The Family Hope Center

We are looking forward to the new skills Kevin will achieve this year in 2010. And we still need expert guidance to keep Kevin progressing but we are making one change this year, we are leaving The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential and joining the Family Hope Center. Both places are located in Philadelphia. We have known about the FHC for about two years now…but had no real reason to switch because we were happy with the results Kevin was making at IAHP. But the real appeal of FHC is that they are a bit more realistic in regards to having a family life. When I first browsed the FHC website I found a Do’s and Don’t list that they offered. The first "Do" listed was “Take some time to pray every day, before you begin treating your child.” I don’t have to tell you that for someone to state this as their first point earns big points in my book. And one other "Do" that caught my eye was to “Laugh a lot, and go out as a family at least once per week.” Well as you know being on IAHP Intensive Treatment Program for the last three years has really limited our “free time”. One of IAHP's requirements is to carry out a full program 7 days a week and 365 days a year…no holidays or vacations…until of course you take a “honeymoon”. It was really difficult carrying out a program this intense for the last three and a half years and when we did take our honeymoon break (this past summer) from the program it just felt wrong to do none of the program. As nice as it was taking our honeymoon this past summer…it was also a bit crazed because we were trying to cram in the 3 years of fun we missed out on in 3 months time and not knowing when we would get another break. So we knew that we would eventually make the switch to FHC we just were not in a big hurry. I’m not sorry the way it turned out. Kevin is walking because of IAHP and Glenn Doman. And honestly there was a lot of hard work to be done to try and close the gap on Kevin’s development. That is why I did not want to take a honeymoon until Kevin was walking because I could not stop any momentum we had going until we reached that point…plus I knew it would be that much more enjoyable to have a honeymoon with Kevin walking and having some independence...plus I am a crazy mom...but it has proven to get the job done.

So here’s what I know so far about the FHC. Matthew and Carol Newell used to work at IAHP for many years. And they decided to open their own clinic with what I would call a "healthier approach to family". So really we are hoping to have the best of both worlds. They have had all the training and expertise from Glenn Doman and IAHP but have expanded on that with some other alternative treatments. Plus they only require that we do program 5 ½ days a week. Giving us a ½ day to do errands and a whole day to spend together as a family and do normal things. Because we will be new clients at FHC, Jon and I have to attend their Parent Seminar. We will do this on March 23, 2010 for 3 days. The following Monday and Tuesday the Team will develop an individualized, comprehensive, and integrated program designed specifically for Kevin’s needs. And they will of course teach us how to implement the program ourselves at home. We will return to FHC every six months to have Kevin evaluated and update his treatment program.

We are very excited to make this change. In fact we have already implemented the 5 1/2 day program and are enjoying it immensely.