TOS Review: The Family Hope Center

As part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received a DVD titled Understanding Child Brain Development from The Family Hope Center. Sold through the Institute for Excellence in Writing, Matthew and Carol Newell offer this 2 hour 10 minute DVD of a short seminar as a offer of hope to anyone with a child who suffers from a brain injury.
First of all, just wow. This was amazing. I learned so much – just enough to learn how much I don’t know. With information regarding how the brain functions, or doesn’t, and the symptoms you’ll see with different areas of the brain having been injured, this information is fascinating. Topics of ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, vaccine injuries, birth injury, and many more labels discussed – and instead of a label, what’s actually injured – and how to help it – I couldn’t help but think, in watching it, what hope they really offer. It’s the chance at healing.

I have to say, my mother in law is right. I remember a story she talked of, years ago, of teaching her firstborn to crawl. Her oldest daughter had gone straight from sitting to walking without ever learning to crawl, and my mother in law taught, and practiced, crawling with her daughter. She’d been told it was important for reading.

That’s not even the half of it. With a brain injury in certain parts of the brain, crawling is what heals it. Minutes or hours of crawling, daily, for months or more, have been prescribed with success to help the brain heal. It’s amazing.

Nutrition, exposure to sunlight, exposure to electronics and radio waves, water, smells, crawling… my head spins with all the information. Fascinating to me was the comments regarding newborns, and how they are essentially paralyzed by being on their backs. But place them on their bellies, and you can watch them go. I have to admit, I was pretty excited to hear what was said on that topic, and to look forward to the birth of our baby next year. I have plans to see if what was said really happens! I’ve had two dear children who were delayed in crawling and walking – far enough that they “qualified” for physical therapy. While they caught up, and today you’d never be able to guess which two it was, I can’t help but wonder if some of the things I did as a mother – not nearly enough tummy time, especially – didn’t contribute to the problem. But, as Dr. Newell states, “You aren’t the problem, but you are part of the solution.” Families are at the core of what he does at the Family Hope Center, and he aims to teach the family to help the child, not simply to step in and work with just the child. With charts regarding development age and comparing that to the child’s actual age, he can work to close the gap between the two, to help the brain heal, and to offer hope for healing for the child – and the family.

This DVD was pretty amazing. It just touches the surface, to be sure, as there is so much to be learned. I’d love to continue learning and I’d highly recommend watching the DVD. It’ll change your thinking regarding all of the “disabilities” we see, especially in today’s culture. Where there is injury, there is healing. Where there is healing, there is hope for a brighter future!
To order the DVD, call 610-397-1737 or you can order Understanding Child Brain Development from IEW for $19.00

To read other members of the review crew’s thoughts on the DVD Understanding Child Brain Development, visit the Review Crew Blog.