New Alternative Therapy Reverses Attention Deficits Without Medication
Playing Away ADHD – One Child at a Time
THORNHILL, ON, Jan. 10, 2012 /CNW/ – A new educational service, based in Thornhill, Ontario, is overturning the long-held belief that learning disorders like ADHD are lifelong conditions that can only be compensated but never cured.
“Whether it’s meds or tutoring or talk therapy, all the old-school methods of dealing with learning disabilities are work-arounds – we get at the underlying causes,” says Dr. Arnie Gotfryd, PhD, Director of Maxi Mind Learning Centres, Inc., that specializes in remediating learning disabilities through fun activities that kids enjoy.
But while the methods may amuse, the results are serious. In just over a year, Maxi Mind has deployed more than a dozen therapists who have collectively treated nearly 100 children.
Alex, whose son attends a Toronto private school, says his child has literally gone from near the bottom of the class to near the top as a result of his “Brain Training” course, and the side benefit is that he’s much happier too.
Rabbi Baruch Zaltzman, Principal of the Shmuel Zahavy Cheder Chabad elementary school in Thornhill, was an early adopter of Maxi Mind’s services. He says, “students tend to perform better academically, have fewer behaviour problems, and seem calmer and more cheerful overall.”
Walking into a typical therapy session, one may find a youngster standing on an adjustable balance board, hitting a pendulum ball over a target with a motor control stick while listening to modified Mozart tracks through bone conduction headphones. “It sure looks odd to the layman, but to an up-to-date Occupational Therapist or Neuropsychologist it makes perfect sense,” says Gotfryd.
Maxi Mind also uses hi-tech educational game systems that have children controlling computers without a keyboard or a mouse, just by their state of mind. Similar methods have been used by NASA to train astronauts not to “space out” on missions and now Ontario Power Generation is doing the same to train nuclear power station operators to sustain focus while on the job, as reported in the November 14th issue of Time Magazine.
With around 10 per cent of children floundering at school because of ADHD and growing discontent with prescription meds, Maxi Mind is gaining traction among parents. “I left teaching for this,” says Gotfryd, “because I saw how it helped my child and I realized there is a need.”
Maxi Mind will be demonstrating its methods during a series of public information sessions being held in Toronto area public libraries over the coming weeks.
Public Information Sessions are scheduled for the evenings of February 15 and February 22, 2012. The event on February 15 will take place at the Barbara Frum Library at 20 Covington Road in Toronto at 7:30 pm. The one on February 22 will be held at the Bathurst Clark Library at 900 Clark Avenue West in Thornhill at 7:00 pm.
