How Come There Is So Little Progress In Finding A Cure For Failure To Thrive?
Saturday, March 7th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Failure To Thrive (FTT) in children is a diagnosis which identifies that a child is not moving through developmental stages. So, there is little or no maturation emotionally, physically, socially, behaviorally, or intellectually. There are varying flavors of this label.
Some children with FTT are 3, 4, or 5 years old and are still infants. Some children with FTT are physically growing and playing, but maybe they are not walking or talking by 5 or 6. Some children with FTT are walking and talking at 7 or 8 but not yet mature enough to proceed to the first grade in school.
Failure To Thrive is one of many labels of developmental problems. For most developmental issues, the medical and psychological communities have all acknowledged that there is no cure.
Why Is There No Cure?
Mostly, there is no cure because the researchers who analyze their conditions and the clinicians who work with these children do not know why the developmental process got blocked or slowed down. And, because they do not understand what pushes the developmental process and what might block that movement, they only have the scope of recognizing, categorizing, or treating symptoms.
Research Funds Are Available
I recently visited a graduate psychology program at a major university. I talked with the director about their understanding of developmental issues. He talked with me about one of his own research projects. He had received funding to research precisely the difference between the symptoms and conditions of Aspergers and the High Functioning Autistic. His project was to make the diagnosis of these two conditions more precise.
I thought that was curious, because money was being spent on making the diagnostic process more precise, but there was no precise treatment for either condition. I could understand spending money to develop more well-defined diagnostic definitions for something where that accuracy in diagnosis would result in people receiving the appropriate treatment for their diagnosis. Clearly, there is grant money available for investigations in developmental problems, but it seems to be focused on minor applications.
There Seems To Be No Hope For A Cure
We see prominent signals of this in many places. There is a movement called Neurodiversity. In this faction, members have given up any hope of a cure for developmental issues and have started looking at these problems as a new angle in human evolution. They see developmental issues as the next advancement in our evolution as a species. They resist the idea of a cure and reject to have their children or themselves considered for treatment, because they think that everything is all right.
In our protocols we do not work on any of the symptoms, but we track when symptoms are gone by using our Free Developmental Checklist. One common symptom for severe developmental issues is the inability to maintain eye-contact. In our program, this is one of the symptoms which disappears early in the process.
I recently talked with the Director of an ABA center to find out the technical name of this symptom of not having eye contact so that in my writing I could use the correct technical name. I didn’t receive that technical name I was looking for, because I was so startled by the initial response from this Director. He told me they no longer try to have their clients make and maintain eye contact, because their clients would never really need to. They were clearly preparing their clients to be adults with severe developmental difficulties. They were not working in any way to help their clients overcome their problems. They do not have any hope that there is a cure, or it seem like they think, that there will ever be a cure.
What We Postulate Is Happening In Children With Developmental Problems
Developmental problems are a problem in the developmental progression. The symptoms (including the behaviors) of children with developmental issues are only symptoms. These symptoms are not the problem.
Treatments should focus on what stuck or bogged down the developmental process. Reactivating the developmental process should be the primary objective. If the developmental process gets restarted, the child “grows out of” the symptoms.
When the developmental process is stuck or interrupted or slowed down, there are certain brain functions which are not permitted to grow and develop normally. After the obstacles are cleared away, there are physical exercises which needs to be performed so that these circuits can grow appropriately. These circuits push the developmental process. As these circuits are re-established, the developmental process moves forward.
The reason that there is no cure for developmental difficulties is a paradigm issue. Developmental problems are not psychological or medical, yet we continue to treat them as if they were medical or psychological. I think the most appropriate description is that they are a cultural problem. Our modern cultural evolution has taken us away from the environment in which we evolved. These sensitive children are reacting to things in this new cultural environment. But the psychological fields are stuck in their paradigms and are not yet able to recognize that their approach does not work for solving these difficulties.
Researchers Are Focusing Their Attention In The Wrong Direction
Everyone is looking outside the child for the causes (mercury, vaccinations, etc. .). By looking outside the child, they are not seeing the most significant points.
The most recent information from research institutions is telling us that developmental problems result from a genetic susceptibility and its interaction with environmental factors. The genetic susceptibility of these children is that they are hypersensitive and because of this hypersensitivity they are reacting to some things in their environment. This reaction shuts down their developmental process. Research needs to focus on this susceptibility, that interaction, and those reactions.
Now, many clinicians are focusing their attention on those possible environmental factors which seems to start the problem. Mercury and vaccinations are some of their current targets. I’m confident that many children are being impacted by these kinds of substances. But, these outside factors in the environment are not the “cause” of the developmental problems. The cause is the response that these sensitive children have to these factors. It is important to understand that these sensitive children can have a similar reaction to wheat, corn, milk, chocolate, laundry detergent or thousands of other things in the environment.
If we focus all of our attention on all those different offending factors in our environment, we will get distracted in an labyrinth which does not help us get to a cure. If we focus on the thousands of factors to which these hypersensitive children are reacting, we will spend all our attention, focus, and money on managing all those things. If we do this, we will not be able to on the real issue.
What Should We Be Focusing On?
We need to be researching the sensitivities, intolerances, and the reactions which these sensitive children naturally have to the kinds of things to which they respond. There are treatments that can be taught which temporarily neutralize the sensitivity to a specific thing for a specific exposure for a specific child. This temporary treatment can be done to stop the immediate reaction. Then a precise program can be established for this child. This program would identify all of the factors to which this specific child is sensitive and eliminate those factors from that child’s environment. With this kind of approach, the child would stop having responses and the child’s developmental movement will continue normally.
This is what we do in our practice. The plan of action we have developed is certainly not a cure. It does work to restart the developmental process for each specific child and encourages that process to catch-up. To be successful, it requires intentional participation by the client and client’s family. When they actively follow the protocols, that child consistently gets back on track. By following our protocols, children with Failure To Thrive get back on track and catch up.
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