Christopher Cougan with parents, Paul and Cindi Cougan, Part 5

Paul and Cindi feel the only thing lacking is some organization in his language skills. After watching Christopher play with and talk to his peers, they think that it’s just normal for kids his age to need to improve that.

At the end of the video you get a sense that Paul and Cindi are very grateful for what The Family Hope Center has done for them and that the services provided were indispensable. You can tell in their voices and their testimony that the whole family has benefited greatly from Christopher’s time at The Family Hope Center.

Watch the entire video for yourself, click here.

Christopher Cougan with parents, Paul and Cindi Cougan, Part 4

The video cuts and we see Paul and Cindi after another eight months at The Family Hope Center. They again seem very confident of Christopher and his progress.

They say he can read better, communicate better and is interacting better socially with his peers. He can play more sophisticated board and video games and can play by himself for up to an hour. With great pride the dad says that the arm lag during running is almost completely gone.

When Christopher first came to The Family Hope Center he was tested at using only 41% neurological capacity. He’d recently been tested and was using 91 or 92%. Paul and Cindi want to close that gap to 100%.

Watch the entire video for yourself, click here.

Christopher Cougan with parents, Paul and Cindi Cougan, Part 3

In the video Christopher, after only eight months with The Family Hope Center, Christopher was sporting a fresh buzz cut and his mother would touch his head throughout the interview. He was talking in complete sentences, and his parents say they can’t get him to stop talking at home. He can creep and crawl with both sides now. When he runs his cross-motion with both arms is improved.

His mother said he’d made significant progress in the first eight months, is very healthy and has high energy. A quote from his mother is this: “it has been well worth the effort…we’d do it all over again.”

Watch the entire video for yourself, click here.

Christopher Cougan with parents, Paul and Cindi Cougan, Part 2

With the help of The Family Hope Center Christopher made great strides in his first eight months. A typical day at the time of the interview goes something like this: waking up at seven or eight in the morning, doing about an hour of school, and then does gymnastics (jumps on the trampoline, jumps rope, and throws a ball).

His afternoons are set apart so he can socialize with friends and family. On Tuesday’s he goes to the Y to do running and then swims. He then goes and plays football and soccer with lots of friends. Every Friday he goes to his cousins to play.

Watch the entire video for yourself, click here.

Christopher Cougan with parents, Paul and Cindi Cougan, Part 1

Christopher Cougan had been at The Family Hope Center for eight months at the beginning of the video. His parents gave their testimony with an air of confidence in their son and the program. They seemed so proud of all the progress Christopher has made.

When Christopher came to The Family Hope Center no one could get near his head with out a struggle. They couldn’t brush or cut his hair. He couldn’t speak more than two word phrases and wasn’t social with friends and family. With his mobility, he could only creep and crawl on the right side; the left leg would stick out straight and drag. When he ran, his right arm would hang to his side and only occasionally would he lift it up.

Watch the entire video for yourself, click here.

Brain Dysfunction

Brain dysfunction is generally caused by non-traumatic events, such as encephalitis, anoxia, brain inflammation caused by infection, and metabolic toxicity. Since only a limited number of FHC patients who presented with this diagnosis had more than three appointments during the test period, the results of this test have not been finalized.

Despite the limitations, children with brain dysfunction have shown remarkable progress. Their scores have shown an overall gain of 167% better than children in the national sample. They also showed significant gains in their cognitive scores well above the 250% mark!

To learn more:

Developmental Disabilities

Children with developmental disabilities usually present with low IQ scores, suffering from impairments in speech, language, hearing and memory. All of the difficulties affect their overall development.

On average children with development disabilities who presented to FHC were older by 21 months than the national average. They also had greater impairment as evidence by their initial scores. Nonetheless, by the end of the test period, improvement in the areas of self-care, mobility and cognition showed gains of as much as 234%!

To learn more:

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is generally diagnosed in children who have suffered some type of neurological impairment at birth. These children exhibit movement challenges affecting coordination, voluntary and involuntary movement, posture and muscle tone.

At FHC, children with cerebral palsy present with significant more impairment in the three areas of function: self-care, mobility and cognitive ability, than children at other facilities. This results in the tougher cases being brought to FHC. Despite the lower points in function, by the end of the test period our children showed an overall improvement of 342%!

To learn more:

Family Hope Center Achieves Outstanding Results

Clinical Outcome Scores

Recently the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation prepared two reports covering data and rehabilitation results collected between January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2006. The first report was the “Custom Report, Comparison of Functional Progress” and the second was “Comparison & Polar Charts for Autistic Spectrum Disorders”.

Despite the fact that children who come to Family Hope Center generally presented with lower scores than children who participated in other programs nationwide, FHC children score higher is almost every area of functional assessment. Often the gains showed an amazing 200% higher improvement over the national average.

To learn more:

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

The term “autistic spectrum disorder” encompasses a wide variety of associated behavioral and cognitive problems. Among these are challenges in communication, language, repetitive actions and limited social interaction.

All children who have come to FHC with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder started with lower scores than the national average in self-care, mobility and cognition. At the end of the test period, FHC children showed an overall improvement of 200-plus% over the nationwide average.

To learn more: http://www.familyhopecenter.org/english/conditions/autism.html

It's Been Life-Changing

Elise Hayden was diagnosed before birth as having major brain injuries. Research led the parents to contact the Family Hope Center.

She was born profoundly deaf, with muscular rigidity and Parkinson-like shakes. She was also unusually irritable and predicted that she would "fail to thrive"

After five treatments the rigidity was greatly reduced, allowing more freedom of movement. Her parents also noticed that the irritability had lessened to the point where she was sleeping better.

To hear the rest of this fabulous testimony by the parents of this special child, click here.