Archive for the ‘ADD/ ADHD’ Category

This mother shared with the staff at Little Giant Steps what she’s learned in the process of having her son evaluated and the hope and promise for him in the future in academics:

“We wanted to take a moment to thank you for evaluating Isaiah on Friday. It has given us hope that Isaiah can be the best reader in the Burr family one day! He certainly is the most compassionate, sensitive and cuddly kid we have! Although it has been very hard to see him struggle with academics as he sees his siblings seemingly breeze through, these sufferings have really created an amazing heart of empathy in Isaiah for those in life who have to try a little harder than others. As always, suffering is an invitation to go deeper with Christ and know him in a way we would never have known him before. Isaiah has accepted the invitation with a noble grace.

We look forward to incorporating the Little Giant Steps Neuro-Educational Program into our daily life. As a mother there is always the measure of guilt associated with hindsight, but also the awareness that God has gone before us in many ways already. It’s been our family’s educational culture to read a lot! To ourselves and aloud. We use Sonlight as our curriculum and so it’s been hard to not see Isaiah sprawl across the couch engrossed in a book like his brother and sister. Not knowing that reading aloud was something Isaiah needed, it’s always been captivating to me how much he remembers and narrates and almost word for word. It has been as if a glass door has kept Isaiah enshrined from exploring the world through books on his own; however, now we feel that we have the keys to help set this little man of God free!”

This mother describes her son’s reading problem with great clarity.  It is true, if they have missed the developmental steps that allows the brain and body to process information efficiently, then it is as if they hampered by a glass door.  The good news is that he is improving now that he’s on the LGS Neuro-Educational Program and is finding a destiny he thought was only reserved for his siblings.

As we approach the fall, a season of getting new things underway, there can be lots of stress.  Today I want you to concentrate on putting a very important natural “leveling” device in place to help you to renew and balance yourself!  It’s called laughter.  A household that deals with learning disabilities can never have enough laugher.

As a very wise friend told me, “  Are you laughing a lot?  Watch some comedies to release lots of dopamine.  Hug lots of people to release lots of oxytocin.  Sing hymns/spiritual love songs because God hears the praises of  His own!  Where God is, there His healing virtue flows! 

Yes, even we need to be healed of stressful situations, challenges and unexpected work that will land on our doorstep from time to time.  Norman Cousin’s  statement, “Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.”   So, let the fresh air in and lighten your load.  Give yourself an opportunity to laugh each day.  Laughter is good medicine for every inch of you and others will sincerely appreciate you being an “added blessing” to their lives.

After having been exposed to the Neuro-Educational Programs for more than 25 years and witnessed some pretty amazing successes; I’ve not only been surprised in my own son’s life, but in the lives of children with labels ranging from ADD, ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, PDD, Sensory Disorder, Dysgraphia, Cerebral Palsy, Mentally Challenged, Special Needs and others.

So how can one program help so many different aspects of difficulty?  It has to do with the breadth of the program and the fact all is geared to addressing root causal areas of the brain.  We know from years of experience if the developmental steps were not completed during the early years of development, then the neurological inefficiencies are the unifying functional behavior that shows up with different accompanying symptoms.  It is through symptoms that learning issues are diagnosed.  The Neuro-Educational System addresses a broad spectrum of core functions. Those functional areas that present as lagging through the course of the evaluation are exposed and appropriate brain-based techniques are indicated. These activities bring wholeness to under-developed areas whether it be due to disease, trauma, or sensory deprivation as an infant or toddler.  If vital developmental steps were not taken, such as receiving stimuli from being on the infant’s tummy, then the natural way of mapping the brain and growing connections between the mind and body are circumvented from occurring.  Without gaining the ability to crawl and developing good cross patterning abilities leaves many children in a less than desireable state where learning is concerned.  The good news is that  children with learning disabilities can be effectively dealt with and the symptoms of the learning disability can be eliminated and re-mediated so the child can become successful and the shadow of low performance and struggle simply is no longer a component of their life.

Follow this link.  Take the time to learn, first hand, how other parents and their children have succeeded in overcoming what seemed like a life sentence of always struggling academically.  Discover the real key to educational success ~ neuro-efficiency!

To say my son’s handwriting was bad is to put it mildly.  It was (to borrow from Judith Viorst), “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad” handwriting — which breaks my heart to say, because he tried so very hard.  It’s as if his hands just didn’t work right.  We tried everything to help him:  We bought handwriting workbooks.  We tried copy work.   We quickly gave up on dictation.  It seemed that everything we tried only added to Jake’s frustration, and the more we practiced the worse it got.  We couldn’t understand – why was this so difficult? 

