In Order To Communicate Well, You Must Have Good Processing Skills**

Don’t underestimate the value of knowing how well your child, husband or even yourself are processing information you receive through your ears or hearing!

One of the biggest reasons for low academic performance is that the child can’t hold together, in short term memory, information that they need (which is the only way for it to get into long-term memory!) For adults,  low auditory processing, probably  accounts for 40 – 50% of friction in their work and marital relationships.

**GOOD PROCESSING SKILLS =  For children, from 1 to 6 years-old: they should be able to repeat words spoken to them at 1 second intervals that correspond with their age.  i.e. A 2 yr-old should be able to repeat two words they heard, or two numbers, a 3 yr-old – repeats back 3 words,  a 4 yr-old – repeats back 4 words, etc.   From 7 years-old through adult: The minimum number of words they are able to repeat after being given a series of words, or numbers in one second intervals is 7.  If you, your husband, 7 yr.-old, teen, etc. cannot recall the numbers in the order they were given, then under-performance in ones processing skills will lead to many difficulties.   [Order FREE Auditory Processing Test Kit]

Now, For The Hard Facts About Low Processing Skills

Children with low processing skills cannot comprehend what they can’t retain. They get confused, frustrated, and experience failure daily, and for some it’s an hourly experience of failure! Typically, a child will do their best at coping and compensating until they reach the age of about 7 or 8. Then they hit the proverbial “wall”.  As their educational courses require more from their processing abilities (short-term memory), the complexity of the material becomes more difficult and they can’t keep up – the windows of opportunity in grasping the material keep closing on them. Also, this is about the time we see levels of frustration leading to either anger, belligerence, or some form of acting-out which can take a very destructive course, or one of disrupting everything, and everyone around them.  Some are the class clowns, some true villains!  Getting a steady diet of failure reaps all the things parents don’t want to see in their children. Another typical thing that happens to the child and their parents – “Self-shame and blame, and parental shaming and blaming.”  The big question for child and parent alike, “Why can’t I/you just buckle down and do your home work, why is everything so difficult – straighten up and apply yourself!”  We’ve seen the miracle of change by getting a child’s processing abilites up to grade level. Failure is replaced by confidence. Those nagging questions from themselves and their parents are put to rest. Life gets so much better without stress, anxiety, and doubt.  [Order FREE Auditory Processing Test Kit]

It Interferes With Adults Abilities, Too

Low processing in adults (not being about the retain at least 7 pieces of information) can really raise havoc with a spouse, children, and work relationships. Adults with processing problems can listen, but they can’t keep the instructions together, and they are plagued with repeated errors in their work and family life. For instance, have you ever asked your spouse to drop by the store and pick up some items, only to have them come home without doing what they’d agreed to do?  One woman with low processing abilities shared that she had to habitually write sticky notes to herself.  Pretty soon they were everywhere!  Can you imagine what happened when her husband got off work early one day, and thought he’d do her a favor by “cleaning up and getting rid of all her sticky notes”!  There are bigger and darker marital discord we’ve been told about which we have decided not to share, as they are just too painful, and to see a couple fighting over something so preventable, it almost makes me want to cry. The devastation to the morale of the marriage, the hammering of ones self-confidence, and the anxiety that’s experienced is devastating! We have seen  a grown-up put down so bad they suffered from severe depression. I  know some adults who got on prescription drugs, which further interfered with their lives, just to try to get relief of the mental anquish they experienced. Some found alcohol to soothe and remove the pain.  So listen up!  Educate yourself, get the tools that will set you free (or the one you love), but don’t just sit there!   [Order FREE Auditory Processing Test Kit]

  Dominance, A Determining Factor For Learning

Dominance is a huge determining factor in the brain’s ability to store and retrieve information.  In order to be neurologically efficient (like a defragged computer),   your brain must be neurologically organized – one hemisphere must dominate and coordinate your entire body.  The determination for dominance starts with the hand.  Hand dominance is genetically predetermined and should not be encouraged one way or the other.  It should emerge by the time a child is 3 to 8 years of age. If an individual is right handed it is much more efficient for the right ear, eye, and foot to be dominant as well.  If left handed it is best to be completely dominant on the left side. To be right eared or eyed does not mean that you have better hearing or vision in your right; it means that your right directs which hemisphere of the brain information is stored.

