I have been to the What to do course along with lecture series 2, and 3. The courses are great but the natural thing you may want to do is get onto their Intensive Treatment Program. If you have contacted them to inquire about the course, they would have sent you a booklet about the different program options. The courses give lots of helpful tips, but they design the program for children and parents on the intensive treatment program. Our daughter has overall developmental delay with a chromosomal/genetic disease Williams Syndrome. IAHP has a broad defenition of brain-injured, as I'm sure you learned, and their methods are fitting to everyone - even well children. I do know that similar things are taught in both classes for brain-injured children and for well babies, but if you've noticed any specific road blocks your child can't seem to overcome - they have the answer and will prefer you attend the What to do course. I know that the Multiply your baby's intellegence course assumes your child will go through the natural developmental on their own without special treatments, but that the things you learn to do from the course can help your child develop skills faster. There are also focuses on teaching music, gymnastics, swimming, etc that are in the Multiply your babies intelligence course and not in the What to do course although may be elsewhere in the lecture series program. Many of the programs I have found to be very beneficial to helping my daughter achieve developmental skills I learned in the What to do course and the subsequent lecture series and would not have been taught to parents of well children because these skills come so easily to those children. The registrars at the institutes would help you decide what is best for you but I bet they would want you put into the What to do course. Visiting their book store alone is worth the travel to get there in my opinion - It is awesome.

My situation is somewhat different and having taken 3 Lecture Series Courses at The Institutes for What to do about your Brain-injured Child, I have different goals than those of parents with well children. The Brachiation ladder was designed to assist a brain-injured boy who had done excellently in the physical programs of crawling and creeping but was still unable to walk. This "overhead ladder" was designed to get the boy into an upright position that allowed him to use cross-pattern arms and leg motions. This was challenging for him and he did not particularly enjoy the challenge, but loved to have his mom raise the ladder and he brachiated beautifully. After this boy "developed" brachiation, The Institutes caught on to some of the benefits and thus began recommending it to other hurt and well children.

Our brachiation ladder was built by my father for my daughter (then almost 2) as a means of getting her accustomed to taking forward steps with the overhead ladder. This was built before my husband and I attended the first course, and when we returned after the week long lectures, my daughter was taking independent steps.

We have done a lot of hanging and brachiating since. My daughter has multiple neurological problems and I do see benefits from her brachiating.
We have done between 5 to 20 passes daily. Everyone in my family can brachiate, but the ladder is adjusted to the height needed for her program.
The size is per Doman specifications and 12 ft long. It has to be assembled in the room in which it will stay.
 
The benefits include, increased manual abilities including fine motor control and convergence of vision. My daughter has struggled to wrap her thumb around the bottom of each rung which is the key to using the thumb and forefinger appropriately for tasks such as writing and playing musical instruments.
I don't know if it would be worth the trouble for well children who don't have these troubles. Since my daughter is not brachiating completely independently yet, I cannot report on the outcome yet. It has made a difference thus far, and we will continue. I do expect to see a significant increase in manual abilities when she can brachiate independently. But well kids already have many of the abilities we hope to gain by the program. You can decide whether your child(ren) need a boost in manual abilities and this program could be helpful.

[What to do]

Congratulations Miss C and Sonya. I'm so glad mom got to see. My daughter is four and we are doing crawling and creeping this winter - I also pulled my 12 yr old from school to do it with us. The 12 yr old has strabismus and deserves the benefits of a crawling and creeping program (called the Primary Human Development Program at the IAHP) and I can't wait to see if it will work to correct some of the neurological issues. I recommend the Physically Superb book, and especially the passive balance activities - but with four kids and giving them all some - you are gonna be wore out. I did those activities with my daughter for at least a year and they really improved her balance and integration, allowing her to be more mobile. You can also request an Evan Thomas Institute teaching catalog from The Gentle Revolution Press and they have teaching booklets for physical things- The Primary Human Development program comes with lecture CD and booklet, How to make your baby's balance superb is just like the passive balance activities in the Physically Superb book, and Gymnastics for higher levels. I find these booklets helpful and they range in price from $15 to $30. With the Physically Superb book you get the best deal - but they don't stress the crawling and creeping for the older children, just babies, and in the lectures they really do stress the importance for crawling and creeping - but if Miss C is not ready for that then you can wait and do some in summer or later.

