We are here to help you put a vital part of your childs route to wellness in place. The site explains the causes/effects of abnormal breathing in your child. There are also parents stories, which help explain the many postitive changes that occour even with severely affected children.
Advance was founded in 1994 as a result of the pioneering work of Linda Scotson. Linda had spent many years researching and applying approaches to help her own son Doran who had been diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy and difficulties processing speech and language. Linda gradually found that respiratory development was key to the development of normal infants. After writing and publishing two books on her personal experiences, she was offered a place at UCL Institute of Child Health to begin MPhil/PhD research into respiratory abnormalities and abnormal neurological conditions in children. This research showed a relationship between abnormal breathing patterns and the different locations of neurological dysfunction in the brain. Moreover while both children with cerebral palsy and autism had abnormal breathing, abnormal breathing patterns of the two groups and consequently their chest structure were substantially different.
While still in the process of developing TST, Linda began researching the positive effect of hyperbaric oxygen on metabolism. She went on to pioneer the use of hyperbaric oxygen for children with neurological conditions such as CP and autism.
By 2002 however Linda had developed a gentle therapy involving the application of light gentle pressures over the child’s trunk particularly over the lower ribcage the diaphragm. The therapy became known as The Scotson Technique or TST.
After an unpublished pilot study TST began to be taught to parents from September 2002 and was the subject of a successful unpublished study by Bradford University from 2002-2005. Later a teaching centre in South Africa was founded and more recently the technique was taken to the USA.