...At Mount Saint Vincent, children's treatment begins with an evaluation of their brains, based on a system developed by Houston-based ChildTrauma Academy. The first tests seem like part of a comprehensive medical checkup: resting heart rate, gag reflex, temperature regulation and metabolism.
They determine whether the lowest part of the child's brain, the stem, is functioning as it should.
It's common for children who have experienced chronic trauma — such as abuse and neglect, then removal from the only home they've known, then a string of foster homes, for example — to have brain stem function more typical of a younger child. Or to have a resting heart rate of 100 or more beats per minute, instead of the normal 60 to 90.
The child with a high heart rate is in "flight or fight" mode. It's like feeling terrorized, constantly. The child with a resting heart rate under 60, meanwhile, has checked out, disconnected from his own body.
Attempting cognitive therapy with a psychiatrist, or "talk therapy," will not work on a child whose brain stem isn't functioning well, say leading experts in the field of trauma-informed therapy. Instead, those children need physical therapies such as dance, music and massage that will help rewire their basic brain functions. When they act out or can't sit still during on-site school, therapists take them outside to play catch or give them a massage.
The brain assessment is designed to check each of the brain's four areas, from stem to cortex, then use the data to develop unique therapy plans for each child.
New thinking on brain-science therapies could help foster kids
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