Archive for the ‘ADD/ ADHD’ Category

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

Ask the Brain Coach                                       

I thought development just happened naturally!

Almost everyone assumed that to be true, but as our society has “invented” items for the sake of safety, convenience, and progress, the human being has a natural path of development that has been interrupted from many of those practices we’ve adopted over the past 40 years.  As we’ve come along, there have been signs and symptoms that there was something happening educationally to our children. Now, we totally understand as we find ourselves in the midst of an epidemic of learning disabilities in our children. People back in the 1800s had better recall and processing abilities than most of our society does today! This decline in our learning abilities has been evident for over 40 years now!  Scientific research has born out the fact that we are raising our children from infants in ways that cause them to miss out on vital developmental steps. Thank heavens the Neurodevelopmental Approach was developed in response to this need.

If the brain and body do not establish strong, fast, and efficient-performing connections, there will be gaps and learning becomes a struggle which is most evident about age eight(8).  It’s at that time, because that is when the educational requirements will no longer accommodate a child’s natural coping and compensating strategies they’ve intuited in order to perform adequately in a school environment.  When their disorganized brain can no longer cope with the amount of information coming in, and they can’t keep up with the input, they are not storing the information where they can get recall; you often begin to see behaviors that show distress such as frustration, short tempers, lack of control, and sometimes very high ranges of anger displayed in as many forms as there are individuals!

What vital developmental steps are missing?

The most prevalent issue is that we are placing our babies in seats for most of their waking hours instead of where they need to be ~ on their tummies on a hard surface.  In order to map and organize the brain and get efficient neuro-pathways established, the body must send stimulating signals created through our sensory system efficiently to the brain.  That’s how God designed us, and no amount of technology will change the natural developmental progression of requirements of early development.  Quite frankly, God’s design will always outperform man’s technology!

A baby needs to feel resistance to let the brain know the signals from the limbs and body. The brain has to learn the functions of each part of our bodies, and get connected in the first six months of life.  The brain also needs to develop it’s ability to feel sensations, textures, temperatures, and begin to build into itself the distinguishing abilities of the millions of impulses it receives. On top of all the sensations it needs to learn about from the environment, and their cause and effect, it also has to learn about the babies “internal environment”!  It needs to develop the neuro-musculature required to be able to move the limbs, body, head, and all body parts in purposeful ways, rather than the reflexes and random movement we are born with.  In fact, all this developmental movement is a part of organizing the lower levels of the brain ~ a very distinctive and necessary part of learning successfully.

What can be done if our baby didn’t have time on the floor to develop properly?

So glad you asked!!  The answer is simple and natural.  Little Giant Steps has been developing corrective tools for families for over twenty years.  Jan Bedell, M.Ed., M.ND., LGS’ Brain Coach, has created an at-home program that can be administered to every family member, if they want to have improved receiving, storing and recall of information by getting DEVELOPMENTAL FOUNDATIONS.  You do specific activities for 2 minutes a day, twice a day for  3-4 months, or until the function shows up.  It’s amazing simple, everything you’ll need to be successful is in the kit, in fact you will be trained how to do the activities by being given access to our online professional training program. It’s a watch and learn training program that helps you to gain confidence in helping your family to unlock the key to their true God-given learning potential.  View the comments of those people who invested a short time and the powerful life-changing rewards they’ve experienced.  Just getting the family down on the floor crawling in a proper cross-pattern manner (Cross-pattern: opposite arm and leg extend forward at the same time ~ right arm, left leg, then left arm and right leg.) twice a day for two minutes for several months will help a great deal.  It organizes the brain!!

What if I need more direction on where to start?

So glad you asked that!!  Then Little Giant Steps has created a survey  just for those who feel they need more information. It allows you to be a bit more specific in your quest for information. You fill it out, email it to us and a Neuro-Educational Specialist or Neurodevelopmentalist will evaluate what you’ve stated and respond to you personally as to their recommendation! This free service is a part of our ministry in helping parents find the right fit or best solution for their child or themselves to eliminate learning difficulties. We deeply respect you, as you are the expert on your child, your family, or self.  You understand better than anyone their needs, struggles, and what makes to most sense in seeking a solution.  The one thing we would have you know profoundly: ” Learning disabilities do not have to last a lifetime”.  Have a blessed day.

Need More Answers?

