Archive for the ‘Disruptive Behavior’ Category

Parents seek our neuro-educational services due to many and varied learning and behavioral issues.  Some recognize learning delays or struggles.  Other things are more subtle or sometimes not so subtle unique behaviors, such as a child’s continual encroachment of other people’s space, or attention-seeking behavior when a parent or teacher becomes occupied.  It’s true, there are times that these behaviors are just a part of early development, but when these types of  behaviors persist beyond three, then it may be time to have them checked out.  Little Giant Step’s modality of working with the root causes through the neuro-educational assessment, deals with looking at the dysfunction or inappropriate function and deals with it by exploiting the part of the brain that is capable of “changing function”. This feature  in the brain that lends itself to our type of intervention is called “neuroplasticity”.  Through stimulating brain- based activities to address gaps in the natural development, the child, teen or even adult’s negative, odd, or disruptive behavior can changed or be left behind.  It’s amazing how improving the lower levels of brain organization, increased auditory and visual processing, dealing with dominance issues can dramatically change an individual’s life-long interactions for the better! Time and time again we see behavior improving and levels of maturity becoming more appropriate.  Here’s a note from a mother on this matter:

“Kaden has settled down a bit and here’s some really good news. We spent over three hours getting our cell phones changed out the other day and he didn’t do any of the personal body space invasion or intense attention getting activities he usually does. He was just your typical bored 9 year old boy. Woop woop! Thanks for everything LGS!!  Blessings, Sandi”

Jan Bedell, M.ED, M.ND

Brain training for every age!

The secret to a good life has many facets. Jan Bedell, M.Ed., The Brain Coach: a Christian educator, has over thirty years experience in making life better for her students. She’s devoted the past 20 years of her professional life as a master certified neurodevelopmentalist to help make each person’s potential become a reality, regardless whether it be problems with memory, learning issues, brain trauma, stroke, or as with her daughter, being learning challenged. It works!

Jan has been prolific in writing curriculum, developing tools, educational teaching aids, training, and lecturing. She shares the latest research, but most importantly, she demonstrates to those she teaches how to stop the struggle by sharing the best kept secrets in maintaining, sustaining and improving their cognitive function and memory.  As she has demonstrated throughout her private practice with clients and those with whom she has trained, “What the future holds is not pre-determined or preset ~ what the future holds is based on specific opportunities offered to the individual”.

Programs we offer:

Evaluations- Individualized home program

Screenings

Home program for school age through college level.

Home program for professional adults through seniors. 

See the research we are doing in schools: LGS Educational Services

I am so grateful for this mother sharing her and her son’s journey to wholeness utilizing the Neuro-Educational Programs at Little Giant Steps:

“I noticed when my son was beginning to play with toys he did not play with his toys like the other children in his play groups; he was a sorter. He would line them up along the window sills throughout the house. When he was finished lining them up in ascending order, he would start all over again in descending order, the day was complete when he finished by lining them up by color.

I was not concerned about my son, until a friend pointed out that when Elijah picked up a toy, he passed the toy from one hand to another and never crossed his body. This was the beginning of my quest for information on such odd behavior. Meanwhile, he entered pre-k, a personal nightmare. The teacher and director pulled me aside and asked me to have him hearing tested; he was obviously deaf. This proved incorrect, and then came the recommendation to speak to my doctor about ADD/ADHD.  What to do, what to do?

My doctor recommended ADD medication without first evaluating Elijah. I picked up my purse and transferred to another doctor. Would a doctor treat for cancer without first finding out if a patient had cancer?

In the beginning of Elijah’s second grade year, I spoke to some parents who had their children in Little Giant Steps. I had heard of them before, and their name kept coming up. My husband and I made a commitment to the program and made our appointment for evaluation.

Elijah has mixed dominance, which interferes in his ability to retrieve information, thus he appears to be “a million miles away”, the false ADD/ADHD appearance.

The commitment to the Little Giant Steps Program cannot be made without first considering what it entails. It is work; however, the reward is amazing.  Elijah has gone from the child in the classroom with a great amount of uncertainty and trepidation, to a child growing in ability and confidence. There has also been a marked improvement in his maturation in the past six months.

Please do not misunderstand the commitment necessary to accomplish even a percentage of the objectives needed in order to be successful. There are times when 100% of the objectives cannot be accomplished; however, 100% effort to accomplish them must be made in order to realize the optimum result.

