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Floral Vale Professional Park • 503 Floral Vale Blvd • Yardley, PA 19067
215-497-0240 • 215-497-0259 (fax) • Email: babelt@aol.com
Sunday, June 3, 2001
One Approach: 'Physical Therapy' for the Brain
By Carol Robidoux
EEG neurofeedback, also known as biofeedback, is the cornerstone of one psychologist's non-medication treatment plan for ADD and other disorders.
For 8-year-old Jamey Kelly, controlling his own brainwaves is child's play—a game called "Space Race" to be exact.
The Newtown Township boy needs no joystick or push button game pad, a la Nintendo 64. He's got everything under control with three little conductor wires stuck to his head. He's learned that the power to move through hyperspace at a record-breaking speed and improve his behavior at school is all in his mind.
"The blue rocket has to get up in the front—that's the fast waves. The slow waves are the purple rocket. The yellow rocket is muscle tension. I have to keep the purple and the yellow rockets down," Jamey explained.
Jamey has reached uncharted territory when it comes to mastering "Space Race," according to psychologist Barry Belt of the Center for Educational and Personal Development/Attention Deficit Specialists in Lower Makefield.
EEG neurofeedback, also called biofeedback, is the cornerstone of Belt's nonmedication treatment for the multiple symptoms of attention deficit and other neurological disorders. The first step in treating any child is proper diagnosis, Belt stressed.
Today you can have ADD with hyperactivity, ADD without hyperactivity, with oppositional defiance disorder, with compulsive disorder. And a child with ADD who's frustrated at school, if not diagnosed properly, can develop anxiety or depressive disorders as well," Belt said.
Other problems and disorders that can imitate or co-exist with ADD and AD/HD include food allergies and sensitivities, bipolar disorder, hypoglycemia, poor nutrition and thyroid problems, Belt said. Belt said that in most cases, he provides a multifaceted treatment plan, which includes parent training in behavior modification, counseling, regular meetings with school staff, and a minimum of 20 biofeedback sessions.
I'm against medication as a first resort. I often have parents who come to me after trying Ritalin and other medications, parents unhappy with the results, or worried about the side effects. They are looking for alternatives, and that's what we offer," Belt said.
He admits that some children need medication before they begin counseling or supplemental treatment. In those cases, his goal is to wean the child off drugs or at least to reduce the dosage.
Belt calls biofeedback "physical therapy for the brain."
What Jamey describes in terms of colored rockets translates to Belt as the raw activity of his brain measured in spiky waves of alpha, beta, delta and theta levels on a computer monitor.
Kids having focus and attention problems have prominent theta, or slow waves—the purple rocket, Belt said. What Jamey has conditioned his brain to do with biofeedback is to find the right level of focus and relaxation, reflected by his speedy beta waves—the blue rocket.
As long as the blue rocket stays ahead of the purple and yellow rockets during each three minute round of "Space Race" Jamey will move through his virtual galaxy at warp speed. With each session, Belt increases the level of difficulty. It's a repetitive skill that Jamey has learned to translate to the classroom, where he has shown dramatic improvement since starting sessions with Belt six months ago, according to his mom, Janet Kelly.
"His situation is unusual in that he was having attention deficit issues at school and was also diagnosed with lyme disease," his mom said. Lyme is a tick borne ailment that can cause a wide range of physical and mental problems.
"He had a lot of trouble staying on task, daydreaming," Kelly said. "His neurologist didn't know whether the lyme disease caused his attention problems or aggravated it."
After watching Jamey struggle through second grade, Janet and her husband, Richard, decided to try biofeedback as an alternative to drug therapy at the recommendation of two friends.
"We didn't want to give him more medications. He was already taking heavy-duty antibiotics for the lyme and microbial stuff to prevent co-infection. I didn't know how it all would interact," said Jamey's mom, a nurse at Temple Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township.
Jamey's "bad days" at school were affecting his esteem, his mother said. Other kids didn't want to be in his group and he was suffering socially.
"He didn't understand the social cues other kids were giving him. For example, he'd go on and on about Pokemon to the point where the other kids didn't want to be with him," Janet said.
Along with biofeedback, Jamey works on his social behavior with staff counselor Gretchen Lichtner, including things like making eye contact when interacting with others.
"No one knows the long-term effects of medication. This way, Jamey's in control of it, which is really important. It's not something being done to him. It empowers him, physically and psychologically, which is a great thing," his mother added.
Jamey's dad was more skeptical at first. But watching his son's transformation has won him over. As a former special-education teacher who is teaching eighth grade science in New Jersey, Richard Kelly has had firsthand classroom experience with the kids who take medication for similar problems.
"I've seen [Ritalin] work for a while, or for a small number of the kids, but I also feel it's being over- and inappropriately prescribed," Richard said. "Growing up I'd heard about biofeedback. And I have done things like meditation over the years, which has some degree of merit, but until now I've never thought of these things as a cure for something."
He referred to an intriguing comment that Belt made during the informational seminar that the Kelly's attended.
"He said the biofeedback training naturally translates to the classroom. He explained it as something that happens naturally after regular sessions. And as weeks went on I started seeing that in Jamey," Richard said. "He definitely has greater control to focus on the task at hand, and he can calm himself down if he begins to lose that focus."
Richard added, "Compared with the frustration I was feeling as a parent, I'd recommend this to anyone."
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ATTENTION DEFICIT SPECIALISTS
Floral Vale Professional Park • 503 Floral Vale Blvd • Yardley, PA 19067
215-497-0240 • 215-497-0259 (fax)
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