The Neurodevelopmental Approach began in 1940s when a young physical therapist named Glenn Doman was taken under the wing of medical pioneer and brain surgeon, Dr. Temple Fay. Throughout the following decades they were joined by other physical therapists, nurses, educators, psychologists, psychiatrists and speech therapists.
They initially set out to help brain injured children. At one point they compared all the children they were able to treat with the ones they had assessed but were not able to follow through with treatment. They frequently found that the ones who were left to their own devices were much better than the children who were being treated regularly.
They sat down together and consented each in turn to be interrogated by their colleagues as to what methods each used and why and why not other methods. They concluded that the methods chosen by each were used because that is what each had been taught to do, not necessarily because they knew the methods would work. This inspired them to set out and discover the means by which they might bring about their goal of rehabilitation for the brain injured. The group became a research team studying exactly how children typically develop. They observed hundreds of children from birth, here in the United States and also in other cultures and other parts of the world. From indigenous groups in the far north to tribes in the Amazon, they sought the answer to what makes us all function.
After years of research the team finally arrived at 42 steps that everyone goes through in development that makes them function normally. Collectively, these steps are called the Developmental Profile. In the weeks to come, we will take a closer look at the Developmental Profile for it is the Profile that provides the basis for our evaluation process.
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