Since we began working with Faith Haley at Little Giant Steps, there has been a progression in Elijah’s ability to retrieve information and in his maturity. Gone is the “million mile stare”, replaced with an insightful child able to make cognitive connections that we previously had glimpsed on occasion. To see my son successful in the classroom, equal amongst his peers in ability and maturity is priceless. If you are considering Little Giant Steps for your child, take the next step and call or e-mail; the sooner you call, the sooner your child is one Little Giant Step closer to success. “ T.S. Katy, Texas

As we come to the end of a school year and hopefully you will have more time with your family, I wanted to share with you a very appropriate article  (in a two-part series) written by one of our associates, Ruth Young, Neur0-Educational Specialist.

“The best summer camp I attended as a youth was a backpacking trip to the San Juan Wilderness of Colorado; a gift from my parents for graduation from high school. Later, my husband and I led rustic junior high conference camps at the H.E.B. Foundation in Leaky, Texas for years. Our five children attended church camps during the summer and three of them became counselors for YMCA camps.

 Our family has always enjoyed attending summer camps; but recently, I had the privilege of helping Jan Bedell, the Brain Coach, create a summer camp model for families and groups of children that is full of brain boosting fun and can produce a lifetime of learning success. 

Whether your goal is to climb a mountain this summer, put in a garden next spring or to help your child graduate from high school, it is important to plan, organize and remember the details. If your goal is to apply for a job or help your child to succeed academically, then you will want to plan for full potential. It will be important to get organized; then it will be crucial to remember the details of your project. 

My dream at age nineteen was to climb to the top of the world and see as far as I could see so I could enjoy seeing God’s great mountains and vast beautiful creation. Therefore, I set my heart on the heights! What are your plans? What do you plan for your child? Are you getting organized to implement your plans for the summer or for the next school year?

 For my hike along the continental divide in Colorado I carefully organized my backpack with dehydrated food, layers of clothing, a tent, tent stakes, a sleeping bag, and a thin foam mattress for a total of thirty-seven pounds that I would carry for fourteen days. Getting all family members’ brains organized will help adults organize cabinets, balance the checkbook, clean the garage and can help students write better papers, organize their time and clean their room. So let’s take a closer look at specific physical activities designed to build and strengthen nerve pathways for intelligence:

• • By stimulating the tactile system with deep pressure for 1.25 minutes on each limb twice a day and lightly tickling with bath gloves on each limb 45 seconds twice a day you will be building brain/body connections; you will be stimulating the nerves that run up the spine to the brain and back down to the extremities enabling a child to experience the benefits of better connections like holding his pencil correctly and resolving bed-wetting issues.”
• More to come next time… be sure to stay tuned for more “insider tips” that can make a huge difference in your child’s or any one’s life!

 Thank you, Faith for this four-part series that was both informative and spiritaully inspired ~ LGS

      Artice written by:  Faith Haley, Neuro-Educational Specialist       

It would be a good idea to take a look at your children and see if stress, anxiety and fear are a part of their daily lives. If you’re not sure whether they are being affected, you can just look for the fruit of stress, allergies, asthma, thyroid problems, retaining heavy metals, a disorganized central nervous system, Candida, parasites, diarrhea, insomnia, eating disorders, etc. (This list is not exhaustive.) Are these things present in their lives? Then some changes are in order.

What causes us to have less stress (fear and anxiety)? Short of living with an oxygen tank and trying to live a more peaceful life, what can we do? Well, thankfully, there is a more excellent way! (I Corinthians 12:31)

The Bible tells us over 365 times, “Do not fear; do not be anxious about anything; do not worry; do not be dismayed.” There’s a reason for that, don’t you think? Our bodies just weren’t built to take it! It causes us to age before our time and opens us up to all manner of disease. We can already see by the verse in II Timothy 1:7, (For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind) that having no fear or stress in our lives is related to having a sound mind.

There are two things that can be of great help to us:

       1. Do all things in moderation.

       2. There should be an absence of stress, fear, and anxiety in our lives.

We will find the peace we are looking for in our obedience to the Word of God. We need to cast all our cares on Him because he cares for us! “Do not fear”; that’s what we need for the ability to take in sufficient oxygen and to have a strong immune system. Our brain and body systems will function as they were intended, pulling in all the oxygen they need. Be quick to repent and ask your Heavenly Father to forgive you for not obeying His Word. You tell your children not to play in the street so they won’t get hit by a car. Your Heavenly Father has told you not to fear, not to be anxious for anything because He doesn’t want your body to get hit with a disease.

Hopefully, by now you have a greater understanding of what is happening with your brain when you are anxious. Perhaps you have a clearer picture as to why your immune system may be in need of help.

