Archive for February, 2010

Q. Since our child was about 18 months we’ve known there was something different about him.  He’s very intelligent, has an extremely well developed language ability, but it’s like he gets either focused on something to the extreme or he’s off in la-la- land day dreaming. He seems to get some things in school, but other things he just can’t remember from one day to the next. How could your kind of program help him?

Ans:  Our program works with the neuroplasticity feature of the brain. Our whole objective is to assist in creating, completing or repairing the neuro-connections that allow the brain and body to communicate efficiently and effectively. What you are describing are symptoms which are not a new phenomenon to us.  Many of our clients are gifted, but have quirks that seem to prevent them from learning, organizing their thoughts or even engaging socially.  Some come to us with labels such as ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Autism, Aspergers, PDD and some come because their parents recognized symptoms that seem to hamper their children from having normal experiences in the world in which they live. What the LGS neuro-educational program does is to eliminate those symptoms at the root cause in the brain.  We provide individualized and appropriate activities that will cause the brain to create a change through our stimuli. If a child missed essential developmental steps during the course of their early years, what we do will help to organize the lower levels of the brain, close those learning “gaps” and allow for better input and output of information.  Once a child becomes neurologically efficient, they can truly develop their true God-given potential.  We just help to create or complete the circuitry in the brain that was not developed as needed to be successful academically, physically and sometimes socially.  Please read the articles on our website for more information about our methodology, philosophy and successes.

Stephen Schuetz had what was described as a “learning problem.”  His folks found a method called The Neurodevelopmental Approach which is locally provided by Jan Bedell, Certified Neuro-Educational Specialist.  Ms Bedell is founder of Little Giant Steps.  She left her teaching career when she discovered how miraculous this approach worked with her mentally challenged daughter. She’s also discovered how it works with those who are typical or gifted.  After 20 years of serving families, successes with kids who struggle with learning, has been the fuel by which she’s continued to teach parents how to change their kid’s lives for the better. Life is more than academics, which is generally the focus of The Neurodevelopmental Approach. Steven has been delighted with a by-product of getting more efficiently “wired!” (which includes doing activities that increase the neuro-pathways in the brain and results in higher neuro-efficiency and faster communication between the brain and body.) By the way, his academics have sky-rocketed, too!  Here’s his story:  

Life Can Be More Than Just Improved Academics

“I can’t believe how much this program has helped me.  It changed my life!  Immediately in the sports I can see the ball traveling at 65-70 mph coming straight at me and I can hit it.  My stats were 21 at bat and 15 hits and that is incredible for me.  I think I was one of the best on the team.  I went from the bottom of the batting order to close to the top!”                                     Steven Schuetz, age 14.

Three and one half years ago, our youngest daughter, Joanna, was struggling socially, academically, and relationally.  After 14 months on Little Giant Steps program she had improved in all academic areas; 2 grade levels math and more than 5 grade levels in Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension.  She now has been off the LGS program for two years, and last week we had her evaluated again to fine tune her brain for rapid decision making needed for her hobby—scuba diving & underwater rescue.  During these past 2 years she has gained more than 3 and ½ grade levels in math and maxed out reading comprehension.  Joanna is rapidly finishing high school with the most dramatic improvement in math. Her brain is still sharp!

Last night I was talking with a former elementary school principal who left her profession for the time being, while she enjoys raising her family.  She was talking about teaching her children with Little Giant Steps core math program called, Rapid Recall System.  She has followed the evolution of this program that offers a multi-sensory approach based on the neurodevelopmental approach.  In fact, this program was designed by a teacher with over 30 years experience and is also a very experience neuro-educational specialist, Jan Bedell.

What this former principal likes most was the fact that in 10 minutes a day, her children are showing exceptional progress.  Yes, just 10 minutes a day!  (14 minutes for multiplication)  As I noted, this is a program based on the neurodevelopmental approach. That means it works at a root level with the brain.  We know from years of experience, the brain learns best when stimulated with short intense bursts of information that are fun!  We always leave the student wanting more.  The program allows a great deal of flexibility for both the instructor and student, but is done frequently during the day. (At least twice.)  There are auditory, visual and tactility components of the program, which helps to develop efficient and permanent neuro-pathways that increase the ability to improve input as well as output of information. The students academic scores go up because in a short amount of time they have permanent rapid recall of math fact skills.  Skills they will use the rest of their lives.

