How to Help a Child with Down Syndrome, ADHD, Aspergers Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Trisomy 21 and Developmental Delay or other Brain Injury. The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential is a group of nonprofit institutes founded by Glenn Doman in 1955. The Institutes is internationally known for its pioneering work in child brain development and for its programs to help brain-injured children achieve wellness. Glenn Doman authored the groundbreaking book “What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child”. This book is translated into a dozen languages and has been used successfully by thousands of families to help their hurt children to get better. The Institutes strongly believes that: Children do best at home with their mothers and fathers. When parents know how to provide an ideal environment for brain growth, they are the best teachers for their child. When the family learns how to work as a team, parents can achieve significant results. The family is the answer – not the problem. The Institutes serves children from all over the world. The Institutes offers courses for parents in Philadelphia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, Russia, and Australia. The international headquarters is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Approved branches of The Institutes are the European Institute in Fauglia, Italy; and The Doman Kenkyusho in Tokyo and Kobe, Japan. Official offices of The Institutes are in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and Madrid, Spain. Check out our upcoming events: https://iahp.org/events

1. The Institutes is a group of nonprofit institutes founded by Glenn
Doman in 1955. The Institutes is internationally known for its
pioneering work in child brain development and for its programs to
help brain-injured children achieve wellness
and well children achieve excellence.

2. Historically, children diagnosed with developmental
delay, cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, attention
deficit disorder, hyperactivity, learning problems, dyslexia
and a host of other symptomatic diagnoses
have been considered hopeless.
• Thousands of parents have
come to The Institutes to learn
how to help their children at
home. Those parents have
proven beyond any doubt that
brain-injured children are not
hopeless, but instead have
tremendous potential. The
Institutes exists to insure that
all brain-injured children have
a fighting chance to be well.
Glenn Doman, Founder
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3. The objective of The Institutes is
to take brain-injured children, however severely
hurt, and help them to achieve normality
physically, intellectually, physiologically, and socially.
The Institutes serves children from all over the world.
• The majority of children
achieve one of these
goals, and many
children achieve two of
these goals. Some
children achieve all of
these goals, and some
children achieve none
of these goals.
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4. Evaluation
• When The Institutes began there was
no reliable evaluation procedure for
hurt children. Glenn Doman and the
staff developed the first reliable set
of procedures to evaluate children
with neurological problems. The
Institutes Developmental Profile
measures the growth and
development of the brain. This Profile
allows us to evaluate a child and
make an exact comparison between
the hurt child and his well peers. This
provides an accurate rate of growth
for the child and establishes a
baseline against which each child can
be evaluated to determine his
progress. Each time a child returns to
The Institutes, a new Developmental
Profile is done and a new program is
created based upon that Profile.
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5. Treatment
• When The Institutes began more
than half a century ago there was no
effective treatment for children with
neurological problems. Instead hurt
children were often
medicated, warehoused, and
forgotten. Glenn Doman and his early
team wanted to give every child a
chance to be well no matter how
severely injured a child might be.
After each child was carefully
evaluated and a functional diagnosis
was made, the staff designed an
individual program that would
provide the appropriate sensory
stimulation and to give the maximum
motor opportunity to use the new
information so gained.
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6. Fifty years ago each child lived at The Institutes and did the program
there, but the staff quickly realized that parents could be taught how to
do each part of the program.
This permitted the child to remain at home. Today all our children do their
program at home and return to The Institutes periodically to be re-
evaluated and to receive a new program.
The program is designed to treat the brain injury, not the symptoms of the
injury. Treating the brain is effective - treating the symptoms
simply does not work.
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7. About Brain Injury
• This may be a severe problem, as it is
with the child who is functionally
blind, deaf, insensate, paralyzed and
speechless. This may be a moderate
problem, as it is with a child who can
not use both eyes together
properly, lacks the fine tuning to
handle the common sounds in the
environment or is too sensitive or not
sensitive enough to touch and may
not yet be able to move or talk or use
his hands at age level. This may be a
mild problem, as it is with a child who
cannot read, write or do math at age
level and who may lack the
balance, coordination, language and
manual competence of his peers.
When the brain is injured the child will
either have a problem with the incoming
sensory pathways or the outgoing motor
pathways or both. When a child cannot
see, hear or feel properly he cannot
respond to the world around him
appropriately.
