New use of therapy program yields breakthroughs

By Ashley Smith

Tribune & Georgian Staff

     Lucy Barlow has made a medical breakthrough that is astounding doctors and has profoundly changed the life of one Camden family.

     The breakthrough is a result of a computer-based program designed to improve timing, attention and coordination in children and adults through a series of sounds and movements. 

     As a speech language pathologist and owner of The Language Learning Center, Barlow implemented the internationally used therapy program in 2000.  However, she took a chance and defied the constraints of the program, which resulted in unique medical findings.

     The program has long been successful in aiding children with learning disabilities, such as Attention Deficit Disorder.  However, it was not initially designed to aid children with physical disabilities or those younger than 7, as it was not thought that they could follow the therapy movement independently.

     In January 2007, Barlow began working with a 6-year-old child with cerebral palsy and auditory processing disorder and assisted him with his movements.  Within four sessions, the child was able to cognitively understand that which he could not previously, and he was able to make independent movements.

     Barlow said that, due to the success of the assisted program, she decided to use the therapy on another one her patients, then 20-month-old Emma Bowman.

     Emma was born without the nerve bundles that connect the two hemispheres of the brain.  She could not sit up, roll over, make eye contact, eat any solid foods, make loud noises or talk, and she disliked being touched.

     “I thought, ‘It’s not going to hurt her.  We might as well try it and see what we are going to get,” Barlow said.

     Emma’s mother, Christine Bowman, said she was skeptical about using the program.  However, after Emma’s first session, the little girl laughed for the first time.  And with that, Emma began transforming.

     After each session, she learned something new.  Now, six months later, she is talking “baby talk,” laughing, she enjoys being touched, she makes eye contact and she is trying to crawl.

     Bowman said that, prior to this program, she was told by doctors that Emma would be confined to a wheelchair for her entire life.  Now, there is a possibility she may learn to walk.

     “We are just overjoyed; I can’t say it enough.  To see your child who you think is going to be wheelchair bound for the rest of their life, pulling herself up and looking into your eyes and recognizing you and making that connection, that is such a big accomplishment and we have had so many accomplishments – it’s hard to put it into words,” Bowman said.  “We are so thankful we took this chance and we can’t wait to see what happens.”