The Bible does not say, “You are what you eat”; but it does say in Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” It is important to examine your own life, taking your thoughts captive, making sure that you’re not anxious and worried, being obedient and following “Your Maker’s Instruction Book” thus increasing your ability to live a long, healthy life as God intended. If we are obedient and at peace, if our children are obedient and at peace, our immune systems will be strong; our bodies will automatically take in all the oxygen they need and will be healthier. Our brains, the brains of our children will have the ability to function optimally; we can live in peace and in health. How wonderful is that!

                           Article written by:  Faith Haley, Neuro-Educational Specialist

By the way, Dr. Hannaford (Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., Smart Moves) also agrees with the experts about how fear and stress can open us up to disease.

She says that when you have …unresolved emotions where they build up over time into fear, the stress response is stimulated, leaving the system vulnerable to disease and inhibiting the learning process. 

She goes on to say that …research has found a connection with people and personality types who are unable to express their emotions and the increased chance of cancer and heart disease. p187

In the book, A More Excellent Way by Henry Wright, which has personally changed my life, it tells us about all the ways our disobedience, like stressing out every day, has adversely affected our bodies. We’ve allowed disease to enter through an open door, robbing us of the life we so desire. Here is an excerpt from page 236:

 …In the case of allergies we have a combination of less oxygen or too much carbon dioxide coming out of anxiety …when we have stress, our heart starts to race; we have repetitive breathing and the respiratory rate increases. We also have potassium levels that have been depleted, and the third stage of an anxiety disorder called the exhaustion stage sets in…

It’s in that exhaustion stage that we have the onset of many allergies and begin having problems with either hyper or hypothyroidism. Since a compromised immune system gives you a much greater chance of getting dreaded diseases like cancer, the following information is important.

This is the cancer profile from Pastor Henry Wright that he has found to be true in almost 25 years of research and ministry:

Cancer Profile: Denies certain strong needs and represses a lot of feelings – shuts down; poor ability to develop and maintain meaningful, long-term relationships without fear; hopelessness and despair; holding resentment; tendency towards self-pity and introspection; unresolved grief from the loss of a love object; getting fired or being rejected in a vocational pursuit.

You’ve just heard about a few ways that stress and fear can affect the body like developing disease, premature aging, digestive issues, breathing (i.e. asthma), or thyroid and heart disorders, just to name a few. It’s a good idea to check your thoughts and see if any of this rings true in your own life.

Now is a good time to check and see if any of the above sounds familiar. Are you holding onto bitterness, self-pity, the “why me?” syndrome; do we have unresolved grief, perhaps a death of a person or the death of a dream?

As a personal testimony I will tell you that I home schooled for a total of 23 years. I recognized, after some of Pastor Henry Wright’s good teaching, that I had been entertaining some bitterness and self-pity, “It all falls on me to do – the housework, the bills, the teaching and the directing of the children, the cleaning, the shopping, the everything!” I quickly repented of that self-pity and bitterness that had built up over the years because it just wasn’t going to get done unless I did it! Wow, what peace arrived at my door when I finally just let it all go! I used to proudly tell people that the big “S” on my chest did not stand for “Super Mom” but it stood for “Stressed Out”! That was not much of a testimony, was it!

If you sincerely desire to help your child have success in their academic pursuits, there is a very easy way to insure they realize their full potential.  In order to be able to address the requirements of school, your child must be able to process information at his grade level.  Otherwise, they will begin to experience being left behind as the windows of opportunity become more and more narrow for them, as the school learning cycle progresses.  If they can’t get the information from their brains out on paper in the required time, it soon becomes a discouraging endeavor and they loose confidence in themselves and their abilities.  Once confidence is lost, then distracting behaviors, compensating disruptions and other undesired behaviors can enter the picture. None of which are productive.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

First, you need to understand what we mean specifically when we ask if your child is processing up to grade level.  A child should be able to process (hold pieces of information together in short-term memory that they see or hear long enough for the entire sequence to be experienced, then they should be able to repeat that sequence back in the correct order in which it was given).   For instance, if I was working with a 5  year old, I would expect him to be able to process 5 pieces of information.  Those pieces of information could be words (colors, letters, or numbers).  There are two kinds of processing we’re interested in.  They need to be able to hold information from hearing (auditory) and from seeing (visual).  We tend to do better with visual processing in our society, but it is the auditory processing that effects us most profoundly and globally.  Therefore, I would encourage you to first discover what is the status of your child’s auditory processing ability.  Order the Auditory Test Kit as well as the Visual Test Kit  [It's free].   If you have a 6 year old who can only retain 4 pieces of information from what he hears, then you will know the goal is to get him to where he is able to process 6 pieces of information. 

