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2 the tribune thursday october 1 it7 child improves throiigk patterning by annegret lamare stouffville five times each day six days a week wide elastic straps are fastened to a httle boys ankles and be is hung by his heels from a hook five times a day a plastic bag is fitted over his face and he is forced to breathe through a straw five times a day three adults grab his arms and legs and head and push and pull in endless sequence it sounds like a grim sort of treatment but the little victim danny carrick of church street not only thrives on it but enjoys the procedures as well danny an elfin six year old is suffering from brain damage and the process be undergoes each day is patterning a series of exercises designed by dr glenn doman to help rehabilitate the injured brain this involves placing the arms and legs and head in prescribed positions and moving them rhythmically 4 through certain patterns it is estimated that the average person only uses about one tenth of his brain cells so the object is to train some of the unused healthy brain cells to take over func tions usually carried out by the injured parts and this is done by the exercises the theory behind patterning is that since the brain initiates movement movement can also educate the brain it is suspected that danny who had been born a month premature and weighed three pounds at birth suffered an oxygen shortage and subsequent brain damage before or during birth when he was eighteen months old his mother took him to a renowned pediatric neurologist for assessment and was told take him home and love him the doctor pronounced the child extremely retarded and said nothing could be done for him mrs carrick did what she could to stimulate danny but it wasnt until she heard other mothers of han- dicapped children discuss patterning at a swimming the appealing sixyearnrfd above is danny carrick his mother terms him a terrific source of joy and the numerous volunteers who participate in his therapy couldnt agree morejdannyis brain injured and about thirty volunteers take turns working with him on exercises to stimulate the brain in the proper pattern class that she teamed there was anything definite that could be done for the brain injured child a whole new world opened up recalls mrs carrick she read all the data available on brain injured kids and arranged to have danny assessed by dr margaret george director of the fjinahian institute for the achievement of hu potential dr george who has been trained in the rehabilitative techniques by dr doman in philadelphia pronounced danny a good candidate for the patterning treatment a program was worked out and after exhaustive briefings and demonstrations the burden of carrying out the treatment fell squarely on cathy and john carrick at first patterning had to be done sue times a day seven days a week and speech therapy reading training and tactile stimulation are also part of the rehabilitative program i was petrified at first said mrs carrick i guess i was afraid that danny might not let us work on him or that the treatment might prove ineffective for him about one third of the children treated recover completely one third improve enough to become selfsufficient and one third do not respond to the therapy at all another difficulty was finding 40 volunteers to help put danny through the exercises it takes three people to pattern and it is good for danny to have a lot of different people coming in mrs carrick appealed to every organization and service club in town for women who would be willing to spend one morning or afternoon a week on patterning she was very nervous about demonstrating the techniques to a group of strangers i didnt feel qualified to teach all these women recalls mrs carrick r confronted with the immense committment of time and effort required cathy carrick also wondered whether she was up to the rigours ahead and worried about bow the rest of the family would be affected when so much attention would have to be lavished on danny as it turned out it brought the family much closer together as they all shared in dannys treatment and progress kelly could hardly get his nose up over the table when he started patterning said mrs carrick both kelly now 10 and johnnie 12 help their father pattern danny every morning before school and take turns looking after him in the afternoon danny really means something to mem says mrs carrick hes an ex traordinarily pleasant child he wakes up smiling and goes to bed smiling hes very loving prior to patterning this was certainly not the case two years ago liis responses were nil said mrs carrick she added that danny not only didnt smile he wouldnt even cry he just whim pered confirmed clara white one of the volunteers that has worked with the little boy- from the beginning no laughter no anger no response we could just do anything with him the women agree that one of the most welcome signs of progress was seeing danny protest against some of the treatment when he got bored just as a normal child would since the start of the program danny has come a long way two years ago when danny was going onfour years old at the beginning ot pat terning he had the neurologicat develop ment ofa 12 month old spent a lot of time in the fetal position suffered from poor balance and took little interest in what went on around him now after two years onthe program he- has the neurological development of a 51 month pld is bright and see superb pg 9 it takes three people to put danny carrick the six year old on the table through his patterning exercises clara white moves his head rhythmically from side to side while lillian macaloney and cathy carrick his mother manipulate his arms and legs through the sequences to establish a rhythm and make it more fun for danny the women often chant nursery rhymes as they work in the background lorraine a potential volunteer seems to be watching the proceedings with mixed feelings t f lillian macaloney holds a mask to dannyvface while clara white moves a small flashlight from side to side in front of him themask whichthas only a small opening at the bottom forces the little boy to breathe more deeply and also makes him more aware of his breathing the light is used for eye stimulation especially valuable since danny i like many brain injured children suffers from astigmatism the eye patterning has already improved his sight considerably annegret lamare weekdays 9 6 thursday friday 9 9 stouffvill delicatessen 87 main st e tast end plaza 6404952 european import foods european style fresh cold meats dutch german jt 1v