P.S. The IAHP are not great at actually telling you What to do until you get involved in their intensive treatment programs that are very costly and unrealistic for anyone but the parents of the child - then the program is still unrealisticly impossible to complete because of how much your suppose to do each day. I need to get organized too. Just keep up with what you can do and the child will have a great advantage.

How smart is your baby and How to multiply your baby's intelligence are very different books. Intelligence is just one aspect of the total program touched upon in How Smart is your baby. If your child is still immobile you could use both if you want to begin a physical program and an intelligence program. But either way How to multiply your baby's intelligence is useful and very great.

Her fearfulness may be in response to many factors. I have been to the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (Glenn Doman's group) for 3 lecture series and my daughter has Williams Syndrome. Hypotonia is an issue with DS but how is her vision? I attributed my own daughter's fearfulness to her poor vision and poor balance awareness. (And what the doctors comment about vision is not always accurate.) We walked a mile a day over the summer months and she achieved cross-pattern walking and began running. She can also hike in rougher terrain. You can set up a balance beam (tape on the floor, or just 1 inch high, and a width she can handle) or set up short obstacles she has to step onto or over to get around. My child is very mobile and doesn't stay anywhere too long so things like this have helped. You are very caring to take on such a challenge and feeling responsible to help this little girl out. Thank you for having the courage many others don't have to help.

TmS, that was very great detail on the body mechanics of brachiation. I didn't know I could brachiate, once we made the indoor ladder, we all tried and were successful. It might help also that I had purchased the Evan Thomas Institute's teaching booklet through the Gentle Revolution Press (IAHP), and read it and learned that the most important thing was to maintain swinging momentum. I had also built some ability by just hanging on a horizontal bar when my youngest was at that stage too. How long you can hang just stationary, and how well you can build up a swing while just holding on are helpful starters before starting the actual brachiation. And yes, I can do it but it is work, and I don't do it often. My hands get really tired and sore. Even my parents who are in their upper 50s hold onto the rungs and play around sometimes, but I get worried they will hurt themselves. It's all just a lot of fun to have the ladder around though. 

My husband and I and our 12 yr old can brachiate and I am teaching the 4 yr old. The point is manual competence - opposing thumb and fingers to be able to write well, play the violin, etc. and respiratory excellence - brachiating builds the chest (lung growth/ability) and shoulders.

If you have read Glenn Doman's What to do about your brain injured and (a bunch of labels) and Down Syndrome child you may understand the concept behind doing these flash programs with hurt children of any age. According to Doman, these children's chronological age does not match their neurological age (that is why they are developmentally delayed) and that they are stuck at a neurological age of, for instance a 2 yr old. Therefore, their openness to this type of input is as high as a normally developing 2 yr old. I have confidence that the flash programs will help your child develop a strong intellectual foundation upon which all future learning will occur much easier than perhaps otherwise. I have a daughter with Williams Syndrome and we have been using the flash programs for about 2 years. My now 4 year old still does not speak, but I know she has a great foundation of knowledge and especially with math - will be able to build upon concepts introduced by flash. I have not purchased the LR/LM but can download many slideshows parents have posted on this website and have taught her hundreds of BIT cards. If you have PowerPoint you can begin by trying some slideshows before investing in LR/LM to see how your child likes the presentation.

The Institutes does have recommended reading for books like Green for Life (we do greens smoothies at my house too once in a while), Disease Proof Your Child, and The China Study. Generally a plant-based diet is recommended and a rotational diet for brain-injured children (do not repeat any of the same foods within a four day period but you can repeat the same food on the same day). I cannot manage the rotational diet but have tried, along with journaling those foods and the child's possible responses. When we first started the nutritional program we removed many foods from my daughter's diet. The only two food types we are never suppose to reintroduce are dairy and corn. The use of suppliments, multivitamin, multimineral, DHA, and probiotics are also recommended. Again these are recommendations taught for use with brain-injured children and I don't know if parents of well children would find many of these activities as necessary as they can get quite burdensome. I did not discover any nutrition or food-related issues with my daughter except that digestion is better overall than it was when she had dairy, overall health is great - we rarely get sick, and my daughter eats foods a lot of kids on the Standard American Diet (which is SAD) would not normally eat. What the Institutes taught us has helped my whole family eat better.

