them if you want, but please get proper evaluations. You still want a VT evaluation, OT evaluation, neuropsych, etc. Don't miss getting the more thorough help that's out there.

[razorbackmama]

I have a lot of friends who have used Hope and a Future. Based on what they have told me (they have LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED it), I have steered clear for the EXACT reasons OhElizabeth shared.

[Tiramisu]

I have a lot of friends who have used Hope and a Future. Based on what they have told me (they have LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED it), I have steered clear for the EXACT reasons OhElizabeth shared.

 

Same here. I know at least three families who have used Hope and a Future for at least a year. They have seen amazing changes in their dc. Adults that work with their children have also seen great improvements and commented on them without them knowing they were doing the therapy. Another family I know just started, and I'm interested in seeing how that goes.

 

My understanding is that the therapy is done daily with the parents and many different approaches are used. It's a big time commitment. The skeptical part of me sometimes wonders if one of the reasons some parents see such great changes is in part because of all the intensive one on one time spent with their dc rather than simply the therapy alone.

 

If I were to do the therapy, I would want some kind of outside evaluation of academic achievement. I wouldn't be content to hear, "Your dc improved three grade levels in the last three months" without an objective test administered by someone other than the company I'm paying for the therapy. Perhaps it should be enough for me to see them doing better in their daily lives and school work, but...

 

I'm thankful that Hope and a Future has been so beneficial for my friends but I'm not quite convinced that my dc need what it offers. I guess I'm seeing progress without it and would rather spend the money on kung fu and music lessons and other worthwhile things that also build neural pathways. There was a time, however, that I was so desperate I would have tried anything, and I would have been grateful to know about Hope and a Future then.

 

A personal pet peeve: I think video games, especially violent ones, are extremely dangerous to developing minds. I don't know if Hope and a Future counsels families about this, but they need to. Would you tell them for me? ;)

Edited February 13, 2011 by NJKelli

[razorbackmama]

Another concern I have is the qualifications of the providers. I have a friend who has been "trained" by the neurodevelopmentalist and then SHE (my friend) is the one who trains the parents, and then the parents are the ones who do ALL of the therapy. While I agree that parents are the best experts on their children, when it comes to the different therapies and such, a 3-hour training session, performed by someone with absolutely NO credentials whatsoever, and a HIGH price tag...yeah, I'm highly skeptical.

 

They are very anti-label (even for things like Down Syndrome) and say that insurance doesn't cover any of it because it's considered "educational." Personally, I think insurance doesn't cover it for other reasons....:glare:

[ZeldaRules]

What is neuropsych? Coming from OhElizabeth's post? Is that a neurological psychologist? My son has been to a neurodevelopmental pediatrician.

 

I am skeptical of the neurodevelopmentalist as well. I am guessing many of them come from psych backgrounds??? They don't come from a medical background. You have to BUY a DVD to be educated on their process before they give you an evaluation (not sure about HOPE & FUTURE, but this is so for other similar programs). And if anything says red flag to me it is when you have to invest some money to only spend more money. Why should I have to pay them money to watch a DVD to make their job easier? Shouldn't they be handing those out to parents to get them to want to use their services?

 

We have Little Giant Steps here...they do have some curriculum you can buy at one of the homeschool stores to work with your child. Do any of these other companies like that sell curriculum to work at home with your child, or can you only get it if you use their services?

 

Thx.

[razorbackmama]

I am guessing many of them come from psych backgrounds??? They don't come from a medical background.

 

Honestly, from what I've read, they don't really come from ANY background. Gosh, I, a mom with several "issue" kids but no degree, could become a neurodevelopmentalist if I read enough and was "trained" by certain people. At least that's the impression I've gotten as I looked into it...I may be wrong.

[Laurie4b]

Honestly, from what I've read, they don't really come from ANY background. .

 

This is my impression as well: they've chosen an occupational title that sounds highly advanced and for that reason people think they are professionally trained, but they are not. (Professionally trained to me would be at least a master's degree.) By choosing that title, they are also unregulated by state boards like the ones for nurses, doctors, OT's, psychologists, etc.

 

Honestly, it's hard to believe that the title is not crafted specifically to deceive, which bothers me as much as anything.

[PeterPan]

Little Giant Steps is what came to the convention in Cincy. Like I said, nothing they suggested was bad; they actually were pulling together a lot of good components. BUT because they have no professional training there was a lot more they MISSED. I'm saying they're playing with fire. Almost everything in life is like this. Lots of docs can help you a little when you have problems. And you'll like the doc. And because you paid a lot you'll rave about the doc. But will you be ALL THE WAY WELL??? Only the best can do that, the ones who know enough about your specific problems. So I have no doubt these self-proclaimed practitioners know enough to help some people, because in fact they do. But if you do that and MISS the rest of what you could have gotten elsewhere, you'll kick yourself too. Personally, I didn't find that crawling, digit spans, etc. were going to fix the fact that my dd's eyes weren't converging or focusing properly. No amount of their maintaining that it "would have developed" through crawling is going to make it happen by crawling 2 minutes daily. Come on people! Incomplete answers.