For information about testing for dominance and what to do if your child is mixed dominant, read the following article:  http://www.littlegiantsteps.com/documents/Learning%20Disabilities%20Article.pdf

  PROBLEM: My Child Hates Wearing Shoes, Shirts With Tags

SUGGESTION:  These symptoms may be caused by a hyper-sensitive tactile system.  The Neurodevelopmental Approach can provide specific stimulation to the brain in order to normalize the tactile system.  The activity that is typically recommended for these symptoms is called “Tactile Gloves” and provides stimulation to the brain to build neuro-pathways from the topical tissue sensors in the arms and legs to the brain.  The parent should use scratchy bath gloves to gently rub their child’s hands, arms, feet and legs.  Use a very light touch, like you are rubbing on lotion over the entire surface of each limb, from the tips of the fingers to the shoulders and from the tips of the toes to just above the knees.  This tactile stimulation should be done for approximately 3 minutes, twice a day for 6 to 8 months.  For more information on The Neurodevelopmental Approach, please visit www.littlegiantsteps.com.

 Development Steps Can Be Missed By Anyone

Little Giant Steps has many years of experience in dealing with learning difficulties in a wide range of I.Q.s and ages. Individuals, for whatever reason, can experience difficulty in one, or several areas of learning if their brain organization was cut short by not enough crawling as infants, or if illness, ear infections and the like detoured them from going through each step of development as our creator designed. The one thing for certain, is that parents with children who test high in I.Q. can struggle with certain areas of learning much like those who have diagnosed learning issues.

Paul, a gifted math student, was going through all kinds of difficulties. His mother recognized that while he was a very intellectual superior young man, he worked twice as hard at his beloved math than his younger brother. It pained his parents to see their son, with so much promise, making his way by the coping and compensating skills he was smart enough to develop. Finally, his mom sat him down as she’d been noticing the basis of math (math facts), seemed nonexistent. She made up a little test and discovered her suspicions were correct; they weren’t committed to memory……he didn’t know them!.  It was puzzling that he could do advanced operations, but still lack this vital part of math. She got busy and ordered a math facts program. It didn’t work. He just wasn’t “getting” it. She ordered another, then another.

Little Giant Steps = Giant Academic Strides

A call came into the office, and this mother who’d purchased five other math facts programs informed me our Rapid Recall System ( a neuro-developmentally based curriculum) had been recommended by someone to help her son. She asked questions about it, and then stated, “The bottom line is this: What will you do if he doesn’t learn his math facts from your program? Will you stand by it?”

I was very happy to put her at ease by saying, “If you order the first operation (Addition) of Rapid Recall System, follow the instructions and don’t see any improvement within four weeks, send it back and I will refund the purchase price and shipping.” “You must do the program as directed, how does that sound?” She said, “Well that’s the best deal I’ve had since all those other programs wouldn’t stand behind their product. OK, I’ll order the first operation, and we’ll see how my son does.”

Three weeks later I received another phone call from her. “It’s working!” she bellowed into the phone. “I’m not sure what or how, but he’s got it! Please send the rest of the operations as soon as possible, both of us are over-joyed with what’s happening!”

