For What Reason Is There So Little Progress In Finding A Cure For Non Organic Failure To Thrive Synd

Non Organic Failure To Thrive Syndrome (FTT or NOFTT) in children is a label which recognizes that a baby is not moving through developmental steps. So, there is little or no maturation physically, emotionally, behaviorally, socially, or intellectually. There are varying versions of this label.

Some babies with FTT are 3, 4, or 5 years old and are still infants. Some children with FTT are physically growing and playing, but maybe they are not walking or talking by 5 or 6. Some children with FTT are walking and talking at 7 or 8 but not yet developed enough to be able to begin the first year in school.

Non Organic Failure To Thrive Syndrome is one of many diagnoses of developmental difficulties. For most of these developmental difficulties, the psychological and medical communities have all acknowledged that there is no cure.

How Come Is There No Cure?

Mostly, there is no cure because the research professionals who examine their conditions and the clinicians who work with these children do not know the reason the developmental process got interrupted or slowed down. And, because they do not know about what moves the developmental process and what might block that process, they only have the scope of recognizing or treating symptoms.

Research Funds Are Available

A while back I visited a graduate psychology program at a major university. I talked with the program director about the current understanding of developmental difficulties. He talked with me about one of his current research projects. He had received funding to research the precise difference between the symptoms and conditions of Aspergers and the HFA. He was working to make the diagnosis of these two conditions more precise.

I believe that was a curious situation, because funds was being spent on making the diagnostic process effective, but there was no effective treatment for either condition. I could understand providing funds to develop more effective diagnostic definitions for something where that accuracy in diagnosis would lead to people receiving the appropriate treatment for their condition. Clearly, there is grant money available for investigations in developmental difficulties, but it seems to be focused on minor applications.

There Seems To Be Little Hope That A Cure Will Ever Be Found

We see pronounced indicators of this in many ways. There is a faction called Neurodiversity. In this faction, people have stopped having hope of a cure for developmental difficulties and have started looking at these difficulties as a new slant in human evolution. They see developmental difficulties as the next progression in our evolution as a species. They resist the idea of a cure and reject to have their children or themselves considered for treatment, because they think that everything is all right.

In our process we do not work on any of the symptoms, but we keep track of when symptoms disappear. One common symptom for severe developmental difficulties is the inability to maintain eye-contact. In our protocols, this is one of the symptoms which fades away early in the process we do.

I recently talked with the Director of an ABA center to find out the technical name of this symptom of not having eye contact so that in in creating articles I could use the correct technical name. I didn't obtain the technical name I was looking for, because I was so curious about the answer from this Director. He told me they no longer work to have their clients make and maintain eye contact, because they would never need to. They were clearly preparing their clients to be adults with severe developmental difficulties. They were not proceeding in any way to help their clients overcome their problems. They do not have any hope that there is a cure, or it seesm like they think, that there will ever be a cure.

What We Postulate Is Occuring In Children With Developmental Problems

Developmental difficulties represent a problem in the natural developmental process. The symptoms (including the behaviors) of children with developmental difficulties are only symptoms. These symptoms are not the problem.

Intervention protocols should focus on what interrupted or caused the sluggishness of the developmental process. Reactivating the developmental process should be the primary objective. If the developmental process gets re-engaged, the child "matures out of" all the symptoms.

When the developmental process is stuck or interrupted or slowed down, there are certain brain functions which are not allowed to mature naturally. After the blockages are cleared away, there are physical exercises which must be performed so that these functions can develop appropriately. These circuits drive the developmental process. As these circuits are re-established, the developmental process moves forward.

The reason that there is no cure for developmental difficulties is a paradigm issue. Developmental difficulties are not medical or psychological, yet we continue to treat them as if they were medical or psychological. I think the most appropriate description is that they are a cultural issue. Our cultural evolution has taken us away from the environment in which we evolved. These sensitive children are reacting to factors in this new cultural environment. But the medical or psychological fields are stuck in their paradigms and are not yet able to recognize that their approach does not work for solving these difficulties.

Everyone Is Looking In The Wrong Direction

Everyone is looking outside the child for the causes (mercury, vaccinations, etc. .). By looking outside the child, they are not seeing the critical issues.

Recent information from research institutions is saying that developmental difficulties result from a genetic susceptibility and its interaction with environmental factors. The genetic susceptibility of these children is that they are hypersensitive and because of this hypersensitivity they are reacting to some things in their environment. This reaction stops their developmental process. Research needs to focus on that susceptibility, that interaction, and those reactions.

Now, many clinicians are focusing their attention on those possible environmental factors which seems to start the problem. Mercury and vaccinations are some of the current targets. I'm confident that some children are being impacted by these substances. But, these outside factors in the environment are not the cause of the developmental difficulties. The cause is the response that these hypersensitive children have to these factors. It is important to understand that these sensitive children can have a similar response to wheat, corn, milk, chocolate, laundry detergent or thousands of other environmental factors.

If we focus our attention on all those different offending factors in our environment, we will get lost in an labyrinth which does not help us get to a cure. If we focus on the thousands of factors to which these sensitive children are reacting, we will spend all our attention, focus, and money on legislating all those things. If we do this, we will not have the resources to focus on the real issue.

What Should We Be Focusing On?

We need to look into the sensitivities and the reactions which these sensitive children naturally have to those things to which they react. There are treatments that can be taught which temporarily neutralize the sensitivity to a specific thing for a specific exposure for a specific child. This temporary treatment can be done to stop the immediate response. Then a precise program can be established for the child. This program needs to identify all of the factors to which this specific child is sensitive and eliminate those things from the child's environment. With this kind of program, the child would stop having reactions and the child's developmental movement will proceed appropriately.

This is what we do in our practice with Non Organic Failure To Thrive Syndrome children. The program we have developed is certainly not a cure. It works to restart the developmental process for a specific child and encourages that process to catch-up. To be successful, it requires active involvement by the client and client's family. When they intentionally follow the program, the child consistently gets back on track.