I have more than 10 years of experience with children ASD, ADHD, challenging behaviour. The history of Basic Therapy originated from our aim to help children who are struggling with problems related to their native language. We wanted to assist children who had delayed speech- language development or, had developmental speech-language disability related problems, such as dysgraphia and/or dyslexia
, (have weak spelling or formal dysgraphia). In the early period we utilized speech therapy and developmental education methods, observed and described the different symptoms, and attempted to correct these symptoms with a broad range of methods from various approaches. Our experience was that even though we achieved slow progress in improving speech and reading, this improvement often did not last. The weakness was in making the improvement automatic; the children were able to move past their original level, but the new skills did not reach the level of becoming automatic. It was very common that when they paid attention exclusively to the language task the new skill was apparent, but for example in conversation they paid attention to the topic and the several months of work seemed to be for naught. However a new skill can only be taught with assurance if the previous one has proceeded down the road to becoming automatic. The anatomic/neurobiological basis for the above mentioned problem may be that the “subject to be learned” requires more mosaics and longer connective paths in the cerebral cortex for every “new” skill. For the “skill” to become automatic the basal ganglia and their connections are utilized, and the cerebral cortex, being partially freed up, can prepare for a new task. We were not satisfied with our results, and so we sought out methods that would allow us to “reach into the brain” and delve into the formation of language through developmental science, aided by the nearly unbelievable, but well-documented plasticity of children’s brains. In the professional literature numerous authors – Piaget, Ayres, Tobis-Loewenthal, Schilling and Hottiger with many others – have shown that later intellectual development, including language development, is built upon the sensory and motor development of the child. Originally we set off according to the developmental neurology oriented school of the Philadelphia Rehabilitation Center founded in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which in theory proceeds from the most prominent steps in motor development (creeping, crawling, paralateral ambulation, transverse ambulation and early selection of lateral dominance) and considers the culmination of this process to be speech, which is built upon these. We adopted some of their principles and a few of their practices. Utilizing current scientific language we would formulate our therapeutic theory in the following manner: if the linguistic module develops insufficiently, it is worthwhile to examine the motor module (motor coordination and motor control) from several aspects, because speech and language (with related reading-writing ability) later develops based on these areas. According to the scientific literature, 70% of children with speech-language development problems and/or reading/writing disorder have difficulty or delayed development in certain areas of motor development, and correcting these facilitates language development (our continuously growing assessment data and therapeutic results and experience also agree with this, and we have been examining children since 1992). This is why we consider our treatments to be based upon DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE. The Structure of our Work
Our therapeutic method has two main directions: one is a general developmental line of our therapy focusing on groups for children with general developmental delay; the second direction is a more therapeutic oriented approach, where each therapist has to focus on the individual development of each child. Thus, we perform our treatments on the children as development and therapy. A criterion for the treatment is that the therapist must see through the supervision of each child individually, truly accepting their organic mental and social guidance during the many hours of weekly work (6 hours per week). Currently we are managing a nationally accredited 165-hour training program (theoretical and practical) leads to this undertaking, and a maximum of 5 children can be in each group, since this is how many can be individually supervised while at the same time forming a group. Maintaining communication with the parents is also important, and if possible with the nursery school and school as well. In this outline we will not delve deeply into our therapy, because that would exceed the possibilities of the 10 day short-course. For the general development-line however, our method can be used on anywhere from one to 10-15 children at one time, and while it does not delve anywhere near as deep as our therapy, it also proved to be useful. Preliminary Examination
We start with a preliminary, but complex examination that takes about an hour and a half. This we will train the students of the course to give – we can measure whether the child is in need of Basic Development, our general line of the Basic Therapy Method. The course of our examination as it follows:
Case history (anamnesis)
A medical and developmental oriented examination form is filled out with the parents (we will provide the form used in Hungary, which can be linguistically and culturally adopted). The case history form can be filled out by the parents before the examination, or we can fill it out together with them in combination with an introductory conversation. During the introductory conversation with the parent we double check (from the filled form and also verbally) which complaints, problems and symptoms caused them to request the examination of their child. Phoneme hearing, speech perception and comprehension test
In Hungary, we use a nationally tested and well-used method for testing the hearing of phonemes and speech perception in connection with the Hungarian language. These tests vary according to the language, thus in this outline we will not write about this area. However we point out their importance, since one of the most common causes of problems in native language abilities is a problem in the hearing of phonemes, or deficiencies in speech perception and comprehension. General knowledge of one’s closed environment and family
The clarification of the child’s general knowledge about the world around her/him, family situation, social relationships, attitudes towards games and learning, personal interests, creativity, sports, previous developmental, educational methods used, handling of setbacks and relationship with adults. Understanding time and its relations
We have a part during the examination when we ask the child about time and time-related grammar and knowledge of his/her daily rhythm of life. General motor skills test
This is an examination of the general movement development of the child. Developmental gross motor skills
motor skills in infancy
possible existence of deteriorating reflex deficiencies
muscle tone of the trunk and limbs, and balance reactions
forms of locomotion in infancy: types of ambulation and movements imitating animals
Running
examination of running in different variations
Agility
on one and two legs, in place and in motion
Transverse motor skills
starting with easier exercises and proceeding with more and more difficult ones
Rhythm test
movement rhythm
speech rhythm
clapping rhythm
coordinated performance of the above rhythm types
Test of fine motor skills
hand related
face, mouth and jaw muscles related
muscles moving the eyes and their control
Test of motion planning (A. Luria)
Test of spatial motion along the three spatial axes
Balance
static
transitional
dynamic balance, here the simultaneous work of both legs is observed, joint and simultaneous exertion of strength
Lateral Dominance
determining the dominant eye, hand and foot (our test measures technical and gesticular lateral dominance), and the quality of the dominant motor skills
General characterization of the child’s motor skills
we determine whether the Basic Development (our general-line of therapeutic method) could be necessary or useful for the child
we evaluate the exercises on a six point scale according to pre-determined considerations, but we also provide a written assessment
The Development in Practice
Our program is comprised of several steps. First we rectify the basis of motor skills
Gross motor skills - Agility - Balance
Every child, every infant and toddler goes through this basic movement development, and during this time every kind of motor skill has an effect on the others, and vice versa. Through this we start up/set into motion the cerebellum-cerebral cortex-vestibular system, as well as the basal ganglia system and naturally several other areas of the brain also, here I am only highlighting the target systems. Special gymnastics elements
Following this we teach a special kind of gymnastics to the children, which starts off from the foundations of motor development (simultaneous movements in space and in rhythm of the limbs on the same side of the body), then it embraces transverse movements, exercises that cross the center line of the body, movements of the upper and lower limbs that are independent in space, and then exercises that coordinate these independent motor skills. We teach rhythmic movements, rhythmic speech (the division of words into syllables), the coordination of rhythmic movement and speech and rhythmic “intendation” (Dr. András Pető’s method, it is worth seeing how useful it can be in a foreign language, but experience indicates it would be). Finally we teach series of exercises that are difficult, where the independent control of hands and legs is combined with jumps, and hand/foot motions move in spatial directions or planes that differ
