Abstract
Objective
This study presents a case series of 157 children with developmental delay syndromes,
including the conditions such as dyspraxia, dyslexia, attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder, and learning disabilities who received chiropractic care.
Clinical Features
A consecutive sample of 157 children aged 6 to 13 years (86 boys and 71 girls) with
difficulties in reading, learning, social interaction, and school performance who
met these inclusion criteria were included.
Intervention and Outcomes
Each patient received a multimodal chiropractic treatment protocol, applied kinesiology
chiropractic technique. The outcome measures were a series of 8 standardized psychometric
tests given to the children by a certified speech therapist pre- and posttreatment,
which evaluate 20 separate areas of cognitive function, including patient- or parent-reported
improvements in school performance, social interaction, and sporting activities. Individual
and group data showed that at the end of treatment, the 157 children showed improvements
in the 8 psychometric tests and 20 areas of cognitive function compared with their
values before treatment. Their ability to concentrate, maintain focus and attention,
and control impulsivity and their performance at home and school improved.
Conclusions
This report suggests that a multimodal chiropractic method that assesses and treats
motor dysfunction reduced symptoms and enhanced the cognitive performance in this
group of children.
Key Indexing Terms
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Manipulative & Physiological TherapeuticsAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Infant and child care: an assessment of research.Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, Norwalk, IA2003
- Chiropractic manipulation in pediatric health conditions—an updated systematic review.Chiropr Osteopath. 2008; 16: 11
- Sensory-motor deficits in children with developmental coordination disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic disorder.Hum Mov Sci. 2004; 23: 475-488
- Comorbidity of dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome in children: a prospective epidemiological study.Clin Chiropr. 2005; : 189-198
- Attention deficits and clumsiness in Swedish 7-year-old children.Dev Med Child Neurol. 1998; 40: 796-804
- Visual, kinaesthetic and cross-modal judgements of length by normal and clumsy children.Dev Med Child Neurol. 1982; 24: 461-471
- Signs of neurobehavioral dysfunction in a sample of learning disabled children: stability and concurrent validity.Percept Mot Skills. 1985; 61: 863-872
- The neurological basis of developmental dyslexia: an overview and working hypothesis.Brain. 2000; 12: 2373-2399
- Evidence that dyslexia may represent the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability.N Engl J Med. 1992; 326: 145-150
- Prevalence and health impact of developmental disabilities in US children.Pediatrics. 1994; 93: 399-403
- Lifetime prevalence of learning disability among US children..Pediatrics. 2007; 119: S77-S83
U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, Administration for Children and Families. The first progress report on head start program performance measures. (Accessed March 6, 2008). Available from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/core/ongoing_research/faces/faces_pubs_reports.html.
- U.S. Department of Education. Raising achievement: alternate assessments for students with disabilities.(Available from:) (Accessed March 6, 2008)
- Preschool attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a review of prevalence, diagnosis, neurobiology, and stimulant treatment.J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2002; 23: S1-S9
- Complementary and alternative medicine use in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.J Paediatr Child Health. 2005; 41: 23-26
- Medications do not necessarily normalize cognition in ADHD patients.J Atten Disord. 2008; 11 (Epub 2007 Oct 12): 459-469
- Measurable outcomes in psychiatric disorders: remission as a marker of wellness.Clin Ther. 2006; 28: 1882-1891
- Remission versus response as the goal of therapy in ADHD: a new standard for the field?.Clin Ther. 2006; 28: 1892-1908
- ADHD from a socio-economic perspective.Acta Paediatr. 2008; 97: 239-245
- Educational kinesiology with learning disabled children: an efficacy study.Percept Mot Skills. 1994; 78: 105-106
- Movement analysis in infancy may be useful for early diagnosis of autism.Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1998; 95: 13982-13997
- Dyspraxia Foundation [homepage on the internet].(Available from:) (Accessed March 6, 2008)
- Rey's verbal learning test: normative data for 1855 healthy participants aged 24-81 years and the influence of age, sex, education, and mode of presentation.J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2005; 11: 290-302
- Test performance and classification statistics for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in selected clinical samples.Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2006; 21: 693-703
- Rey auditory and verbal learning test: a handbook.Los Angeles, Western Psychological Services1996
- Gesture and language. Perceptional training mimicking sounds, drawings and symbolic expression.Rev Laryngol Otol Rhinol (Bord). 1975; 96: 221-232
- Porteus Maze Test performance of retarded young adults and nonretarded children.Am J Ment Defic. 1978 Jul; 83: 40-43
- Spelling mistakes and dysorthography.Rev Laryngol Otol Rhinol (Bord). 1966; 87: 704-723
- The origin of intelligence in the child.Routledge and Kegan Paul, London1953
- Contribution to the study of the psychomotor development of children from 5 to 7 years of age by use of the Piaget-Head test.Rass Neuropsichiatr. 1965; 19: 825-842
- The organization of space in mentally defective children and its relation to the intellectual level (research using the Piaget-Head and Bender tests.Riv Sper Freniatr Med Leg Alien Ment. 1967; 91: 1500-1508
- The active mimic psychomotoric of Kwint according to the age; a critical investigation of normal children and of children with brain damage.Psychiatr Neurol Med Psychol (Leipz). 1952; 4: 181-186