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8. About the Brain
• For too long brain growth
was thought to be a static
and irrevocable fact. Instead
brain growth and
development are a dynamic
and ever-changing process.
This is a process that can
be stopped, as it is in
profound brain injury. This
is a process that can
be slowed, as it is in
moderate brain injury but
most significantly this is a
process that can bespeeded.
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9. More About the Brain
• All that we do to speed the process is to
provide visual, auditory and tactile stimulation with
increased frequency, intensity and duration in recognition
of the orderly way in which the human brain grows. We
then arrange for the child to have the maximum
opportunity in an ideal environment to use and develop the
motor pathways.
For more than a half a century, the heart of The Institutes
program has been based upon the fact that the brain grows
by use. Scientists now recognize the plasticity of the human
brain and new research in neuroplasticity confirms that the
brain is incredibly capable of recovery and rehabilitation.
The old notion that once the brain is injured there is no
means of recovery has been discarded.
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10. The Causes of Brain Injury
• Unfortunately there are many ways that a good brain can get hurt.
We see the child who is hurt in utero because of some injury or
illness that mother may have experienced as the baby was
developing (trauma, Rh incompatibility, German
measles, hydrocephaly, drugs, alcohol). Sometimes mother is aware
of an injury or illness but often problems may occur in the first nine
months that are not apparent to mother or her physician
(hydrocephaly, oxygen deprivation).
Sometimes an injury may occur immediately before delivery
(premature, postmature), during delivery (compression of the
umbilical cord, placenta previa, placenta
abruptia, prolonged, precipitous, or delayed, C-section), or right
after the delivery (respiratory distress, jaundice, seizures, cardiac
arrest, stroke) of the baby.
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11. Some children may have an illness
that injures the brain.
• (encephalitis, meningitis, Lyme
disease, chicken
pox, measles), surgical
complications (cardiac
arrest, oxygen deprivation, blood
loss, septic shock), reaction to
medication
(antibiotics, vaccines, anticonvulsan
ts, aspirin, non steroidal anti-
inflammatory agents) or a head-
injury (falls, car accidents, sports
concussions, near drownings, gun
shots, explosions), or an adult
illness (stroke, Parkinson’s disease)
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12. Some genetic problems cause
injury to the brain.
• (Down syndrome, Angleman
syndrome, Cri de Chat, Wolf-
Hirchhorn, Miller-Dieker
syndrome, Pallister-Killian
syndrome, Dandy-Walker
syndrome, etc). The Institutes
does not treat genetic
problems, but children who have
such problems are also brain-
injured. They have the same
chance of improvement that
other hurt children have. For
many of these children their
neurological problems are more
significant than their genetic
differences.
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13. • Other children may have excess
fluid in the brain
(hydrocephaly), a brain tumor or
a blood clot (hematoma) or
craniostenosis. These conditions
require neurosurgical
intervention. Commonly these
conditions will be handled before
a child is seen at The Institutes. If
these conditions have not yet
been discovered, or diagnosed
before a child comes to The
Institutes, such intervention will
be recommended.
• Sometimes a child may have a
progressive deterioration of
the brain. The Institutes does
not have a treatment program
for progressive brain disease.
The case of each of these
children is reviewed with great
care to determine if The
Institutes can offer help to
improve the quality of the
child’s life.
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14. Injury To the Brain
• Some children may have diseases that
do not originate in the central nervous
system but instead originate in the
peripheral nervous system (spinal cord
injuries, polio, muscular dystrophy). The
program of Institutes can not help
children with these problems.
• It matters not what may be the initial
insult which begins the process of injury
to the brain the penultimate fact will be
a decrease of oxygen to the brain.
Oxygen is the primary food of the brain.
If oxygen is cut off or decreased for any
reason the brain will suffer.
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15. The Symptoms of Brain Injury
When the brain is injured there may be dozens of symptoms of that injury. This makes
sense because the brain runs everything. When the brain is disorganized this may
result in symptoms which range from frightening (seizures, rigidity, serious
illness, failure to thrive) to bizarre (screaming, repetitive actions, biting, smelling and
tasting inappropriately) to a hundred other symptoms which may seem odd, funny or
simply inexplicable.
Many brain-injured children are given a diagnosis based upon these frightening or
bizarre symptoms rather than a diagnosis based upon a careful evaluation of the brain.
A symptomatic diagnosis can lead to the attempt to treat the symptom while ignoring
the underlying problem that resides in the brain itself.
