Brain Balance Achievement Centers-- have you heard of this?

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I have a 17 year old son with high-functioning Asperger's. Has anyone heard anything or had an experience with a group called "Brain Balance" http://www.brainbalancecenters.com/. If so, I'd love to hear honest accounts of your experiences with them and your impressions.
thanks!! !

Sounds like a scam or another pesudo science claim at a cure.

I live in the Atlanta area where the Brain Balance Center is based. My son is still very young (5). We have not checked into it, but many parents that I have met have started it. I have not talked with them to see if they feel their child has improved. I have been really interested in it though.

The Dr. who started it has written a book called "Disconnected Kids" I got the book and have read it, but I haven't started any of the exercises.

I think it sounds like it could be helpful, but my biggest hangup against it is the cost. It is very expensive!! !!

Two tips - anecdotes of improvement are not evidence. Hope has a huge placebo effect, and scamsters feed on the parents of autistic kids to a degree that is quite sickening. People who found BB unhelpful are likely to simply leave, and no one at this centre will tell you about them. What you want to see is that they've run a proper clinical trial to show that their method works.

I suggest you contact Stephen Novella via the neurologica blog - he's a MD, a neurologist, and is very up on this kind of thing as he has an interest in sniffing out scams:

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/

Ask him if he's heard of this and he'll likely give you excellent advice.

Without certifying Stephen Novella's expertise in any way re : Tassie's recommendation,

I do have to say that I succumbed to the Dore Programs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dore_%28dy ... eatment%29
very expensive ideology of
developing a subjects balance and vision capabilities through physical exercises.
As a high functioning adult, both of these strategies were next to worthless.

I realize now that I am autistic and 'thinking differently' is not something to be afraid of or despair about.

If you want to go down the route of brain plasticity redevelopment,
the purchase of a 'balance' or 'wobble' board
and an eye exercise chart
is a far cheaper option.


To be honest, I think you are clutching at straws. (I know I was)
A seventeen year old should be focused on his education.
You would get better value for money by investing in personal tuition.

In the last couple of months, marketing for "Brain Balance Achievement Centers" has increased a great deal.

What parents (or adults with autism) should know -- the short form:

1. Melillo is a chiropractor without any actual training / education in neurology outside of chiropractic schools
2. His theory of "hemispheric imbalance" is without basis in current understanding of neurology
3. The "Brain Balance Achievement Centers" is a franchise operation, in which the owner/operators may have absolutely no qualifications or education respective to autism / Asperger's or the other conditions the Brain Balance program is advertised as effective for.

Recently, a number of articles have been published critical of the Brain Balance approach. I've published a summary of the critiques, with links, at

Is This A Money-Making Opportunity for Franchisees or A Legitimate Therapy?

(since I'm a relative noob, I can't post the link. Please feel free to search on the title to read the post in question.)

One of the things that irritate me extremely is how many expensive, but unproven, "therapies" or "treatments" are marketed to folks in the autism community.

I've got one of these by me too. I'm very skeptical of the treatment/services/costs, but I think there may actually be something to the general hypothesis, especially given the recent news about autism and MRI's:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101013082818.htm

Something about the idea of a disconnect between the two hemispheres of the brain just sounds right to me. I'm not a doctor, but I've got a solid background in science and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the idea. I would not, however, be handing over any cash for any of these so-called therapies.

"Something about the idea of a disconnect between the two hemispheres of the brain just sounds right to me. I'm not a doctor, but I've got a solid background in science and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the idea. I would not, however, be handing over any cash for any of these so-called therapies."

Thats one of the big problems with pseudoscience these people who make this stuff up are not stupid, they read science journals and then come up with a plausible and marketable "therapy" or "invention". That way later when questioned about it they will point to real research and claim its evidence for their cure.

I think that you should ask your son how he feels about the idea of going through such therapies and keep in mind not to be surprised if he's against it.

I went to one of their seminars in Overland park, Kansas. I wasn't too impressed.

This was my impression of it. "We'll spend some time with your kids, teaching them and working with them, and they will get better."

Well, no duh. I don't need to pay someone for that. Thats pretty much good sound advice for all parents for all kids. It's for lazy parents who don't want to spend time working with their kids. It calms your parental guilt for lack of involvement with your kids. (By using the word you, I don't mean the OP. Your obviously involved with your kids)

I am 58. I am/have been, always a bit odd. A geeky redhead ( used to call us nerds ). A self diagnosed 'aspie' w/ ADHD. I am used to it, and maybe a bit proud of it.

The recent ( relatively ) proliferation of terms and hypotheses to describe behaviors and atypical functioning like mine is a bit weird/daunting/flattering/encouraging . Also, a bit reassuring in that I had long thought that I was on the wrong planet, seemingly alone ( small town ).

As a kid, I listened to 'them' and what 'they' said, and believed that I was lazy, just not trying, etc. I was 31 when I first encountered the term - dyslexia. By that time, I had already adapted to a great degree, forming coping strategies and habits were getting me by.
I had also begun to discover that the universe hands out advantages and deficits in pretty good balance. In addition to mild dyspraxia ( can't dance a all ), mild dyslexia ( spellcheck!! !! ! ), moderate dyscalculia, and chronic social retardation, and the total inability to type with more than 3 fingers, I find that I have remarkable navigational skills, totally weird puzzle solving abilities, an almost mystical mechanical intuition and love for all tools, what is known as a green thumb of advanced proportions and an unusually acute sensorium.

It seems to me that, taken as a whole, my life is ‘on par’ with the folks I see around me.

That being said, if I can use my hyper-focus to masquerade as an NT, ( poorly )... ( and I must admit, I find it amusing that they seem to be unable to get through the day without coffee and get addicted to speed/amphetamine, coke/crack, and all the variations of opiates... none of which seem to affect my system in anything like an intoxicating fashion ) ... and recognize that life on this planet is ever-more competitive, that a broader variation in individual attributes increases the probability of human survival, that the fundamental operating principal of the universe is irony, I see no good reason to let my ego and apparently overweening self-satisfaction get in the way of gaining advantage by using neuro-stimulative and manipulative exercises. How many times did I say that being blind would be worth it if you could be augmented like ‘Geordie LaForge’ and see in other spectra….

There does not seem to be any one universal ‘fix’ for any challenge, puzzle or problem. Painkillers don’t work for me, doesn’t mean they are worthless.

I would love to try the Dore Programmed or any other system of exercises that will give me an edge, more tools, a cheat, a leg up, ADVANTAGE!! !

I see no advantage in dismissing new ideas or unexplored paths.

Everyone has a super power, for real! Everyone has a disability, truly.

Sadly, one may go through life and never be in a situation that reveals one’s super-ability, or one may never discover that one has a weakness.

Since I tend to talk and explain a bit too much, and repeat my stories and homilies too often, I need all the life experience I can get – pluses or minuses… just for subject matter!
But beyond that, I really feel that the other ‘oddballs’ I’ve met, as I am, are on the edge of human development.

Needed, necessary, ever present. Unappreciated – perhaps.

Bring It!