 For years I kept thinking things like, “At least it can’t get any worse!” or “He’s just a boy and all boys have bad handwriting, right?” or “There’s always typing!”  It was such a source of frustration that we had all but given up.  And then we found LGS. (Little Giant Steps Neuro-Educational Program)

Eventually, Jan would teach us about mixed dominance and its effect upon motor control.  We began doing the prescribed exercises, and Jake began to make steady improvement in all areas. We were so hopeful!  But something still wasn’t quite right; after about a year, Jan noticed Jake was regressing. Thanks to her experience, she recognized the cause immediately:  Despite what we all thought (Jake included), he wasn’t right handed after all — he was a lefty!

 It has taken us two years and a lot of work, but he is making amazing progress!  We just started cursive this week.  He’s gone from hating handwriting to enjoying it:  No more complaining when I pull out the handwriting sheet, no more tears and frustration.  Thank you, LGS!

My son Will was officially diagnosed with dysgraphia in the 7^th grade by a public school diagnostician.  He had a post-high school vocabulary and reading level but wrote like a 3^rd or 4^th grader.  He was told that he would never be able to take notes on lectures because it would take too long for his brain to process what he heard and then put it down on paper.  Once he wrote something down, it was predicted he would miss one or two of the next points taught! 

Will appreciated the label because it was the first time in his life that he believed the learning problems were not his fault.  Suddenly, he could believe he was smart and that there was help available to get him through school with coping and compensating strategies.  On the other hand, I felt like the diagnosis was a terrible thing.  Would he always struggle in school?  Would he not be able to go to college?  Would he be unable to get a good job to support a family?

Shortly after we learned of Will’s disability I was helping to lead a prayer group in the home of Jan Bedell.  When I asked her if she had a job, she explained that she worked with children who struggled with learning.  I asked her if she was familiar with the term “dysgraphia.”  She shrugged her shoulders as she walked casually into the kitchen saying, “Oh, that’s just because of a disorganized brain.”  My jaw dropped to the floor.  The “death sentence” my son received seemed to be an easy thing for this lady to understand and to fix! 

Within a few months Will had an evaluation and two of his sisters and I went on program to improve our brains.  It was a busy four years that followed of doing what seemed like crazy activities.  I say it like this because in all my training for a Texas teaching certificate and in all my 15 years of teaching in public, private and home schools I had never heard of neurodevelopment.  Nobody had ever taught me about the brain and how to make it work better so learning could be easier.

Today, Will is a successful upper classman at McMurry University in Abilene and his two sisters are making straight As with an extraordinary online high school called College Preparatory Academy.  My brain is working better, too, because now my closets and cabinets are organized, I can remember a 7 digit phone number and I only rarely lose my keys or sunglasses.

You ask, “Could my child have dysgraphia?”  At Little Giant Steps we say “no” to labels and “yes” to hope.  We don’t focus on the learning disabilities or assume they can’t be remedied.  Instead, through an evaluation process and an individualized neurodevelopmental program we help our clients build new nerve pathways so their brains work better.  [It's called neuro-efficiency.]  Carefully chosen physical activities target strategic parts of the brain to improve organization.  Clients play auditory and processing games to increase their short term memory that results in global maturity for children.  For adults these games help keep the mind sharp.  As brain function improves, learning gets easier.

Where does one begin to share about one of the greatest gifts God has given our family? Little Giant Steps has been part of our lives for almost 2 years and has truly changed our son’s life. Luke was 9 when he began the program. To understand the miracle LGS has been, you need to know a bit about Luke’s story.

From birth, Luke was not making the normal “mile stones.” Since he was our third child we knew what to expect. It was at his 9-month appointment we started a battery of tests to search for answers. His diagnosis ended up being mild to moderate Cerebral Palsy. The doctors shared that they did not know if he would ever walk or talk. Eventually, our son mastered both. From 9 months on, Luke has always had some form of therapy and he has slowly progressed. Then at age 4, Luke began to have complex partial seizures. These were controlled by medication. Luke went to our local elementary school and we were pleased with the care he received. But, he always seemed to take one step forward in mastering something, to take three steps back. We tried many various options, from repeating Kindergarten to trying more time in “therapy.” Nothing ever seemed to help…

In fourth grade, we moved and our new school was not able to accommodate his special needs. We were distraught to say the least. As we looked into other options, each one had roadblocks. Weeks before the new school year were to begin; a friend asked if I had heard of LGS. Unfortunately, we had not up to this point. Quickly, we watched a video, hopped around on the website and made an appointment to be evaluated. (To be honest, we had to be very creative in our finances and even at this point, God provided).

