Do you struggle to understand your child? Whether you have a child with special needs or not, understanding brain development is important to understanding your child. I was offered the opportunity to review A Family Hope Center DVD entitled Understanding Child Brain Development and felt this was an excellent opportunity to understand ALL my children a little better, from my special needs teenager to the baby I will be having soon and my 3 year old and 8 year old in between.
The DVD was not disappointing. It provided a wonderful explanation of the brain and brain development in children, from birth and up.
What is Family Hope Center?
Family Hope Center, located in Norristown, Pennsylvania, is a facility established by Matthew and Carol Newell to help children and their parents learn to understand and subsequently help their children with special needs overcome and even heal brain dysfunctions and disabilities that can limit their growth and development.
The Newell’s began their journey to understand and correct brain dysfunctions with their own daughter and, now, provide training and individualized and customized neurological plans to rehabilitate and reestablish neurological connections to help children with special needs and disabilities to improve their quality of life and, in some cases, heal their disabilities significantly.
What is the Purpose of the DVD?
The 2-hour DVD, Understanding Child Brain Development, helps the parent understand the role the brain plays in development and disability. The DVD, though primarily an introduction to their program, also covers the intricacies of brain development from birth up. It was extremely interesting to learn about the brain and how it works in such details. It would be helpful to any parent to understand any child, regardless of whether you have a child that is labeled as “special needs.”
Interesting topics that were covered within the DVD include the importance of nutrition, basic sensory simulation, neurologically based mobility programs, and consistency in schedules and emotional support.
There is an accompanying e-book in the form of a pdf file that has the slides from the DVD and some extras that could be helpful to some, especially if you are taking notes. Additionally, a second DVD entitled Stories of Family Hope was included which is an even more thorough introduction to the Family Hope Center and provides interviews and therapy videos from Family Hope families that have had success with their program. The video has four profiles of families dealing with ADD/ADHD, Downs Syndrome, Autism, and Cerebral Palsy. You can also additional success stories on the Family Hope Center YouTube channel.
What We Took from the DVD?
There were many interesting and thought-provoking explanations and tips throughout the Understanding Child Brian Development DVD to help every child learn and grow to their full potential. From nutrition hints, yeast growth issues, supplements, limiting electronics, getting plenty of water, and not leaving food or standing too near a microwave, the advice could be beneficial to any family.
The overall premise is that you cannot skip developmental steps. They feel that skipping steps does not allow the child to develop properly. I thought this was an interesting concept and related it to some of the issues my children deal with. This definitely gives the parent something to think about. And they explain that there is nothing that is the parents fault, they just need to be properly equipped to help their child succeed.
Summary
Though I do have a step-son with special needs, my other 2 children do not; however, I found the Understanding Child Brian Development DVD extremely interesting and beneficial for all my children. My son has cerebral palsy and watching with him in mind, I found several nutritional facts that seemed pertinent as well as some therapeutic suggestions that I think would be helpful.
Additionally, there are some limitations and behavior issues that my other children display that I think would benefit from some of the DVD’s suggestions. If we were closer to the Family Hope Center we would likely attend one of their seminars and maybe pursue a rehabilitation plan for our oldest as it seemed definitely worth pursuing to improve his quality of life. We will likely use some of the suggestions to try and help him a little more.
Overall, I found the Understanding Child Brian Development DVD very interesting and informative and hope to find it helpful as we institute some of the suggestions. I think any family would find this interesting and helpful. As we anticipate the birth of our next child I even found the infant brain development section interesting and hope keep it in mind as this baby develops.
To order the DVD ($19), please call 610-397-1737 or you can order Understanding Child Brain Development from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. If you are interested in reading more reviews of this DVD and the Family Hope Center check out the Crew blog!
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