Douglas Doman about His Lecture in Belgrade

by NDFAuthors

  • Feb 18, 2015

Douglas Doman in his interview for #NDFblog tells that every newborn child has a greater potential intelligence than Leonardo Da Vinci used to have.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential under the auspices of the Novak Djokovic Foundation will present the first lectures on child brain development in Belgrade, Serbia on Sunday, February 22, 2015.

Douglas Doman, the vice director of The Institutes, together with Spenser Doman, will conduct two lectures. One for the parents of well babies: Fit Baby, Smart Baby, Your Baby, and the other for the parents of children with special needs: The Pathway to Wellness.

cerebral-palsy-boy

Upon coming to Belgrade, Douglas was so kind as to answer several questions in the interview for #NDFblog, telling us that every child born has a greater potential intelligence than Leonardo Da Vinci used to have. Find it interesting? Read more in the following article.

 

  • Please, tell us what do you expect from the lectures in Belgrade? What are the main motives of your arrival?

My father Glenn Doman said:

Every child born has a greater potential intelligence than Leonardo Da Vinci used to have.

Our objective is for all parents of well babies and brain injured children in Serbia to know that this applies to their children, and for them to learn that their children have great potential.

smart-baby-girl-on-board

  • What can you tell us about methods that you use in your programs and what results did you have with well babies and with the hurt babies?  

From birth to six years of age, most children are very fortunate to have the only one-on-one relationship they will have in their life with a teacher. Throughout history, parents have been teaching their children and are often the reason their children achieve great success in life. We teach parents how to develop the brains of their children in order to achieve the goals of intellectual excellence, physical excellence and social excellence. All the results with well babies and brain injured children have been accomplished by mothers and fathers working at home with them.

All of our methods come from our work with brain injured children. In some cases, it is a matter of life and death for those children. We are the only organization in the world that publishes our results with brain injured children. We have been doing this for more than 30 years. These results are called “victories” – a victory by definition is a remarkable change that will improve the child’s quality of life. Victories including Walking, Talking, Reading and Writing.

The brain grows faster during the first six years of life than at any other time. Our objective for well babies is that by the age of six, they have a fully developed brain, and have achieved intellectual, physical and social excellence. They can then use this as a foundation to pursue their heart’s desire in life.

toddler-reading-a-book

  • Are your methods implementable in Serbia? The mentality and standards in children care are different comparing to the States.

Our work is international. Our staff is international and parents have come to The Institutes to learn from over 100 countries. Our program is not “American”, it is international. Parents of brain injured children are the same around the world – they have taken the responsibility of their brain injured children into their own hands. Our job is to teach them how to be the very best therapists for them in the world. Our parents ARE the very best therapists for their children.

Parents of well children are the best teachers for their children, and babies are the best students. Parents of babies love their children more than anyone else in the world and are more more determined than anyone else to ensure their child will have the happiest and most successful life.

mother-daughter-reading-a-book

  • Related to that, can you tell us whether your success rates vary from country to country and if yes, why? (Country in terms of where parents attend his programs- Ukraine, Spain, Russia, Italy, States…). How does it affect your programs? Do you adapt them?

As parents are the best teachers for their children, and parents love their children more than anyone else, we have found that our parents gets spectacular results with their kids, regardless of country of origin. I could say that there are certain countries that the Institutes staff has especially strong feelings for. For example, we have found that Russian and Italian parents very much respect the intelligence of their children, and get excellent intellectual results because of this. Our Japanese parents do an especially thorough program and also get excellent results. Our work is new to many Serbian parents, but we are sure that we will come to love them just like all the other parents we have met!

mother-and-her-baby-boy-painting

  • Do you have plans to open a regional center here?

Our Institutes around the world were developed by local people working together with The Institutes directors. We are an international organization, and we go where we are needed and wanted. If there is the demand in Serbia and other Balkan states, then we will be happy work to make this dream a reality.

douglas domain

  • Your programs are pricey but is there a possibility for some kind of financial aid? Can you tell us some of the experiences other families had with this?