EVERY MONDAY EVENING….

  “Ask the Brain Coach About Learning Issues.” Free Consultation. See details: http://www.littlegiantsteps.com/ask-the-brain-coach/

Nature Plays A Big Part

It may or may not come to a surprise to you, but our children’s processing ability, short-term memory, and lower level brain organization is not up to par these days! Teachers are telling us, even day-care centers have contacted us, because of the “gaps” they are seeing in cognitive, language, fine motor skills, and comprehension difficulties in so many children! Up to par, means our children, would be effectively functioning at grade level. Especially their auditory processing abilities, which effects their learning ability globally.  Little Giant Steps (LGS) does screenings to give that information to parents and teachers throughout the State of Texas, and offers you a free opportunity to discover whether your child is functioning at grade level with our FREE AUDITORY TEST KIT! (ages 5-adult for the test).  Select Tiny Tots Auditory for Preschoolers. Little Giant Steps (LGS) has helped improve the lives of thousands of children, teens, and adults through the Neuro-Educational Approach. This methodology does not teach coping and compensating skills.  Instead, we work at the root level (foundational level) of function by following what nature has provided with the use of neuro-plasticity of the brain. We can change a struggling child labeled by the symptoms they display into an individual that functions at grade level or above.  We address the symptoms, we alleviate them and do away with the label and dysfunction permanently!

What’s Causing This?

I’ve said it so many times, mainly because it is true….With the invention of car seats, carriers, walkers, jumpers our infants have been left out of the required developmental stages.  Each stage creates significant neuro-pathways and connections between the brain and body. Developing strong connections is an important part of mapping the brain to the experiences of the body, limbs, vision, hearing, thinking, storing and recalling information.  God created the baby’s central nervous system to develop mostly after birth.  Initially there are just reflexes, and necessary bodily functions to live.  The brain doesn’t come with all the sensory system to manage all required bodily (visual, tactile, auditory) and cognitive (thinking) functions. The brain has to learn through experiencing their arms, legs, toes, fingers, all of their parts, sensations, and stimulation the world has to offer for the baby to grow and develop as intended.  Miss the foundational steps and stages, and there is gaps in function. Gaps that can be remedied!

One Of The Most Important Requirements

It is through the baby being on its tummy all waking hours that the grand scheme of development is to occur.  First, the baby must be allowed to “experience” the sensations, temperatures, movements, textures, pressure against its body, arms, legs, face.  It is in learning to raise their head the required muscles are strengthened to begin that long  journey to balance, eye tracking, rolling over, sitting up. It is through cross patterning by belly crawling and creeping (up on all 4 limbs) so the lower levels of the brain is organized, and eventually standing erect, walking, skipping, running, racing, playing competitive sports where coordinated thought and action can reach its fullest potential. It is in the fullest state of foundational development that the greatest abilities each person has can reach the maximum design created by God.

Jan Bedell, the Brain Coach®, has developed many tools and programs that will take what may appear as a learning issue, and turn a neuro-deficiency  into an asset of neuro-efficiency or “LEARNING MADE EASY”!  That’s what the Neuro-Educational Programs such as DEVELOPMENTAL FOUNDATIONS is all about.  It allows you, the parent, to change the course of your child’s academic life.  You can make things so much better for your child when you assist them to process information at their grade level, to have greater, faster, accurate cognitive abilities, motor skills (fine and gross), improved language skills, expression, retention of information, fast recall of events, memory, and mind/body integration with superior sensory integration!

Discover What’s Possible

Can you imagine when you can take your child from experiencing what it is like to be on a dial up Internet connection to a high speed line? Everything works so much better, the ability to function at a high capacity is available, and the brain and body can respond with full force in physical, cognitive and appropriate emotional response.  Leave behind the emotional component of frustration in learning, discouragement, anger, and lack of self-esteem, because all these symptoms go away for good!

There Is Overwhelming Evidence

Jan Bedell, The Brain Coach ®, created this very successful math-facts  program in 2005. It has been tested both in home school, as well as, in private and public schools.  All research shows it outperforms other programs, and the reason is because it is based on the Neuro-educational Approach.

Little Giant Steps leads those who need to learn math and retain it through a unique process.  Unique to the “typical math-teaching methods”, but not to the foundations of development of brain organization, improved processing (visual and auditory), and the importance for understanding sensory input, frequency, intensity, and duration and sensory output.

