Vojta Therapy - History
Professor Dr. Hellbruegge of the Kindercentrum (Children’s Centre), University of Munich, developed the groundbreaking Vojta therapy, centered on Dr. Vojta’s pioneering research in this field. NIDD brought this therapy program to the United States and has been active over the past years in developing awareness about the program, promoting the implementation of the program in institutions working with the developmentally delayed worldwide.
Dr. Vaclav Vojta, a Czechoslovakian neurologist concerned with the problems of motor rehabilitation, laid the foundations of Vojta therapy as early as 1960. He carried on his research in Germany where he emigrated in 1968.
Vojta therapy, the brainchild of Dr. Hellbruegge, spread to other parts of Europe and the whole world from Germany through an international system of collaboration. Pediatricians like Dr. Terrance Stull and Dr. Robert Block played major roles along with Fr. Paul Zahler, in bringing the Vojta therapy system from Germany to the United States. Dr. Vojta’s research can be divided into two main streams:
1) Neurological evaluation leading to the development of a methodology of evaluating child development, its dynamics and major disorders.
2) The concept of the nervous system as an open system endowed with a basic, phylogenetic make-up; yet capable of receiving various stimulations that may affect the functioning of the nervous system and have an effect on its anatomical maturation. The reflex locomotion is the physical representation of the meeting of these two complementary aspects.
This served as the groundwork for this novel therapeutic program that was initially intended for children with Cerebral Palsy (CP).