HOW DO I DO THAT?

Here are a couple of ways to move your child’s abilities up to grade level.   By the way, the good news is that is takes only 2 minutes a day, twice a day to get him there!   We have digit span cards we’ve made up for our clients that you can order, or you can make up your own.  It is 125 unique random, non-repeated numbers on each card.  In one second intervals you say (in a monitone voice) each number.  After you’ve stated the numbers, then you ask the child to say them back to you.  The more fun and animated you are in this activity the more enjoyable the session and with a high intensity level (fun) comes better retention.  All the directions on how to administer the test is included in the digit span card deck.  You keep having the sessions until your child is up to his appropriate level of digits, words, etc. 

Once you’ve set the stage for success in their processing needs; you will see them experience less frustration with their studies and feel good about what they can accomplish.  It’s a real boost to their morale, not to mention the academic boost.  Remember, when a child experiences success and confidence, then their natural curiosity and joy in learning can become a part of their self-actualizing, which they love being able to do things well!  Order the FREE Auditory & Visual Test Kit  now.

Today we were looking over last year’s statistics on our product sales.  One thing really surprised me, it was how many decks of Digit Span Cards people had purchased.  Then I got to thinking how powerful these simple cards can be in hands of a parent who sincerely desires to see their child achieve new levels of learning ease.  The other ingredient that will assure success in seeing your child leave behind these struggles is best described in a quote by Agassiz: “His power over his students might be measured by his own enthusiasm.”  There is so much truth in that statement. First, children learn best from their parents, and they will learn effectively if the instruction is given in a fun enthusiastic manner.  One day a mother was grumbling about having to work with her child every day. I suggested, ”Don’t you think you can hype yourself up to have fun with your child for two minutes twice a day if it meant relieving them from learning struggles for the rest of their life?”  The answer: “Yes, I’m an adult and I can change my attitude for the sake of my child twice a day for two minutes.”

You see, when short term memory is not at grade level, the child struggles significantly.  They get really frustrated because they keep experiencing windows of opportunity to learn being slammed shut before they’ve had a chance to receive and hold the information presented long enough to make sense of it. 

Imagine being a child who was going on a field trip with your classmates.  Everyone waits for the bus.  Everyone gets on the bus when the door opens, except when you step up, the bus door slams shut and the bus drives off  leaving you there – alone.  That’s what it’s like on a daily basis for someone with low auditory processing skills.  They know and understand about the event, their expectations for a fun trip are set, they share the excitement with their friends, but they never are able to fulfill the promise of the trip!  They are just left there.  Ask any child with a learning disability about how they feel about trying as hard as they can, and never succeeding.  It gets so discouraging. It can destroy all internal hope for that child.

Luckily, fixing this problem with the auditory system is easy.  The easiest are the Digit Span Cards!  Digit Span Decks are used to improve auditory and visual processing (short-term memory) in just 2 two-minute sessions, twice a day! 

The benefits from your effort will be improved comprehension, staying on task, ability to use phonics and much more!

A 3 year-old should be able to hold together 3 pieces of information (digits, words or objects), a 4 year-old should be able to hold 4, a 5 year-old -5… and so on. Whether you are 7 years old or an adult, you should be able to hold 7 digits, or, pieces of sequential information in short-term memory.   We provide free auditory test kits so you can check your child’s functional ability to see if they are processing at the appropriate level.  Order it! 

Each deck has 125 cards (with a unique sequence on each card). Decks are available in 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 &12 digit sequences.

The A and B decks are a different 125 sequences. In case your child starts to memorize the sequences in the deck you have you can switch to the other deck to offer more variety.  Do something about changing the playing field for your child if they are struggling.  Do it today!

Thanks for Cyndi Ringeon, BA, BS for her fine article.  We hope you discover remedies you may not have known before:

There is a small, but consistent and significant, portion of the children with Down syndrome who also become labeled as autistic. Once parents have come to terms with the diagnosis of Down syndrome and all it entails, the addition of yet another label, another set of obstacles, often becomes overwhelming. In this article, I hope to provide families with demystifying information regarding the label of ‘Autistic’, proactive observation techniques to detect autistic-like or sensory behaviors, and practical ideas for eliminating the behaviors.

The label of Autistic, whether for a person with Down syndrome or not, is a symptomatic label. This means you receive this label if you have a certain number of symptoms on a list. It is important to know that ‘Autism’ is not a disease; you cannot take a blood test or x-ray to detect it.

