The approach is definitely hi-tech and drug free, which is making some parents very happy.
Zoran is giving his brain a good workout using neurofeedback that's designed to retrain his brain.
The 8 year old has ADHD.
"Instead of doing medication, which I thought might affect his personality or who he was or his confidence level because something is wrong with him, so he has to take something," Zoran's mother Alicia Knickerbocker said.
"I just wanted to get him help so that he could kinda work it out himself and stay the person he is, and not have that affected by it."
Zoran's treatments at Performance Psychology in Grand Blanc started with an EEG of his brain, which was compared to EEGs of other kids his age.
"I can actually see the topography of the brain. I can see where there is too much slow wave or too much fast wave that may be creating the symptoms we see," said therapist Todd Nadeau from Performance Psychology.
It is a map of the brain Nadeau can navigate, rather than a standard paper and pencil test that the parent may actually have to help the child fill out. "Based on that, I can then design protocols through a technique called neurofeedback, and I can retrain the brain."
Since he started in mid-July, this high-tech treatment has made a huge difference for Zoran, who is home-schooled and is now zooming through his work.
"It's broken up into certain amounts every day. And he went through and did the rest of the week's math so he could be done with it. He went through and went 12 pages of math, that for my kid, is an incredible step in the right direction because he could sit there and focus on it," Knickerbocker said.
"Kids come out of this program understanding what they have and understanding how to manage it."
For Sarah Demlow's 10-year-old son Nathan, the changes have been even more dramatic. "This has been a hard thing. This has been a hard battle. For two years I've cried about it."
"We have tried the medications, we've tried probably four different kinds. The last one we tried last year brought out really, really bad behavioral issues. "
Demlow says the brain mapping and a better understanding of the underlying problems her son faced have helped tremendously. "I fought with some teachers, I fought with a social worker. They almost made me feel like it was my fault, like it was me," Demlow said.
Now, without the help of drugs, she says the neurofeedback has turned her son's ADHD symptoms around.
"He was in a smaller classroom, was. Now, he is fully integrated in the regular fifth grade classroom. Now, things are going well - his grades, everything. It's a total night and day difference," Demlow said.
For more information:
Performance Psychology
Grand Blanc
586-764-0637
todd.nadeau33@gmail.com