This is not true – in the world of brain injured children, there is no other program that is even close to ours in terms of cost-effectiveness. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for brain injured to be institutionalized. There is no greater tragedy in the world than a child with great potential, to be diagnosed as mentally retarded and then institutionalized for life. It costs national governments, state governments and local governments billions of dollars, euros, yen, etc. a year to basically warehouse a brain injured child for life.

Each victory of our brain injured children achieve not only greatly improves the quality of life for the children and the families, but it also saves governments millions of dollars in social services that will not be necessary. The truth of the matter is, governments around the world have been saved billions of dollars by The Institutes and our parents.

girl-with-a-glowing-bulb-in-her-hand

Our Gentle Revolution Series of books is very inexpensive. Around the world, millions of parents have used these books to make their well babies smarter and more capable, and to create a treatment program for their brain injured children. These families often contact us with their excellent results, and they have never come to an Institutes course – they achieved all the results at home with the books at nearly no cost to them.

We have launched the first online program for brain injured children – there is a free version and paid version, and many parents are continuing their education there. It is called the “Pathway to Wellness”. We hope to follow it with an online program for parents of well children.

We also provide many free platforms for parents to receive more information from us, including our blog, eNewsletter, Facebook and Twitter pages. Parents can contact us with questions as well. All of the information on how to find these platforms can be found below.

father-and-son-on-the-internet

  • On your website we can see you have achieved tremendous results, numbers are impressive. Could you tell us more about the efficiency of your methods. What’s the key?

This is an excellent question. There is no better teaching combination than mother and child. Parents and family are the key to success on our program. This is true for well babies and brain injured children. In fact, our parents are the best in the world.

mother-and-child-using-laptop-in-the-kitchen

  • Please, tell us ten basic things that are most important for a baby – there must be some rules which parents should follow while raising a child. The list – do&don’t do.

There are so many important points for parents. For example, in our booklet The Pathway to Wellness, we provide over 240 important points.

Here are some important recommendations we would give:

  1. Give your child the opportunity to move as much as possible.
  2. To create the ideal environment for movement for babies, give your child unlimited space and a clean, warm safe floor. Read “Fit Baby, Smart Baby, Your Baby” for additional information.
  3. Make each session with your child joyous and successful. Success creates motivation, which creates more success.
  4. Teach your child in a joyous, loving and respectful way.
  5. Provide a stimulating intellectual environment for your child every day. Read to your child every day, and talk to your child in the same way you talk to everyone else.
  6. Teach your child to read right now. The younger he is, the easier it will be for him to learn. Read “How to Teach Your Baby to Read” for more information.
  7. What we eat, drink and breathe significantly affects brain function.
  8. Excellent nutrition enhances brain growth and development. Poor nutrition may slow down or stop brain growth and development.
  9. Keep your child with you as much as possible so he can learn proper manners and appropriate conduct.
  10. Be absolutely consistent in what you do with your child. Be honest and fair with your child.

holding-hands

In the Pathway to Wellness and “Pathway to Excellence”, we also provide recommendations of things NOT to do. For example:

  • Do not give your child unwholesome food, or processed food such as  crackers, cookies, sweets and fast food. Do not give your child soft drinks, sodas, sports drinks, chocolate milk, fruit drinks, caffeine or decaffeinated drinks.
  • Do not place your child in a walker, it can be dangerous. Do not keep your child in any device that inhibits movement such as a playpen or stroller, unless you are using it to transport him.
  • Do not talk down to your child or use baby talk.

happy-mother-talking-to-her-baby

  • What’s the best way for a parent from Serbia to keep in touch with you, if they liked the lecture and wished to continue with the program?

If a parent speaks English, there are many options. They can get regular news and updates from The Institutes by going to the following websites:

Our eNewsletter: www.iahp.org/enewsletter

Our blog: www.iahp.org

Our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/thebraingrowsbyuse

Our Twitter page: www.twitter.com/betterbabyiahp

Contact us: www.iahp.org/connect

If a parent only speaks Serbian, unfortunately, we do not currently have materials in Serbian or Serbian translators. We hope that with questions from Serbian parents, the Novak Djokovic Foundation may be able to help us with translation, and with further outreach in the future.