Shintaro - A Success Story

Shintaro, from Japan, was born in the seventh month through emergency c-section after a difficult pregnancy. He weighed only 1905 grams at birth and had a brief birth cry. He was very pale and received light therapy in an incubator for kernicterus.

Because his breathing was shallow, he was transferred to a bigger hospital. He was given oxygen on the way and was placed in an artificial heart and lung machine for three days. He stayed in the hospital for over one month, until he weighed over 2500 grams.

When he was 18 months old, Shintaro was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy. He started having seizures at three years of age and was treated with medication. He began to walk at four years and received various physical therapies.

His mother attended The Institutes What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course when Shintaro was 11 years old. Based on the information they obtained from The Institutes books and the course, his parents started a modest neurological organization program. Shintaro was detoxified without complications from two anticonvulsant medications he had been taking since he was three years old. During the previous eight years Shintaro had had about a 100 seizures, but they completely disappeared before his eleventh birthday. Encouraged by these results his parents intensified their son's program.

When he was seen by the staff for the first time in August 1995, his parents stated Shintaro's major problems as his uncoordinated walking and that he was behind his peers academically. He had poor convergence and easily became tired. He was reading beginner books at the first-grade level, which he read very slowly and skipped letters. His understanding and language were at the level of a five-year-old, and he could carry out only simple daily conversation. He was significantly behind in his writing.

Shintaro had difficulty using both hands together, such as in screwing the lid of a jar. He was hypersensitive in tactility and smell, and he was inappropriate socially, repeating questions and comments. Shintaro's neurological age at his initial evaluation was 60.83 months out of a possible 72 months, while his chronological age was 154 months. He was diagnosed as having a severe, diffuse, bilateral midbrain injury.

For three and a half years, Shintaro and his parents worked diligently each day to achieve the full neurological organization program designed by the staff. During these years he worked very hard academically. He began to take a biology course at the junior high school. Shintaro realized that it was very important for him to work hard so that he could pass a high school exam, so he intensified his efforts, studying school subjects that included Japanese, English, and mathematics. As a result he successfully passed a high school exam when he was 15 years old.

His parents stated that Shintaro only lacked social experience, work experience, and writing speed. The staff and parents agreed that the experience of life should polish off any remaining problems, and Shintaro was awarded graduation to life from The Institutes program.