No matter how strange or hard to fathom a symptom may be there is always a reason
for that symptom. Once parents know how to evaluate their own child and they
understand their child’s Developmental Profile many of these inexplicable symptoms
make sense. When the brain is provided with appropriate stimulation and opportunity
these symptoms start to lessen or even disappear.
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16. About Results
• There is nothing more important in the life of
the hurt child than seeing that child get
better every day. It is often said that there
are no “cures” for brain injury and, of
course, this is true. The word “cure” is not
appropriate in the context of brain injury. For
the vast majority of children brain-injury is
not a progressive disease, but instead the
incident that caused the injury is over and
what is left is a good brain that has gotten
hurt and needs help.
Our job is to take each child no matter how
injured the brain may be and to move that
child to the highest level of function that our
present knowledge of brain growth and
development will permit.
The results of The Institutes treatment
program are published in its journal, The In-
Report, every six months. A 12 year summary
of those results can be viewed on this site.
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17. About Our Children
• Profound children may be blind, or deaf, or
insensate, or paralyzed, or speechless. They may
have significant problems with food
absorption, respiration and even survival. They may
have all these problems. Severe children may have
serious visual, auditory, tactile, mobility, speech, or
manual problems. They may have all these
problems.
Moderate children may have significant problems in
one or all of the sensory and motor pathways. Mild
children may have
reading, learning, behavior, balance, coordination, s
peech or writing problems. They may have all these
problems.
Most of these children will have significant health
issues ranging from failure to thrive, to chronic
upper respiratory illness, reflux, asthma, nutritional
problems, food intolerance, and allergies. The
brain-injured children admitted to The Institutes
program range in age from newborn to adults. No
child or adult is ever refused admission to the
program because of the severity of his or her brain
injury. 17

18. About Adults
• While the primary focus has
been on children, The
Institutes began their work
a half a century ago with
adults. These early patients
were primarily seniors who
had had strokes or younger
adults with traumatic brain
injuries. The Institutes
continues to offer help to
any adult who has lost
abilities because of an
injury to the brain.
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19. About the Families of The Institutes
•
For over a half-century, families have
found their way to The Institutes
from more than 120 nations. The
families of The Institutes represent
virtually every race, religion, and
creed on earth.
While there is a great diversity of
background, language, and culture
among the families, they have in
common an extraordinary devotion
to their children. Their children are
their first priority in life. They are
committed to doing everything in
their power to help their children
realize their full potential or to
restoring their adult loved one’s
abilities after an injury to the brain.
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20. How to Help Your
Down Syndrome Child (Trisomy 21)
• To learn more about our work with children
diagnosed with Trisomy 21, or Down
syndrome, call 215-233-2050, ext. 2868
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21. How to Help Your Autistic Child
• To learn more about our work with children
diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum
disorders (ASD), or Asperger
syndrome, Classic Autism, Rett
Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
(CDD), or Pervasive Developmental
Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-
NOS), call 215-233-2050, ext. 2868
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22. How to Help A Child with
Aspergers Syndrome
• To learn more about our work with children
diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum
disorders (ASD), or Asperger
syndrome, Classic Autism, Rett
Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
(CDD), or Pervasive Developmental
Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-
NOS), call 215-233-2050, ext. 2868
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23. How to Help Your Child
with Cerebral Palsy
• To learn more about our work with children
diagnosed as having cerebral palsy, call 215-
233-2050, ext. 2868
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24. How to Help a Child with
Developmental Delay
• To learn more about our work with children
diagnosed with developmental delay
or Pervasive Developmental Disorder
(PDD), call 215-233-2050, ext. 2868
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25. How to Help a Child with Pervasive
Developmental Disorder (PPD)
• To learn more about our work with children
diagnosed with developmental delay
or Pervasive Developmental Disorder
(PDD), call 215-233-2050, ext. 2868
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26. • The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential serves
children from all over the world. The international
headquarters is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Qualified branches of The Institutes are the European
Institute in Fauglia, Italy, and The Doman Kenkyusho in Tokyo
and Kobe, Japan. The Institutes have offices in
Aguascalientes, Mexico, Madrid, and Spain. The Institutes
presents courses for parents in
Philadelphia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Russia and
Australia.
8801 Stenton Avenue
Wyndmoor, PA 19038
USA
Telephone: (215) 233-2050
Fax: 215-233-9312
E-Mail: institutes@iahp.org 26