“What is your son saying is happening,” I inquired.  He said, “It’s just like all of a sudden I get the answers in my head like lightening…. before the answers just wouldn’t be there….. now I just know them….. it’s like someone turned on something in my brain!”  I smiled joyfully, as that’s exactly what had happened. The neuro-connections were now on and functioning efficiently. The information existed like never before. The gap was closed and his circuitry was wired as needed.  That’s the miracle of the plasticity of the brain.  Once it’s connections are strong and massive, the signals travel like lightening, and what wasn’t turned on, now is.  It’s what happens to everyone we, or parents work with those who struggle. Little Giant Steps’ founder, Jan Bedell, M.Ed.,M. ND. has created easy to follow programs utilizing and applying the naturally defined Neurodevelopmental Approach- a methodology that helps everyone and anyone who follows the easily sustained path as outlined within each program. The secret: Intensity, Duration, Frequency with specific adherence to the easy directions.

  Potential Realized!

 In 1st Grade – he said,

“I am not a very smart boy.”

Didn’t qualify for service in Public School

See improvement and functional grade level after Neurodevelopmental Program

Little Giant Steps (LGS) is here for you!

Problem:  My child always seems to be getting into people’s “personal space”; he’s also very clumsy and bumps into things and trips a lot.

Suggestion:  These types of symptoms are typically from a lack of Proprioception (the body’s ability to know where it is in space).  The Neurodevelopmental Approach can provide specific stimulation to the brain to develop proprioception and remediate these issues.  The activity that is typically recommended for these symptoms is called “Deep Pressure” and provides stimulation to the brain to build neuropathways from the deep tissue in the arms and legs to the brain.  The parent uses their whole hand to press or squeeze each limb, starting with the tips of the fingers and working their way up on both the inside and the outside of the arm all the way to the shoulder; and for the legs, beginning with the tips of the toes and working their way up on both the inside and the outside of the leg to just past the knee.  Deep Pressure should be done for 4 minutes, twice a day, for 6 to 8 months for lasting benefit.  For more information on The Neurodevelopmental Approach, please visit www.littlegiantsteps.com.

  KEEP IT FUN!

Research has shown that children learn best from their parents. A family’s familiar communication styles, systems, and cues make learning easier, even on those days when things are a struggle. Regardless of whether you are working with a child on a neuro-developmental program from Little Giant Steps, or doing curriculum or homework; the best thing to keep up front is your sense of humor. Teach through the eyes of a child - full of wonder, craving adventure, loving discovery of new things, and most of all, loving the undivided attention and interaction between you and your son or daughter or both!

INTENSITY, FREQUENCY, SHORT DURATION

When there is fun in the air, there is an added dimension of intensity that children love! Intensity is one of the defining features of getting stimuli to the brain. Repeated intensity  which leads us to the next step toward neurological efficiency is: Frequency (a couple of times a day). These two practices along with the last one I’ll mention will impact the brain to change, grow new pathways, and retain information.

Last,but not least is: Duration (short spirited sessions of two to ten minutes several times a day are more productive than spending a boring hour on a given subject). If you will focus on these three factors [Intensity, Frequency, and Duration] you will greatly impact any individual’s learning, whether on a formal neuro-developmental program, or not!

NOTICE: If some of you really don’t have any ideas for implementing fun with your child, please email me cj@littlegiantsteps.com and I’ll send you some examples you may like to incorporate into “teaching” your child and enjoying it more.  God bless.

A Solution That Works!

For over twenty years Little Giant Steps has been providing evaluations, academic testing, screenings, developed neuro-developmental programs, neuro-educational curriculum, tools, and learning aides. We have witnessed thousands of children (despite age or I.Q.) discover learning can be fun, fulfilling, and confidence-building by utilizing programs that change the root of functional problems by addressing and changing the connections in the brain – the source of our cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual development!  Please investigate. Then, take advantage of the free articles, auditory test kits, visual test kits, free webinars, and  free consultations. When you discover the program that makes sense to you, follow up and do it!  We work with people in our clinic, but also have great at-a-distance programs. In fact, Jan Bedell, our founder and mother of a challenged child, is so passionate about making the neuro-developmental/educational approach available to all who are searching for help, she’s developed a program that is done at home only. Developmental Foundations is one of many things she’s developed to help your child.