What I see in my work with children and families is that many doctors throw around this label rather haphazardly because of a few symptoms. A parent may go to a doctor’s appointment and bring up a few concerns to the doctor: the child rejects hugs and kisses from the parent, won’t leave his shirt on, screams every time mom needs to vacuum the house, sits for hours by himself quietly humming while lining up cars in a neat row. The doctor observes the child in front of him— he won’t make eye contact, isn’t responding to directions (seems almost not to hear), instead is quietly sitting while continually flipping the pages of a book —- AH HAW Diagnosis- Autistic. Having the label or not having the label does not change the fact that the family is dealing with a number of behaviors and symptoms that need to be addressed. The earlier that parents can identify and eliminate the symptoms, the better the chance of the child developing without Autistic-like behaviors.

Autism is basically a dysfunction of the sensory channels. This means that some senses are hyper (over active) and some are low (under active). Because of this, there are atypical responses to different stimuli. We have five main sensory channels, and each of them may be affected with hyper or hypo sensitivities.

Sound

For example, it is common for those affected with autism to be hypersensitive to sound. Sound can actually cause pain and discomfort. Parents may notice the following: covering of ears with hands to block out the sound, extremely negative behavior in certain locations, physical withdrawal or auditory shut down in noisy environments, inconsolable crying that only stops when the child is removed from the noise, or hearing and reacting to sounds before others can even perceive them. If the sounds are too uncomfortable the child will learn to totally turn off the hearing and then cease to make progress in speech and language development-sometimes almost appearing deaf. Often when a person is hypersensitive to certain sounds there are other sounds to which they are hyposensitive, or that they do not process at all. This greatly affects speech, as it is the ability to hear and process tones well that culminates in the ability to produce sound and speech effectively. For onlookers observing this behavior, it appears strange and inappropriate, but most people would react the same way if they were dealing with auditory hypersensitivity. The solution is to address the problem of the hypersensitivity to sound, and the `strange’ behavior will dissipate.

Touch

Touch, or tactility- the ability to interpret tactile input- can be oversensitive, causing withdrawal or reactions to deep touch (hugs) or light touch (tickling, tags, clothing material), discomfort with haircuts or hair combing, aversion to water at certain temperatures, aversions to textures-both on the skin and in the mouth, or overactive gag reflex. Tactility can be hyposensitive, meaning the brain does not even acknowledge that something has impacted the system. Instead of overreaction, there is a lack of reaction. Parents may notice falling and bruising without the normal response, lack of response to hot and cold, lack of ticklish response, and lack of mouth response to hot and cold.

 Smell

Hypersensitivity to odors can cause odd behaviors such as hand sniffing, object and person sniffing, aversion to food odors causing gagging or rejection of food. Hyposensitivity to odor can cause problems with lack of motivation to eat and inability to distinguish between edible and inedible objects.

 Taste

Hypersensitivity to taste can cause gagging or rejection of food. Hyposensitivity to taste can cause lack of motivation to eat, and inability to distinguish between edible and inedible objects. Problems with appropriate sensory information for odors and smell can cause serious eating difficulties.  More to come next time.  Yes, the fact is many of these symptoms can be eliminated.  Stay tuned and discover how.

Here’s an article written by an associate Kay Ness, ICAN Certified Neurodevelopmentalist:

Attention Deficit Disorder is a common diagnosis of school age children. With the prevalence of this diagnosis (approximately 5 to 10% of the school-aged children according to the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy), it is important that parents understand exactly what this label is, what it means, how it is determined, and alternatives that are available for their children.

So, the parent is confronted by a situation where the child has been saddled with a label based on symptoms. Treatment consists of psycho-stimulant drugs combined with counseling to best control those symptoms. Some educational accommodations may be recommended. It looks like a hopeless case.

It has been stated that if the only tool you have is a hammer, the entire world is a nail. With the tool of evaluating mental disabilities based on symptoms (that the brain is static and fixed, that compensation and training and controlling with drugs are the only possible treatments), then indeed, it is hopeless. But, using the tools of scientifically validated brain plasticity and neurological organization achieved by neurodevelopmental programs, remediation and elimination of these symptoms responsible for the diagnosis is possible.

Some react to the subjectivity of the diagnosis of ADD by saying that it does not exist. For some children, this may be the case. But some children are very distractible, cannot sit still, are impulsive and over stimulated in noisy environments and do have trouble learning because of these issues. The question is: why is this child distractible? Why does this child fidget, put his hands over his ears, not process what is said to him, not visually focus on printed material, or have to get up and move constantly? What are the underlying causes of these symptoms?

Stay tuned for the rest of the story next time…..