Travel to Saint Petersburg

I would like about our trip to St. Petersburg to medical centre “Prognoz Med” which we visited thanks to funding donated by warm-hearted people. We left with a diagnosis – childhood autism which was established at children hospital in Riga. Physician – children neurologist Aleksandrs Munkujevs came to us to Rēzekne; he was our main physician in St. Petersburg and he was the one who invited us to undergo treatment. Thanks to warm-hearted people, we visited treatment course for two weeks.

At the beginning, medical examination was taking place; it lasted approximately for two hours. Everything was organized well; also attitude towards Kristiāns was good. After examination, individual classes were taking place. In our case, three procedures were prescribed for Kristiāns:

1. Tomatis method – it is a system for hearing training. Aim of the method was to improve ability of Kristiāns’s brain to perceive and process information correctly. Kristiāns was given earphones and he listened to the music for two hours; during this procedure, he could do the things he likes, play, operate with toy blocks, etc. It was taking place in a large room and Kristiāns could move in any direction thanks to the earphones with a long wire. The result was very good already after the first time – speech and movements improved.

2. Micropolarization – it activates and normalizes brain cells which are responsible for speech. Procedure lasted for 10 days – every time it was 25 minutes long. Special cap with wires was put on his head, and Kristiāns had to sit calmly. During this procedure, he could watch cartoons.

2. Medical massage – in our case, massage was intended for normalization of blood circulation in the area of neck and backbone. Kristiāns went to the massage alone. He really enjoyed this procedure; at home, he is still asking to make him a massage.

Procedures were taking place every day (also on Saturday and Sunday). It is very convenient that medical centre has only two floors and rooms are located close to each other – we did not have to walk and look for the right place very long time. On the ground floor, registry office and massage room is located. On the first floor, playroom, speech therapist, tomatis room, micropolarization and office of neurologist Aleksandrs Munkujevs is located. Our main physician could observe Kristiāns in preferential atmosphere since cameras are located in all rooms, also in playroom.

At the end of treatment, physician explained the results and excluded the diagnosis – childhood autism. He established another diagnosis – alalia. It is lack of comprehension about speech. Kristiāns will speak but it is necessary to work with him a lot in order it would happen sooner and better. Physician told us everything, as well as gave recommendations.

Currently, Kristiāns started to repeat all words and use separate word on a daily basis. He starts to comprehend the speech and understands that he can tell and ask everything he needs.

We are very happy about our boy. He became more independent and sociable; a lot of new emotions appeared, eye contact improved. Previously, it seemed that Kristiāns has an empty eye contact, but now I see attentive and understanding eyes.

We are very joyful and express our gratitude once more about this opportunity to all the people who supported us, especially to the leaders of the “Autism Support Centre in Rēzekne” – Edgars and Sandra who helped us to realize our dream. This trip and treatment course was very useful for Kristiāns since the things we were waiting for so long time happened – he started to say his first words and continues to learn and understand. Thank you!