Neuro-feedback, a relatively new concept to the city of El Paso, is a type of brain treatment the therapists and staff of the Omega Rehab Center work with every day to treat patients ranging from pediatrics to adults who suffer from Autism or related developmental delays. UTEP's occupational therapy students may soon have the opportunity to witness their innovative methods firsthand, while gaining their necessary pediatric field experience.

At the Omega Rehab Center, students would be exposed to a wide range of therapies, including physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. But perhaps the greatest learning experience will come from observing the therapists engage their child patients in Neuro-Feedback, a brain exercise that monitors brain waves and displays them back to the child in the form of a video game or movie. Sensors are attached to the scalp with EEG paste which then picks up brain waves.

"If the brain waves do something they're not supposed to do, black dots will appear on the screen," occupational therapist Diane Hayashi said. "The child won't like this and attempt to make them go away by getting their brainwaves within a certain parameter, and the dots will disappear. The brain will remember where it was when this happened and become trained to operate within that parameter, resulting in better mental control and stability."

The Omega Rehab Center is currently available to students in the physical therapy department as an option for their field work experience, but UTEP field work coordinators are working closely with the center to extend that contract to include field work opportunities for occupational therapy students as well. Though the exact date is still unknown, they anticipate this contract will be completed soon.

Once the contract between the Occupational Therapy department and UTEP is complete, students will get to work hands-on with patients.

"Field work is crucial to our education because it allows us to put theory into practice," said Jesse Aguirre, graduate occupational therapy student. "I did my first field work rotation, or level one, at Healthsouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Las Vegas for a week. My level two field work rotations (12 weeks each) were at Mentis Neuro Rehabilitation here in El Paso, and at Sante Pediatrics also here in El Paso. They gave me a hands on experience where I was able to develop and apply clinical reasoning skills through direct observation and participation in the therapeutic process."

Dahlia Castillo, UTEP's academic field work coordinator, said that the students eligible for working at this particular center are occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology students that are accepted to each program and are assigned by the fieldwork coordinator of their respective program.

Neuro-Feedback was introduced to the El Paso community in a peculiar way. Marco Rodriguez, occupational therapist at Omega Rehab Center, had been working in the field for about 20 years, after his own son was diagnosed with Autism at the age of five.

"We were at our wit's end," Rodriguez said. "All of my son's medication had horrible side effects like facial tics and the slowing of growth hormones. Then our pediatrician told us about Neuro-Feedback. We did our research and decided to get certified and buy the $10,000 equipment. My son is 13 now, has just graduated sixth grade on the A/B honor roll, and plays sports. We were even able to gradually take him off of his medication."

So far, the method has displayed good results in the greater El Paso community as well, not only in children, but in teenagers dealing with depression and suicidal tendencies. One of the staff's greatest success stories is of a young boy who suffered from Autism and was extremely "tactile-defensive," meaning he did not like to be touched, and was almost completely non-verbal.

"After about four weeks of treatment he's giving his mother hugs, telling her he loves her and hugging the staff when he comes in," Rodriguez said. "We try to instill all of our children here with self-esteem, and now when you ask this boy what he is, he replies, ‘I am a champion.'"

Children reportedly come back to see their therapists after treatments having won ‘most-improved' awards at their schools, causing their teachers to wonder what new medication they must be on. But there is no new medication at all. Their improvement can be attributed to Neuro-Feedback treatments.

"When the students come in they will get a ‘case-load,'" Hayashi said. "They would start off slow with a few of our easier cases, and then learn to do evaluation of new patients to determine whether they qualify for service. They'll learn about areas such as self-care, feeding, sensory issues, and attention and behavior."

Once new students know which children they are going to work with, they will spend the next three months setting individual goals for them and attempting to help the children reach them.

"Another advantage students will have when they come here is that they're going to see occupational therapy in a different light than what they see in the classroom," Rodriguez said. "They will not only get to see traditional occupational therapy practices, but they will see how it relates to sensory integration and they'll work with some people here that are phenomenal at it."

Rebecca Guerrero can be reached at prospector@utep.edu.