MULTICYSTIC ENCEPHALOPATHY: 2-YEAR OLD MANUELA IS MOVING, READING, AND LOVES TO ENGAGE IN CONVERSATIONS!

During Manuela’s birth, her mom felt something was wrong and went to the emergency room. Manuela’s heart rate was low, she was not receiving enough oxygen in-utero. Manuela was delivered via an emergency C-section. She was put on oxygen and lung ventilation in an incubator, and was tube fed for 2 days. An MRI showed multicystic encephalopathy. 

She had low muscle tone, poor vision, and tremors. At the age of 2 months she started having seizures and was put on anticonvulsant medication. 

Parents started looking for solutions immediately and began implementing aspects of the Doman Method® with Manuela when she was very young based on books and internet information. They started visual stimulation with black and white cards, sensory integration, and some mobility programs. Later they took the Doman Method Course: From Special Needs to Wellness at Doman International and came to Manuela’s first evaluation right after the course. At that time Manuela was 13 months old. She could see, but not farther than 1-2 meters.  She was hypersensitive to sounds and hyposensitive to touch. She did not crawl, but had some sounds to communicate. Manuela started the inclined floor, patterning, sensory integration, and the respiratory, nutrition and reading programs.

At her next appointment, at 20 months, she demonstrated differentiation of pictures and - to her parents’ surprise - was reading some of the words she had been shown! Her hypersensitivity to sounds decreased greatly. At the same time, she demonstrated much better awareness of touch. Her muscle tone was much better. At that time, Manuela started crawling off her inclined floor onto the flat floor. One of the great wins was that Manuela was weaned off formula and was eating good, healthy food. 

At her most recent appointment six months later, Manuela demonstrated great crawling and received a crawling victory! She crawls for transport and can move around the house anywhere she wants. She also demonstrated improved reading abilities: during evaluation she answered direct and inference questions based on her words and books correctly (at just 2 years of age!). She continues to improve in her sensory perception, Manuela is more vocal during the day and communicates more with her family and other people. She is always eager to participate in conversations. Her chewing and swallowing also continue to improve. 

We congratulate Manuela and her wonderful hard-working family for their great achievements and wish them every continued success!