 

And oh yeah, read the fine print on that other place. Did you see their requirement that you pay immediately for the next appointment, months away, and lose your money if you cancel less than 6 weeks in advance? Huh??? I have NEVER had any doctor charge me for an appointment canceled unless it was in the last 24 hours. I don't know enough to know what is going on in their mentality. It might be well-intentioned guidance or something. But to me that alone was money-grapping and controlling, sorry. We ALL want our kids to get well, but we don't have to get it by shelling out extreme amounts of money and undergoing coercion. Or put another way, any help, and I do mean ANY help the "neurodevelopmentalist" could have given you, you could have gotten elsewhere, from another, more fully trained professional who would be covered by your insurance, not hyper-control you, and not have extreme financial policies.

 

What they're essentially doing is dabbling in VT and OT and nutrition and... I chose to go to separate people for those so I can get the *best* person, the most experienced, thorough, and qualified, in each area.

Edited February 14, 2011 by OhElizabeth

[razorbackmama]

Little Giant Steps is what came to the convention in Cincy. Like I said, nothing they suggested was bad; they actually were pulling together a lot of good components. BUT because they have no professional training there was a lot more they MISSED. I'm saying they're playing with fire. Almost everything in life is like this. Lots of docs can help you a little when you have problems. And you'll like the doc. And because you paid a lot you'll rave about the doc. But will you be ALL THE WAY WELL??? Only the best can do that, the ones who know enough about your specific problems. So I have no doubt these self-proclaimed practitioners know enough to help some people, because in fact they do. But if you do that and MISS the rest of what you could have gotten elsewhere, you'll kick yourself too. Personally, I didn't find that crawling, digit spans, etc. were going to fix the fact that my dd's eyes weren't converging or focusing properly. No amount of their maintaining that it "would have developed" through crawling is going to make it happen by crawling 2 minutes daily. Come on people! Incomplete answers.

 

YES YES AND YES. (Honestly this is how I feel about Dianne Craft as well, except not as extreme...great lady and very helpful, but incomplete answers.)

 

They also do NOT like if you get any sort of outside evaluation/therapy. That is another red flag.

 

Ditto on the crawling. My 12yo was an AWESOME crawler. Took longer than the others to walk because he crawled so fast - why walk slowly when you're a locomotive crawling???:lol: And yet he didn't talk until he was well over 2, stimmed quite a bit at age 3, didn't play with toys properly, and landed a PDD-NOS diagnosis at age 4. Crawling was NOT the solution. All of my kids have crawled, even the 4 with problems.:glare:

[Guest gracefullily]

I am a major lurker and do not hardly ever post. I cannot let this one go. I am very distressed by the negative comments given. All you are doing is giving opinions on services you never have used. My daughter has seen a neurodevelopmentalist for three years now and we have seen major growth and progress. She was diagnosed mentally retarded 4 years ago with a very low IQ. We were devastated by such a diagnosis. We did research and chose to use a neurodevelopmentalist that travels around the country helping parents with their children. The gains in my daughter have been huge. I recently had her retested through our developmental pediatricians office. After a battery of tests she still has the MR label but her IQ has gone up nearly 15 points. Most psychologists will tell you that IQ does not change at all. I have been told by people in the education field that a jump in IQ by that much is a huge gain. I write this because there are many desperate parents reading these posts and your negative posts with out any experience may dissuade these people who may otherwise have been helped and given hope.

[Guest gracefullily]

I am saddened and hurt by all the negative posts given. None of you have any first hand experience of using the services of a neurodevelopmentalist, but plenty of opinions. My daughter was diagnosed with mental retardation four years ago. We were devastated by such a diagnosis. We did research and decided to use Cyndi Ringeon, a neurodevelopmentalist that travels the country helping parents with their special needs kids. She spends 90 minutes with us, checking my daughter's progress and then developing a plan for us. The parent trainer that was mentioned is a Mom that has been doing the program activities for years, in our case atleast 10 years. She is just showing you how to do the activities at home. You spend the bulk of your time with the neurodevelopmentalist. We have seen huge gains in our daughter. She has gone from a nonreader to reading on a 4th grade level. I recently had her retested by a psychologist who gave my daughter a battery of tests. My daughter's IQ has gone up 15 points since using the services of a neurodevelopmentalist. Yes, it is hard work and many times I want to quit. But of all the therapies we have used this has made the most improvement. I write because many desperate parents read these posts for help and the negative comments given may dissaude someone who would have been helped and given hope.

[Susan in TN]

I think it's wise to check into therapists carefully. Some are good, some not so much.

 

My SIL has a master's degree in speech therapy and works in speech/occupational therapy. When I talked to her about the activities that we are doing with our son, she was fairly impressed - not only with the activities themselves, but with the fact that the parent is well taught to do them and on a daily basis. She said that traditional OT is a very slow way to progress because the kids are usually only seen once a week, and a few of the activities they are trained to do are questionable at best. Not to knock the work of OTs, but most of the activities they do with their clients are not rocket science. Consider the great protest that public school teachers often make in insisting that an untrained parent can't teach a child to read. Very similar situation.

