Ed. Note:  The following is a press release from Dore Achievement Centres.

April 24, 2006 -- New Zealanders join over 15,000 others worldwide who have successfully overcome debilitating learning and behavioural difficulties through Dore’s unique drug-free treatment.

When 12 year old Jason Lyall completes the Dore programme within a few months, he will be the 45th patient in the Dore clinic who has successfully overcome severe learning difficulties – in his case dyslexia and ADD - through Dore’s unique drug-free, customised exercise-based treatment programme.

Learning and behavioural difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and ADHD affect as many as one in six New Zealanders. Before the Dore Achievement Centre opened in New Zealand in June 2004, the only treatment methods available were remedial, and they attempted to cope with the symptoms. Dore is the only programme that tackles the root cause of the problem.

Now 21 months after Dore first opened the doors of its New Zealand clinic, the first wave of patients have either completed or are nearing completion of their 12 – 18 month treatment. They will join more than 15,000 children and adults worldwide who have successfully overcome learning and behavioural disorders through Dore’s ground-breaking treatment programme.

Jason’s mother, Lori Lyall, says the changes in her son after nine months on the Dore programme are astounding. “At school Jason has always been labeled a naughty child as he just couldn’t pay attention and would become bored and frustrated and then get disruptive. Before turning to Dore we’d exhausted all avenues, including the drug Ritalin for his ADD and remedial programmes for the dyslexia - none of which were helping.

“I had no doubt that Jason was an intelligent child, he just had trouble processing the information. Sure enough, after just a few months on the Dore programme we noticed changes, and after nine months, he has shown over 100% improvement in every subject, is now reading at his age-appropriate level, can stay on task and his physical co-ordination has improved dramatically,” said Mrs Lyall.

Dore’s scientific research team discovered that learning disorders may be caused by the cerebellum (the part of the brain that affects the body, memory, co-ordination and emotions), not processing information quickly enough due to underdeveloped neural pathways that connect it to the thinking part of the brain - responsible for intelligence. This is referred to in medical terms as Cerebellar Developmental Delay (CDD).

The Dore programme consists of a detailed course of balance, visual and co-ordinational exercises specifically focused for each individual on the difficulties they have in processing information in the cerebellum. The long-term exercise programme is simple to perform but complex in its effect by stimulating the cerebellum to create new neural pathways to speed up the processing of information, and in doing so helps with learning, language, emotion and motor skills.

New Zealand’s Dore Achievement Centre Director, Craig Ashby says that this approach is a radical change to the methods currently offered.

“In New Zealand current methods available to treat learning disorders attempt to cope with the symptoms rather than tackle the cause of the problem,” said Mr Ashby. “At Dore we directly address the cause of the problem and in doing so we help people realise that learning and behavioural difficulties do not have to be a life sentence.”

Research has shown that children going through the Dore programme typically make an average of three times more progress in reading than they did in the previous year, while their progress in comprehension is five times more than their previous year.

The research has also shown that 80% of those children who complete the Dore programme who were previously classified as having attention problems are no longer classified at the end of the programme as the symptoms have subsided so much. Importantly, it has shown that children continue to make further progress after completing the Dore programme indicating the results seem to be permanent.

The link between the cerebellum and learning emphasised the importance of Dore and SPELD working together in the remediation of children with learning difficulties. Whereas Dore focuses on the root cause of the programme, remedial work does have to be done to get the patients up to speed with their learning and Dore enjoys a close working relationship with SPELD who can provide educational tuition on a one-to-one basis in reading, writing and spelling.

To get started on the Dore programme, an initial assessment is required, after which Dore’s team of trained medical staff will prescribe a customised, daily exercise programme (which takes approximately ten minutes twice every day) with the progress measured every six weeks. Programme length varies from client to client but is usually between twelve to eighteen months. Many clients are based throughout New Zealand, despite the fact the clinic is located in Auckland.

[Ed. Note:  The treatment plan described above is controversial in the scientific community and the research that supports its effectiveness has been criticized by many scientists. For more information on the program, visit:  www.ddat.co.uk, for information on dyslexia and ADHD, visit:  www.ldonline.org ]

 

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