Our review for Family Hope Center 
We had the chance to do a review for The Family Hope Center. We received in the mail the DVD called Understanding Your Child's Brain Development. Although The Family Hope Center is an international center for the development of children with special needs and developmental delays, this dvd is also great for families who wish to understand their child's brain development and for families that have loved ones experiencing dementia or Alzheimer's.
The Family Hope Center is dedicated to helping children with special needs and their families. They are an international organization with special expertise in the treatment of developmental delays in children and in adults. The methods of treatment they practice at the center can be effective regardless of the cause of the condition, diagnosis or severity of the impairment or injury. They focus on helping parents and families to understand how the brain develops. The center believes in treating every child as a unique individual. They treat the source of the issue and they do not focus attention on the symptoms. They go to the brain, where the symptoms originate and treat the brain first. Upon successfully treating the brain first, it is noted that many of the symptoms begin to disappear.
On their site they have a video that helps parents to understand how they work, you can view that video here at Empowering Parents To Heal Their Children. If you would like to learn more about their mission, please visit The Family Hope Center Mission.
About the Newell's and their team: Matthew and his wife Carol Newell have 25 years of experience in helping working with families that have special needs children. Matthew is the director and his wife Carol the vice director of The Family Hope Center. Matthew is certified at the Developmentalist and Teaching Levels in Child Brain Development, He is a certified Body-Talk Practitioner and he is also certified in Craniosacral and Myofascial Release Therapy. Carol is certified like Matthew you with Developmentalist and Teaching Levels in Child Brain Development and in Craniosacral and Myofascial Release Therapy. She was also certified with the National Nursery Examination Board of England, where she worked with healthy children and children with varying degrees of health problems for four years. To learn more about the Newell"s and their team please visit the attached link: Meet the Newell's and Their Team.
Our thoughts on this video and center:
Because this video is designed to help understand the brain, after I read the form to sign up and visited the site, I knew this review was for me. While it is noted that The Family Hope Center specializes with children that have special needs, it was also noted to help families coping with Dementia or Alzheimer's. Which totally fit my family. While watching my grammy's, (she is my great great grandmother) health fall and the uncertainty of whether we would still have tomorrow with her, a side of the current health situation an other was noted when the doctors came in and informed us that she had and was experiencing progressive Dementia and eventually could lead to Alzheimer's. In turn whether tomorrow was granted or not, we still were uncertain of how many tomorrows we would have with her as her memory was beginning to go away from her.. This news devastated my family including myself. But rather walk out in the devastation, I opted to walk out with a mission and be strong for her and help her to be strong. Since my grammy's condition we had to place her in a nursing home facility which brought forth a lot of emotions for everyone including my Grammy. Through all of this, I made a pack with my Grammy, that I would do everything I could to help her remember every tomorrow we had together as long as we had tomorrow. I have been at my grams side since day one. (in a proud voice, with a grandchild giggle) I am the only one she has clung on tightly to, to help get her over some of the hurdles she is and has been faced with. Not that she excludes anyone by no means, everyone offers something - but I am the only one that emotionally has held together for her. Because of our bond and our pack since the moment she was hospitalized we have clung to each other and helped encourage each other as well as everyone else. We do church together on some Sunday's in the Nursing Home and every once in a while, gram will remember her self teaching Sunday school and in her room I am blessed with the chance of a Sunday School lesson. All of this of course is on how she feels as there are good days and other days are not so good.
Having the chance to review this video, I knew it would better assist me in understanding my gram, what she was experiencing and also help guide me in the mission I had set out to begin on helping her. I am here to tell you, this dvd is jam packed full of information and resources. {NOT Kidding!} Not only is this video a great help for me to assist in my grams case, I know quite a few families with children around our family as well as I have a cousin with special needs, so this video is very insightful on understanding them as well as helping encourage them.
One of the biggest assets to me about this program and IS something I firmly believe and have believed a long time --- that is treating each individual child or adult as a unique individual and never acknowledging the disability - rather build them up in their abilities. I have always stood by that belief and I truly like how they speak out that they do not evaluate the disabilities. Society titles/labels individuals by their disabilities and that really irritates me. I know some individuals around our family that do this and it is annoying to no end.. I really like that they point out - they do not work by the disability but from the abilities.
Another thing which got me thinking on -- in the video Mr. Newell points out that when he asks parents to describe their child(ren) to him, they would describe the disabilities. We are all human and sometimes we can tend to dwell on what is constantly in front of us vs what we seldom see. It is understandable in some cases especially when society is constantly reminding us of the negatives or in this case the symptoms. Unfortunately, that does lead some parents to dwell or describe only the symptoms they constantly see..