 

As with all therapies, you have to judge for yourself whether it's a good fit based on your child's needs. Sometimes there are suggestions made that we simply have to weed out.

[12Stars]

I have a few friends that have gone down this path with much success. They have recommended this to me over and over.

Yes, I have been skeptical at best. On the other hand I also hold the door open to this type of help because so far we have such limited access to resources for our son. I can see both sides to this. I just don't know enough and it seems so expensive to get bit and pieces of therapies.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I think it's wise to check into therapists carefully. Some are good, some not so much.

 

My SIL has a master's degree in speech therapy and works in speech/occupational therapy. When I talked to her about the activities that we are doing with our son, she was fairly impressed - not only with the activities themselves, but with the fact that the parent is well taught to do them and on a daily basis. She said that traditional OT is a very slow way to progress because the kids are usually only seen once a week, and a few of the activities they are trained to do are questionable at best. Not to knock the work of OTs, but most of the activities they do with their clients are not rocket science. Consider the great protest that public school teachers often make in insisting that an untrained parent can't teach a child to read. Very similar situation.

 

As with all therapies, you have to judge for yourself whether it's a good fit based on your child's needs. Sometimes there are suggestions made that we simply have to weed out.

:iagree:Like anything else, not all are created equally. I have friends irl whose children have been helped TREMENDOUSLY by neurodevelomental therapy after years of traditional therapy was unsuccessful. My ds (3 years old, expressive language delay) recently saw the same therapist last week. He was in private ST but it became obvious pretty quickly that wasn't going to help. I'm not anti ST (my other dd goes to the same private ST with amazing results); it's just not addressing the root of his problem. I've read about neurodevelopmental therapy for quite a while on my adoption groups because the trauma of adoption can disrupt neural development and cause problems in children that look like other disorders but traditional therapy is not very successful for because it's not addressing the actual problem, just the symptom. Most, if not all, of those I have followed online ended up taking their children to a neurodevelopmentalist because traditional therapies were either not effective or very minimally effective. I think that is a big clue to whether or not the DT is the best route to go for any particular child, though even then the quality of the program is going to vary greatly from one ND to another.

 

I also want to comment on DT's selling things. The DT we just started seeing does not sell anything that she recommends. She gave us a list of outside websites where we could order what we need and is not associated with any of them, and none of them know that we are her clients when we order from them. I too would be suspicious of one that sells you all the materials you need. Our DT also doesn't have a DVD you have to buy, though (depending on the price and content) it might be nice to have an overview of the program to learn more if it helps you decide if that type of therapy is right for your child.

 

ETA that I just found the site for Hope and Future and think it's strange that they don't list their neurodevelopmentalists (or any of their staff), their credentials, associations, or anything very specific about anyone. I would want to know a lot more before considering them.

Edited March 18, 2011 by Cheryl in SoCal

[mom4him]

Not that particular one, but there was another neurodevelopmentalist that came to the Cincy convention last year. Nothing they said was bad, and they even pulled together a lot of pieces and issues. However they were unqualified and had HUGE gaps in their understanding and the advice they gave. We talked about dd's lack of crawling as a dc, bilaterality issues, pain with writing, headaches, etc. When I asked them straight-up if dd's vision and headache problems would resolve using their suggestions or whether she would still need VT, they hummed and hawed. Absolutely my dd needed VT, and she needed OT too.

 

Personally, I think the neurodevelopmentalist movement should be taken with caution. They know just enough to help you in some areas. They DON'T know enough to make sure you get help in ALL the areas you need. And the money you spend on them and time and energy should have been put into someone who could give you more thorough evaluations. For instance, the neurodevelopmentalist sold digit span cards and said to do auditory and visual digit spans. Well a more knowledgeable professional knows it's a lot more complicated than this, with more components and aspects that should be considered in the therapy (working memory, expressive language, visual processing, etc.). I mean they're screwing around with important stuff that affects our dc's lives, and they don't know the total picture.

 

Like I said, nothing I was told was wrong, it was just so incomplete a picture as to only be tipping the iceberg. Use them if you want, but please get proper evaluations. You still want a VT evaluation, OT evaluation, neuropsych, etc. Don't miss getting the more thorough help that's out there.

:iagree:We used a ND for almost a year. At the time my two were 3 1/2 and 4 1/2. We made great strides with my 4 1/2 yr old but the key to my 3 1/2 yr old was stronger discipline.NOT!!!!! Finally when the different discipline DIDN'T work she suggested a drastic diet change. Um, if you knew this was a possibility why did you not suggest it at the beginning! I felt like I knew the answer, it was because she knew we wouldn't have been able to keep up the ND and do the diet change both. The $$ just weren't there.

Like I said it helped greatly with our older but the younger it did nothing other than sew anger and frustration.