My daughter, 3.5 yrs, has special needs and does not speak, but I have learned how to get her to communicate via Doman lectures. I have completed the dots program with her with very quick addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and multiple function equations (each lasting only 8 days) and she did pick up on it. Sometimes I know that she is not interested in doing problem solving sessions and if I present them when she is not interested, she chooses the wrong answer. Now I am teaching her numerals, I have not taught the symbols yet, but she has had some exposure to them. All I have to do is say "5 times 7 equals" and present her with two or three choices and she does point to the correct dot card. So far she has responded similarly with the numeral cards that she has learned. I think that if a child has a lower neurological age (developmentally delayed) they are open to the Doman method way past age three - but I was worried before I began. It is really amazing that the photographic memory enables her to understand the equation solutions. She loves math and is really excited to show me she knows the answer to equations. Math is suppose to be an area of struggle for individuals with Williams Syndrome - which is her diagnosis - and I wonder if she is the only one whose been exposed to this method so far. I can't wait to see how these skills will carry on into her future educational endeavors. 

It may be helpful to add "child can not yet demonstrate" options. As I read through, because of my child's special needs and limitations in performance and expression, I would be able to answer very little about what her abilities actually are - I have learned that reading is a mental process and the ability to read should not be viewed as contingent on the ability to speak. But then again - what proof are we left with? That is why it can be difficult to measure. Thanks for the awesome effort, this is a great study. I too feel that follow-up on this would be extremely important. If I come up with anymore insights I will let you know.

I would recommend the Doman teaching booklet - I was really impressed with their viewpoint on writing and am just beginning to use some of the techniques with my brain-injured 3 year old. The methods and viewpoints are so not mainstream "how to learn to write" during school age, and only the last steps are when the child is performing the manual (advanced and challenging) task of using a writing utensil to express ideas. In my opinion, your child is of appropriate age for this. $15 isn't a bad price either. 

Regarding running, just start with walking and enjoying each others company and slowly build up to running, like short distances then increasing total time of continuous running (This will help you prepare physically as well). Does your child run now? To help encourage running - walking up and down hills helps because gravity pushes you forward and you have to go faster to keep up. The passive balance activities are very useful like FloridaMom said. Those are the introduction to gymnastics - personally I would love to install a tire swing in the house for over the winter then put it outside in the spring - but we'll see. Other activities are balance beam (start with masking tape 4" width on flat floor), just hanging onto a dowel before working on brachiation (we have one that my daughter can step onto a stool and reach to hang whenever she feels like it, but I also hold the dowel and lift her - she'll hang longer this way), and working on gross motor activities; like throwing, kicking, jumping, standing on one foot, etc. We like to do an obstacle course at home when we can't go walking where she has to climb over, creep under and other stuff. The Physically Superb book does not go into swimming so I'm glad your getting the other book too. Do you have a pool available that you can go to 5 times a week? - that is what the book suggests, I couldn't do it but would love to - but feel as though I am running out of time with all the programs I wish to do - these kids just grow too fast.

For my brain-injured child, some of the techniques described in How Smart is Your Baby were very important. These were the sensory stimulation program as my daughter was hypersensitive in the areas of tactile and auditory functioning. The Passive balance activities from Physically Superb is also extremely important for neurological organization. The usefullness of these programs depend on your child's level and needs, but I would not totally dismiss info from the How Smart is your baby book (it was my initial reaction too since my daughter was advanced over the 12 month level in some areas of the profile) because if your child is not perfect in the lower levels of the Developmental Profile - you can get ideas from that book. It details a daily program better than any of the other books, I wish they had another book detailing programs from 1 yr to age 6.

I have not used the vest with my Williams Syndrom child, she did not have the problem of rolling to get what she wanted. I do remember the vest they showed in the course though, it had an X made of PVP piping over the child's back with straps sewn into place to prevent much wiggling of the piping. The four ends of the piping had a downturned 90 piece of piping that would get jammed against the floor (hopefully out of the way of your child's hands and such) if the child tried to roll with the vest on. I cannot tell you the proper dimensions for the piping or anything, but I do know that you can use it in combination with the inclined floor/crawling track, so make sure that it will fit on your child and fit within the crawling track.