Home-based treatment

This book tells the life stories of nine physically handicapped young adults in Finland. Each of these young adults received the English Kerland/Brainwave home-based treatment when they were young. The rehabilitation was given three hours a day by the parents of the children and volunteers who came to assist in the process. These were the first children in Finland who participated in the home-based treatment program in the early 1990's. The health care professionals had given them little hope for the future due to complications in birth. But their brave parents wanted to do more for their children than the traditional Finnish rehabilitation had to offer. These children developed remarkably well and some of them showed signs of improvement already from the start of the home-based treatment program. Many of them learned to walk during the years. All this encouraged the parents to continue to do their utmost for their children. These life stories give hope to all families of physically handicapped children who have the opportunity to rehabilitate their child at home. This book is about perseverance, willpower and hope, and how parents can actively take part in rehabilitating their children.

Mrs Pirkko Karvonen has a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education and a Master`s Degree in Physical Education. She has done her dissertation on teaching children to read before school age and specialized in physical education of children. She is called the Mother of baby swimming because she initiated baby swimming in Finland in 1981 from which she has been awarded with a golden decoration. She has also written children`s programs for TV. Pirkko Karvonen has worked most of her career at the University of Jyväskylä in the Department of Early Childhood Education as a teacher and a researcher. She has published several text books of early childhood education. Juhan askeleet (1999), the book about a boy with cerebral palsy who was rehabilitated with the Kerland method, was written inspired by the visits to the Doman Institute, Kerland/Brainwave Centre and to Delacato Centre.