is this hungarian DGSM method going to help my new-born niece ?

May 8, 2009 2:37 PM

is this hungarian DGSM method going to help my new-born niece ? Long story short : my niece is about six weeks old, did a cardio-respiratory arrest in her first day, is finally able to breathe without a machine. Now here comes the hungarian chapter of this story :

The parents (my brother and the sister-in-law) are being told that the hungarian method Dévény Special Manual Technique and Gimnastic Method a.k.a. DSGM is the best thing for the child.

Problems : the DSGM method means trips to Hungary and nowadays money does not exactly grow on trees.

The website is http://www.deveny.hu/en/

Has any fellow MeFite heard of this method ? Is it good ? Is it the best one ? Is it a scam ? Should they blow their savings doing it ?

posted by Baud to health & fitness (7 comments total)

Who's telling them this? That's a pretty relevant factor.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 2:45 PM on May 8

Get a second opinion. Or a third one if need be.

And ask a lot of critical questions, of both the primary medical personnel and those giving 2nd opinions.

Also find out if there is someone local to your area who gives this therapy, or who could give this therapy.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 3:12 PM on May 8

I went to that web page expecting to see a cutting edge medical procedure and instead it appears to be some sort of movement based exercise program.
Maybe good maybe bad, but not quite what I would expect as a "last hope".

Are there peer reviewed studies showing that it is helpful?
posted by bottlebrushtree at 3:16 PM on May 8

I don't know the technique in particular, but I there are a number of similar ones with similar claims (Conductive Education being the one I'm most familiar with). The big issue with them is that they all involve huge amounts of time, energy and intensive interaction with a child, and the suspicion is that if you spent all that time and energy just playing with and encouraging your child you'd see the same results.

I would suggest that if they want to go down that sort of intensive interaction route, they should be able to find them closer to home. Bluntly, any paediatric physiotherapist (are they phsyical therapists in the US?) should be able to instruct them in exercises that will help your neice's development, and deal with any movement-based problems that may come up.

You also don't say what her movement and respiratory problems are; there are plenty of kids who are ventilated at the beginning of their lives who go on to have no problems later. Who has assessed her? What is her general developmental level?

I have great suspicion about anyone who is making great pronouncements on a child's development when they're only six weeks old. Early intervention is a good thing, yes, but do you even know it's necessary?
posted by Coobeastie at 3:55 PM on May 8 [2 favorites]

I did a quick literature search... There don't appear to be any peer-reviewed studies on DGSM; it's entire footprint in the international medical literature is a single conference proceeding. There's significantly more on conductive education in general; it seems to have shown some promising results, but I'm not qualified to evaluate what I read beyond that.

Has the child actually been diagnosed with something? Six weeks seems too young for a diagnosis of anything that would be treated by these therapies...
posted by mr_roboto at 5:10 PM on May 8

thanks for these replies - problems have been discovered in the grey kernel ("noyaux gris") area of the brain. I agree that six weeks is a little early for definitive diagnosis.

My niece is in Belgium and I don't know if we have access to conductive education, but I will definitely look into it.

On behalf of my niece, thanks all !
posted by Baud at 1:29 AM on May 10

it looks like

a) Conductive Education was created by an Hungarian Doctor

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'%C3%A9ducation_conductive

b) there is a conductive education ressource in Belgium.
posted by Baud at 1:33 AM on May 10