The autumn issue of the HACSG journal reviewed Dr Robin Pauc’s book, Is that my child?

Dr Pauc, a functional neurologist, runs the Tinsley House Clinic in Hampshire where he treats ADHD, OCD, dyslexia/dyspraxia and childhood Tourette’s, all of which he sees as part of one syndrome which he has named Developmental Delay Syndrome (DDS). Dr Pauc does not believe that these conditions exist as conditions but are symptoms which always appears together.

The symptoms come from a specific part of the brain and are caused by the nerve cells, which should develop, when the child is around four months old, failing to do so.

As he says on his website:
Neurons need to be activated in such a manner as to keep them not merely viable but healthy. In just the same way as, if you exercise your muscles, you will keep in trim, so exercising the brain keeps it in good shape. Put simply, you must use IT or lose IT.

With neurons every time they receive an impulse from another neuron, be it a positive or negative message (it makes no difference), they make more protein. More protein makes for healthier neurons with not only better internal structures but more neurotransmitters to pass on messages to the next neurons in the chain.

Hence if one area of the brain is underfunctioning, then the areas it should talk to regularly suffer as well as their protein production slows as a consequence.’

To reactivate these underfunctioning neurons Dr Pauc has developed a series of exercises which will ‘afferentate the areas of brain that are underfunctioning and thereby bring them up to speed so that they can function neurophysiologically as they were intended to’.

Afferentation simply means using the sensory pathways into the nervous system as a means to cause changes in the areas of brain that are not working too well or have not matured at a time that would have been appropriate.

Exercises can include the child walking up and down three stairs with their hands by their side, their head in a neutral position and their eyes closed, or cleaning their teeth with their left hand while standing on their left leg. There are also computer generated exercises specifically designed to target the child’s eye control.

The nutritional programme includes avoiding E numbers and artificial sweeteners, reducing carbohydrates and taking omega 3 and 6 oils.

Dr Pauc would expect improvements, which include better eye movements, improved concentration, reading and writing skills and a huge reduction in ‘silly behaviour’, should kick in after four to six weeks.

Dr Pauc believes that the reason for this ‘brain immaturity’ could be genetic (there is a 70% chance of a child developing a delay syndrome if its father has suffered from one, a 30% chance if the mother was the sufferer) but could also be caused by a birth trauma such as an emergency Caesarean or forceps delivery.

There are a number of clinics across the UK who use the Tinsley House methods listed on www.tinsleyhouseclinic.com. Dr Pauc’s book, Is that my child? is published by Virgin Books at £10.99

Click here for more research reports on treatments for ADHD.

First published in February 2007

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