For a greater look into what is behind Rapid Recall System’s approach, please visit this article about the Neuro-developmental Approach by Linda Kane.

Test Rapid Recall System at Discounted Price

There are two weeks left to obtain one or more modules of Rapid Recall System at a greatly reduced price. Please don’t walk away from the best thing for learning math facts.  Sign into our Website,  Put the Discount Coupon Code  RRS35 when ordering on this page.  This offer expires October 31, 2012.

Little Giant Steps has a money back guarantee.  If you follow the directions as indicated and you don’t see improvement in math-facts performance within 30 days, send the module back for a complete refund of your money.

Little Giant  Steps’  multi-sensory math facts program (Rapid Recall System) is being talked about for several reasons: 

       * It’s easy to implement!    * It only takes 7 – 10 minutes a day!     * It WORKS!!!   

          Listen to those who’ve used it: 

“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 and everything changed. This technique triggered something in her brain. 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

“”In 2007 we adopted an 11-year-old boy from Kazakhstan. His prior circumstances limited his exposure to math. When we started using the Rapid Recall System , the light came on! He eagerly whizzed through addition, subtraction, and multiplication. He felt so ‘smart’ when he progressed to the next group of facts. We are halfway through the division module and his confidence has never been higher! Thanks so much,!”–Heather Smith

“Math fact proficiency has always been a difficult issue for my early elementary students. My co-teachers and I decided to implement the Rapid Recall System. This simple input technique revolutionized our way of teaching. It works!” –Susan Short, Math Teacher, Huntsville, Alabama

“After eighteen years of teaching, I finally found a math facts system that works! Even my lower level students flourished. The Rapid Recall System was so easy to use—and it only took seven minutes a day! At the end of the year, the test scores proved that the students had retained their math facts. This is a fantastic product!”–Tanda Trussel, West Texas Elementary, Stinnett, Texas

   Webinar #2,      Be There!

 8:00 p.m. Thursday, June 14th, 2012. 

Register Now:  Office@LittleGiantSteps.com  Put Webinar 2 in the subject line, and you will be sent a link to join this excellent free webinar.  Here’s what you can expect to learn about:

Just like foundation issues in a building can cause all sorts of problems, foundation issues in a child’s brain can cause them to struggle to reach their full potential. Parents often wonder why their bright child has so many difficulties in school. They may even ask themselves, “Does my child have Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, Low Auditory Processing or a form of Autism?”

Don’t brand your child with a label before exploring the “foundation” issues that can cause the symptoms you see. Become informed about how the brain works or often struggles to work. Learn practical skills that train the brain and unlock its full potential for a bright future for your child. If they’ve already received a label just know this, labels don’t have to last a lifetime! Learn how to make the change from “struggling” to “learning with ease”!

 Aaron and His Journey

First of all, let me introduce myself.  My name is Aaron.  I am 20 years old and a sophomore in college.  I love the four G’s; God, guns, girls, and good old American guts.  I love to rock climb.  I go to church three times a week and teach a weekly Bible class for young adults.  I love hanging out with my awesome brother, David (I call him Dave – he’s 17 years old). 

 I was asked to write a letter about my experiences with Jan Bedell, founder of Little Giant Steps (LGS), and a Neuro-Educational Specialist.  If you are reading this letter, it might be because you are considering or have already started her program.  I can imagine that you might be feeling a little nervous about this.  I know exactly how you feel because I had to do the same thing my freshman year in high school.  I thought it might help you to know the end result of doing the LGS Neuro-Ed. Program.  I know how hard it was for me when all I had was a little piece of paper telling me to do all these strange things twice a day.  Hopefully, sharing my experiences with you will make it easier for you. (Now LGS provides online assistance for training, program delivery, and video examples for easier learning and understanding of what Aaron calls these “strange things”, which consists of physical and cognitive activities).

When I was in middle school, I was a big band nerd.  I LOVED music and still do.  However, apart from church and my family, I was pretty much a loner.  I had one friend.  He was my best friend and we did everything together.  He was very outgoing; I was not.  I pretty much followed his lead.  I started mimicking his actions and phrases.  Basically I was becoming someone else.  At this time, my brother and I didn’t get along very well at all.  He has learning disabilities and he used to irritate me a lot!  In school, it seemed like the harder I tried, the more I failed.  Many times I thought it was better if I didn’t try at all.  I did not have any confidence in myself.  I was taking 15mg of Ritalin a day and had to go to the doctor every three months to get my blood drawn.  . 

