Anne,
There's a treatment for brain-injured people that your student may want to
look into. I just (Oct - Feb) underwent the same treatment for
fibromyalgia with good results for the pain, AND IT IMPROVED MY SINGING!
My physical therapist, whose head-injury clients participated in a special
NIH-funded study, first told me about the treatment.
There's a website at www.flexyx.com that tells about it (though not a lot,
imho) and allows you to look up locations of the specialists who perform
the therapy. It's been done for about 10 years. The approach was first
discovered by a doctor in Calgary, and the equipment designed by someone
in California.
The therapy consists of "mapping" the injured parts of the brain, then
attaching electrodes to the scalp with glue and passing invisible light
thru the retina which connects with the electrodes and gently coaxes the
brainwaves back to normal. There are people who were virtually paralyzed
who have been restored to being functional. The therapy is also used for
chronic fatigue syndrome, early MS, early Parkinson's, ADD, autism,
migraine, etc.
It's somewhat expensive, although many insurance companies are covering
much of the costs. I was fortunate to be in a paid research study (funded
by Rush Hospital in Chicago), and am having a few more treatments
following a recent serious fall. Aetna is paying 80%.
After I completed the series of treatments, my singing teacher and others
said my singing has improved tremendously. And for the first time in my
life, I can do a tiny bit of tongue-roll! At my teacher's first student
recital following my treatments, some of her students were amazed at the
improvements to my singing and were saying they want to receive the
treatment, too!
Hope this is useful!
Mary Jane Ruhl
Alexandria, VA
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