As a mother recently told me, “I realize with the changes I’ve seen in my daughter’s abilities to learn, and the her whole outlook on life improve, I can dedicate myself to working with her for however long it takes, because I now see and know that the time I invest with her will be a short time in MY life, but the benefits will for HER will be a whole LIFETIME!

Good luck!  Parents know their children better than anyone. You can do anything you set as a priority. Go to www.littlegiantsteps.com and gain the knowledge you need to proceed in changing your child’s life. Help them experience their true God-given potential!

What Is A Parent To Do?

There is nothing more frustrating than not knowing what to do when your child clearly needs help! In my personal case, I knew something wasn’t quite on target, with my youngest son. Even his pre-school teacher talked to me about him.  She said, “He is so bright, articulate, and comprehends beyond his years, but there’s a “glitch” somewhere. He can’t seem to do things he should be able to do. He may have a learning disability. Don’t misunderstand, your son has very high intellect, but I don’t know what we’re looking at, but I will tell you to watch and see how he develops in the next two years. You may need to find some intervention – I wish I knew more – just be aware.”

Seeking A Solution Can Be Frustrating

She was right. My son definitely had trouble learning things. While I’d watched my oldest son breeze through acquiring academic skills, my poor little one seemed like he was trapped in a glass bubble with no access to anything easily. He was so determined, and most painful of all, was that he was very much aware of what was happening around him and he would ask me, “Mom, what’s wrong with me…. I should be able to do things like other kids.” Then came the real heart breaker when he announced, “I’m just dumb, stupid! I can’t do what normal people do!”

It took me ten (10) years before I found a solution! It wasn’t because I wasn’t asking for help, either.  I even became known as the pain in the” you-know-where” to all of the elementary teachers.  They saw me as a meddling, over-protective mother hen.  The schools wouldn’t test him, because he was doing above average work, even though they recognized he struggled terribly!  He was so aware of the things he should be able to do, but couldn’t execute regardless of how much we drilled, coached, suffered. He could do advanced math in his head perfectly, but couldn’t translate that to paper. He showed all the signs of dyslexia, but no one would test him!!!!

Finally, I gave up on the school and drove 250 miles to a Montessori school to talk with them (I was ready to commute with him, because as each year went by, he got more and more discouraged and depressed.) They saved his life by telling me it sounded like he had a developmental problem. They thought I should seek out a professional neuro-developmental specialist. Was this a doctor? I’d never heard of such a professional. (I had a medical background and was surprised that I’d never heard of a neuro-developmental specialist.)  No, most of them are teachers with specialty training in neuro-development, academic testing skills, and understand how to get these kids like my son on track. They even told me some of the kids they knew had their learning disability eliminated! Needless to say, I found a neuro-developmental specialist with these skills. I had my son evaluated. He had dyslexia (even though they were not big on labels), he also had some serious eye tracking/ hand coordinating problems and they had us see a developmental optometrist. They put a program together. We saw our son begin to blossom in so many ways. Today he’s the one with the doctorate in our family!!    See us tomorrow for part 2.

Take Advantage of our Neuro-developmental (ND) Screenings

Certified Neuro-developmental Screener

Nancy Williams will be providing ND Screenings in Spring, TXMay 1st, 2013.  If you’d like to get a snapshot of your child’s current developmental function, then please email Nancy ( nwilliams@littlegiantsteps.com ) for appointment times, location details, and answers to any questions you may have.

For more details about what screenings cost, how they differ from a full professional ND Evaluations, please visit this page on our website.

Little Giant Steps, a neurodevelopmental/educational consulting group, has been providing services to those who struggle with learning for over twenty years. Remember, you can improve the levels of academic success – learning difficulties do not have to last a life-time! Conact Nancy today, space is limited.  nwilliams@littlegiantsteps.com