Here’s another mother who has weighed in on Rapid Recall System:

“My daughter had a very difficult time ’getting’ her math facts. We tried a lot of different approaches but nothing worked. Still searching, we tried the Rapid Recall System. Somehow, she began to know her facts before we studied them! I am so impressed and thankful for Rapid Recall. I recommend it to everyone with elementary students!”    – S. Phillips, Houston, Texas

P.S.  Good news for School Systems!  We now have adapted the Rapid Recall System to be integrated into the classrooms as an easy-to-use math supplement that will help bring all students up to grade level with their math facts. Our research program done in a school during the 2008-2009 school term showed a dramatic increase of mastery for those students using Rapid Recall as opposed to the other three control groups using just their math curriculum.

I just love my job!  I had a precious 11 ½ year old young man in my office today that had been on our program for 16 months.  He had been diagnosed with Dyslexia when he was 7 and his mother had to pull him out of school because he thought he was dumb.  I was very excited about his progress of four grade levels in reading comprehension since being on program but the most thrilling thing was what he said to his dad before he came to see me.  “Dad, I think I am cured of dyslexia,” were the young mans words.  Music to my ears and truly possible with our approach – More on Dyslexia later but if you want more now –  Jan Bedell, Neuro-Educational Specialist, M.Ed.

  From the parent of a child diagnosed with Dyslexia:  (Free Test Kits Are Available – Order Now)

My husband and I have one son who has been on program for 6 months. We home school our children. Our middle son did not start learning to read until he was 7 years old, and reading and spelling have always been difficult for him. We are mainly working on visual dominance, macular reflection, and tactility issues. I sometimes feel like the “Patch Patrol” constantly reminding him to wear his patch! And then, there are the dreaded “bug glasses” as we like to call them (pinhole glasses)! We have also worked on visual and  auditory sequential processing, conceptualization, and articulation. At our 4 month re-evaluation, we were so encouraged with the results. We saw changes/progress in all areas, including a 2 grade level jump in all academic testing areas. I was especially thrilled with his improvement in reading decoding which is very weak. We have yet to see improvement in spelling, but I have faith that it will follow once his visual dominance and reflection problems are completely corrected. I am sold on the benefits of this program and so very thankful for it and the work of our evaluator. It has been an answer to prayer!      Jen B.

 ”I am happy to say that due to all the help you gave us,  our son has transitioned very smoothly into the classroom environment. He continues to excel in math - he has a 98% average in Saxon 54. His language arts skills are also coming along smoothly. His attention span continues to improve – although he still struggles to stay on task. He got very good feedback from his teachers and I feel like we have the tools to continue on this journey toward being all that God made him to be. We so appreciate all that you taught us and I recommend you and your products often!! Thank you so much!                      ~  D.B.

My son was interested in learning to read when he was 3 ½ years old.  I picked up The Writing Road to Reading and started using the phonic flash cards to teach him the different phonic sounds.  He learned the sounds from the flash cards but could not apply them to words.  It seemed like I was just spinning my wheels.  I decided to sign him up for a phonic class with the local home school coop, but he was still unable to apply his knowledge of phonics to reading. 

     We started Little Giant Steps when my son was six and he only knew 1 or 2 words.  During his evaluation with LGS, Jan Bedell discovered that his auditory processing was a 3 and his visual processing was a 4.  So, Jan suggested that we stop phonics for a while and teach him by sight, while working on improving his processing. 

     My son started a private inclusion school last year and his teacher was trying to teach him phonics and remarked that he knew the rules but could not apply them.  Just a couple of months later, his processing went up to 5.5 and phonics just started to fall into place.  Almost overnight, he started to use those rules that he had learned before.  

    Jan put him on a phonics program that helped to fill in any gaps.  He no longer has any problems in reading at school and has more than caught up with his grade level.    M. L. in Dallas, TX

Here are a few of what some of the parents who’ve been working with Little Giant Steps are saying.  They have worked with a neuro-education specialist and an individualized program:

• We attended a wedding this weekend.  One of my friends was there -she hadn’t seen Brennan since we started LGS.  She was so impressed with him.  It was great to get that kind of unsolicited encouragement.  I have to say that he sat so nicely and quietly -I nearly forgot he was there while I enjoyed the wedding!
• The question I have lately is “Who is this kid and what have you done with her!?”  And, by the way, I’m keeping the new one you can have the old one.  Ariel is so sweet lately; she really seems happier and nicer and I can tell she is taking in more information.  She has also been doing her chores without reminders or nagging and she is taking pride in a well-made bed!!  Thank you!                                                                          
• I wanted to let the Little Giant Steps team know how well Timothy is doing in school. He just received his first report card last week; he got four A’s and one B (89)!  And last week his teacher told me that they took some sort of reading passage test and he made a 100!  He never asked for help in reading the questions at all!   My husband and I are absolutely convinced that your program was absolutely key to his success.