During my freshmen year in high school, my life began to change.  Actually, the changes started the summer before my freshman year, when I went to see Jan and she put my brother and I on program (we always called it “therapy”).  Most of the therapy I had to do was strange and boring but I was willing to stick to it and do it every day because I wanted to be smarter.  My Mom and brother and I faithfully did our therapy for several hours every day.  The one thing I had trouble with, though, was the eye occluding.  It gave me a headache and sometimes I had an upset stomach.  Also, I was using these funny looking glasses that my mom made and I didn’t want to wear them outside the house. 

A few weeks after school started, my grandfather, we call him Pops, suggested that I use an eye patch to occlude instead of those funky glasses.  I could see that the therapy we did over the summer was already making some changes in my life and I really wanted to do everything I was supposed to do so I decided to give the eye patch a try. 

I can’t count the number of times that I was asked, “What happened to your eye?”  I really got tired of telling the same story over and over again, and hardly anybody understood what I was telling them anyway so I eventually began telling people that the eye patch helped my brain to work better. I won’t lie to you; there were some people who made fun of me!  I also found out that if you have confidence in the fact that you are trying to improve yourself, even if that means doing something that is drastically different than what everyone else is doing, that you can gain people’s respect!  When I say you are becoming a better person, I am not saying that to make you feel arrogant or prideful; just simply, going through the “patch experience” not only helps improve your brain, it teaches you a lot about yourself!

            You have to learn how to live with only one eye.  For the first hour that you are covering your eye, your brain puts up a false depth perception.  So you can still function fairly well, but after that first hour, your brain looses that ability and you find yourself pouring juice on the floor instead of in your glass. Any doorway or pole that looks like it is a long way off…well…it may or may not be, and hurling objects become impossible to catch.  You will learn little tricks to help you.  Such as putting your thumb in the glass when you are filling it up so you know when to stop!  In fact, you will constantly find new ways to adapt to your new situation, and that, in turn will give you confidence in your ability to adapt to even more difficult situations.  Little by little, you begin to change the way you look at challenging situations in your life.  So, you not only get rid of the pesky learning difficulties or attention problems, but you also build up your self-esteem.

I have a word of caution.  There are going to be days when you want to pull your hair out, maybe even days when you feel like you can’t possibly do this anymore, but you NEED to stick with it.  Whatever you do, push on till the end.  It is very important that you have some one who loves you very much BUT will not let you slack off or slide or quit.  They have to be able to be firm and pull you through when you don’t feel like going on.  This is very important in everything you do and in every area of life.  I’ve been lifting weights for about 3 years now.  About a year and a half ago, I hooked up with a good partner and I workout almost every day, except Sundays!  I see the importance of going to the gym every day.  Even when I’m feeling tired and not wanting to workout, my partner is right there saying “here we go, build those big arms.”

My parents were the awesome partners for me!  They were always behind me 100%.  They pushed me and pushed me!  Sometimes I was SOOO mad but I did it and now I am Ritalin free.  I can listen to lectures in my college classes and pay attention and understand without any problems.  I have wonderful friends that love being around me and I love being around them.  I’m also a lot better in sports now.  Before I started Jan’s program, I wasn’t very coordinated, but now I love playing sports because I’m good at it (the cross crawling, creeping, marching and skipping really helps with coordination). 

I have so much to be thankful for because of the confidence and pride I carry in knowing that I really can do anything I set my mind to!  I cannot talk enough about Jan’s Neuro-Educatiional Program.  I haven’t even talked about the WONDERFUL young man my brother has turned out to be and the progress that he has made.  He had to wear an earplug and a lot of other stuff that I didn’t have to do.  He was even worse at sports than I was and now he’s on his high school football team!  My brother and I are now best friends.  We have a special bond that we enjoy as a direct result of Jan’s therapy.  Everyone who has put 100% into her therapy could probably write letters very similar to the one I’m writing to you.  One day you will look back at this time in your life and appreciate the hard time as a turning point in you life for the best! 

 Your sincere servant of hope, 

 Aaron Thompson  AKA Pirate (because of the eye patch), AKA Superman (because of Philippians4:13)