- Development of motoricity as functional-neurologic diagnosis.Psychiatr Neurol Med Psychol Beih. 1970; 13-14: 49-61
- The role of neuropsychological assessments in learning disabilities.J Child Neurol. 1995; : S36-S41
- Criteria for determining disability in speech-language disorders.Evid Rep Technol Assess (Summ). 2002; 52: 1-4
- Narrative skills, cognitive profiles and neuropsychiatric disorders in 7-8-year-old children with late developing language.Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2007; 11: 1-17
- Expanding the neurological examination using functional neurologic assessment, Part 1: Methodological considerations.Int J Neurosci. 1999; 97: 61-76
- On the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing: a literature review.Chiropr Osteopat. 2007; 15: 4
- Applied kinesiology research manuals.Privately published, Detroit, MI1964-1998
- Applied kinesiology, synopsis.2nd ed. Pueblo, CO, Systems DC2000
- Muscles: testing and function.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD1993
- Muscle testing—techniques of manual examination.7th ed. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, PA2002
- Muscle function testing.Butterworths, London1983
- 2nd ed. Manipulative therapy in rehabilitation of the locomotor system. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford1991: 142-143
- What to do about your brain-injured child.The Gentle Revolution Press, Towson, MD2003
- Reflex testing methods for evaluating C.N.S. development.2nd ed. Springfield, IL, Charles C. Thomas1981
- Teacher's window into the child's mind.Fern Ridge Press, Eugene, OR1995
- Effect of educational kinesiology on static balance of learning disabled students.Percept Mot Skills. 1988; 67: 51-54
- Sensory integration and learning disorders. Los Angeles, Western Psychological Services1973: 109
- The ileocecal valve point and muscle testing: a possible mechanism of action.Chiropr J Aust. 2006; 36: 122-126
- Neurophysiologic inhibition of strength following tactile stimulation of the skin.Am J Sports Med. 1980; 8: 181-186
- Modulation of intracortical excitability in human hand motor areas. The effect of cutaneous stimulation and its topographical arrangement.Exp Brain Res. 2005; 163: 335-343
- Evidence for strong synaptic coupling between single tactile afferents from the sole of the foot and motoneurons supplying leg muscles.J Neurophysiol. 2005; 94: 3795-3804
- Measurement of electrical skin impedance of dermal-visceral zones as a diagnostic tool for inner organ pathologies: a blinded preliminary evaluation of a new technique.Isr Med Assoc J. 2005; 7: 631-634
- The influence of afferent inputs from skin and viscera on the activity of the bladder and the skeletal muscle surrounding the urethra in the rat.Neurosci Res. 1995; 23: 195-205
- Excitatory and inhibitory skin areas for flexor and extensor motoneurons.Acta Physiol Scand Suppl. 1952; 26: 1-58
- Introduction to classical and modern test theory.Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, New York1986
- Computational handbook of statistics.3rd ed. Glenview, IL, Scott, Foresman & Company1987
- Continuum model of mnemonic and amnesic phenomena.J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2000; 6: 593-607
- Working memory: its role in dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties.Dyslexia. 2004; 10: 196-214
- Neuropsychological assessment of learning disabilities: a discriminant analysis.J Exp Child Psychol. 1983; 35: 46-55
- Symptomatic Arnold-Chiari malformation and cranial nerve dysfunction: a case study of applied kinesiology cranial evaluation and treatment.J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2005; 28: e1-e6
- Controversial approaches to treating learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder.Am J Dis Child. 1986; 140: 1045-1052
- Children with language disorders: natural history and academic success.J Learn Disabil. 1992; 25 ([discussion 66-70]): 53-65
- The prevalence and correlates of adult ADHD in the United States: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.Am J Psychiatry. 2006; 163: 716-723
- Neurobehavioral disorders of childhood: an evolutionary perspective. Kluwer Academic, New York2004: 332-339
- Locomotion improves children's spatial search: a meta-analytic review.Percept Mot Skills. 1998; 87: 67-82
- Changes in electrical activity in muscles resulting from chiropractic adjustment: a pilot study.J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1987; 10: 300-304
- Spinal reflex attenuation associated with spinal manipulation.Spine. 2000; 25 ([discussion 2525]): 2519-2524
- Decrease in elbow flexor inhibition after cervical spine manipulation in patients with chronic neck pain.Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2002; 17: 541-544
- Spinal manipulation results in immediate H-reflex changes in patients with unilateral disc herniations.Eur Spine J. 1997; 6: 398-401
- Sacroiliac joint manipulation decreases the H-reflex.Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1995; 35: 87-94
- The illusion of certainty: do advances in psychopharmacology suggest that students' inner lives are irrelevant?.Chron High Educ. 2001; : B2
- Applied kinesiology helping children with learning disabilities.Int J AK Kinesio Med. 1999; : 4
- The effects of chiropractic care on individuals suffering from learning disabilities and dyslexia: a review of the literature.J Vertebral Subluxation Res. 2007; 15: 1-12
- Breakthrough for dyslexia and learning disabilities.Exposition Press, Florida1984
- The effect of chiropractic treatment on students with learning and behavioural impairments resulting from neurological dysfunction (part 1).J Aust Chiro Assoc. 1980; 11: 13-18
- The effect of chiropractic treatment on students with learning and behavioral impairments resulting from neurological dysfunction (part 2).J Aust Chiro Assoc. 1980; 11: 11-17
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
June 8,
2009
Received in revised form:
May 27,
2009
Received:
September 2,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