So when Mr. Newell asked the parents to describe their children to him, most parents would describe their child(ren) by the following noted things:
- Their Symptoms
- Their Behaviors
- Their Disability
- Their Disease
- Their Syndrome
After this he noted again, that The Family Hope Center does not focus on the disability. They focus on the abilities and then work to restore the brain. I really like that he emphasized this. His approach on emphasizing this is not to make the parent feel bad or guilt them by no means. In fact his approach turns it around with encouragement and shows them how to focus on their children's abilities and work to help their children. In his teaching he notes several times "The problem IS the problem, not the parents. The parents ARE the solution to the problem." There is so much positive and encouraging information that comes from this video. Whether it is special needs families or families coping with Dementia or Alzheimer's, this is a great insightful video I definitely recommend.
Look, I will be blunt and maybe a bit forward a moment. Im sorry if I upset someone on what I am about to type. Speaking from my own experience in teaching some special needs students and having a cousin with Down Syndrome. I may not have special needs children of my own, but in my time of teaching them and being around them I must admit this video makes sense as to their approach. No child wants to be called out, excluded in any way from their peers or titled/labeled in anyway. In most cases to the child and their family that is a insult and slap in the face. The difficulties they are faced with are merely challenges that are more difficult for them then it would be an other child. Focusing on the symptoms, reminding them of of their disabilities and why the challenges they face are more difficult for them then other children, in my opinion it only aggravates the situation, excuses their difficulty rather then helping them overcome it and brings frustration to the child and or the family. That is something I never focused on when teaching them. I always focused on encouraging them and helping them meet their goals and work from what they could do. So this video in my opinion makes total sense. There will always be some to disagree - but in my opinion, "Unless you have tried this or anything similar to this, you have no business knocking it." I never did rehabilitation like this center does. But I would like to think by my not focusing on the disabilities and focusing more on their abilities, these kids became more empowered in some way to help them down the road.
Speaking just to the parents of Special Needs: This video will encourage you and help you. I encourage you whether you purchase this video or not, focus more on the abilities of your child(ren) vs completely focusing on their disability. In the long run you will definitely see a huge difference in your child(ren) vs the same old struggles and dwelling on what they were diagnosed with. When I was teaching I seen differences that parents could not see because there was so much focus on the disability their child had. Truthfully, this DVD is worth the purchase and it would be worth checking in to some of the other material they offer. This center definitely has something positive and good going for them. I know there are families that have minimal alternatives, one being medication as the only answer. This is where in my opinion I would consider checking in to this center and more about them to see what other alternatives are out there for your family.
Please understand I am not against medication. However, I am not for it. I believe that medication is something God granted for man as a help-aid, but I do not believe in it as a healing nor do I rely on it. I also believe that today there are more and more doctors out there that abuse the use of medications. Speaking to every one of us, I know it varies by circumstance but there IS always alternatives out there! It's just a matter of locating them and honestly that means putting in the long-hard-work to search for them. I believe this center is an alternative that can work for most families. In my opinion I think it is important to note that I do not believe that this is a cure all center. I'm sure that it varies by case. I do believe their approach can and will make some difference in all families. However, I am not going to say that I believe it will completely offer total healing of your child's situation. Every child is unique and different in their own way. All are special in my opinion. In my opinion, I believe that every case this center works with will always be different from the other having minimal similarities, that is something I offer for any parent to keep in mind.
Years ago I went on a mission to understand more about different special needs cases because I had a close friend whose children were diagnosed with different special needs diagnosis. Constantly hearing the complaints on how others look at them because they don't understand or how she is judged because of this or that which in turn makes her carry a load of guilt or blaming her self. I had to do something to become some sort of support for her. That became my mission and educating myself and advocating to help these families. (This DVD landed in her hands btw) :) (Sorry, Totally went off subject there. But I am extremely passionate over these topics.)
There is honestly no way to retain everything in one viewing of this video. Note taking is a MUST... I recommend watching the video several times and I also recommend breaking it up in parts, for instance if you do not have time to watch the full video at once then set time aside each day to watch a little at time. This might also help you retain everything from the video. When they break, it is a good time to break, recap or just retain what was said. (I did this). I looked over the pdf we were given which is covered in the slides that are shown in the video. It is definitely worth the while to check out their site and their material.
Other members of our crew reviewed this DVD. To read what they are saying about this DVD, please click the attached review crew button below the disclaimer.
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