From the beginning, EVERYTHING about LGS has been exactly what we needed. Jan Bedell has been a tool in God’s hands to literally begin to transform Luke’s life in a few short months. Luke has struggled from day one with an array of challenges from physical to learning (dysgraphia, dyslexia, processing issues and at age 9, he still was unable to read). Once evaluated, we began our INP and within 6 weeks Luke was reading. His retention seemed to double, his tactile issues lessened and over all our son’s confidence began to change.

Recently, our journey has been marred with more challenges in regards to Luke’s health. Last year, he was diagnosed with a low grade, brain tumor. Sadly, Luke’s hippocampus was removed, along with part of his temporal lobe. We had to take a break from LGS and months ago begun the program again. While Luke is healing, there is clear evidence that his memory is hindered. Our hope is God will use LGS once again to do what no other program or therapist has ever accomplished.  So far, we see good progress.  I am not sure what would have become of Luke had God not placed LGS in our lives. It has done miracles in our boy…and we are forever grateful for Jan’s evaluations, Michelle’s constant contact, guidance, encouragement and Alyssa’s administrative gifts.

       It Works In Schools – It’s Guaranteed – It’s Rapid Recall System

“What a fantastic math facts system!  In 18 years of teaching, (first-graders) I have tried many ways to teach math facts but this system was by far the easiest to implement and I had better results with this system than anything else I have tried – all in just 7 minutes a day!   Even my lower-level students flourished and were successful under this system. (3 students did 100% in 3 min or under.)

Here are just a few of the results that made me sit up and take notice:

   Child #1 – Able to do all 70 problems in 2.5 minutes – 100%!

   Child #2 – Unable to identify numbers at year start. At end of the year, he did better than all the top students in other first-grade classes. 

                      My biggest success story in math! 

   Child #3 – Considered RTI, he was easily able to do math and was  keeping up with the rest of the class.

                   An Exciting and Unexpected Result

After using the neurodevelopmental approach in my classroom this past year, my students improved academically, gained strength physically and matured emotionally.  These students individually were able to complete sequences of tasks without prompting, as well as staying focused on the task that was before them.  Other adults around them commented that their reasoning skills as well as their organizational skills were far above those of peers.  Unlike other first grade classrooms in my past 18 years of teaching and those around us not participating in the program, these students were more respectful of each other and worked together to accomplish tasks without arguments.  Students were successful, so both the students and teacher’s stress level came down.   Together, we were working “smarter”, not harder.”

                                                                                     Tanda Trussell, First Grade Teacher, Plemons-Stinnett-Phillips CISD, Stinnett, TX  

Our son came up two years academically in 3 months after using the LGS Neuro-Educational Program. The biggest indicator of progress to me has been that he is reading for pleasure!  His problems are quite minor compared to what many families are dealing with, we were just frustrated at the lack of progress in several areas and felt like we needed an outside viewpoint. Jenny M.

Today I received a note from a girl who has struggled her whole life with severe dyslexia.  Her ability to communicate, despite her inability to spell was amazing!  There are so many bright, wonderful people in this world I wished we could reach and share with them. There are better answers to dyslexia than just learning coping and compensating strategies.  It’s unfortunate so many educators have been indoctrinated into thinking there is no way out of this disability.  I am here to tell you there is! Here are some of our test results.

View this video:  A mom of a dyslexic 10 year old boy.  You see, if you work at the root cause level of these disabilities, they can be remedied. Here’s another mom who worked with her son with a neurodevlopmental program over 30 years ago! You see…. “It’s In The Wiring”!

Little Giant Steps exploits the capability of  the neuroplasticity of the brain to create, repair and develop new connections.  If nothing is changed in the brain of the dyslexic person, then the function doesn’t change.  But, if you do the activities we’ve been doing with clients for almost two decades; we see them walk away from the symptoms that define the dyslexia label.  They walk away from the dysfunction.  They discover what it’s like to have good input and good output.  They discover what it’s like to be neurologically efficient. Their brain and body can communicate like never before,  because there are newly formed neuro-pathways!

If  you want to learn more on how to move beyond the dyslexia functional ability, then I suggest you order the Dyslexia Workshop by Jan Bedell, The Brain Coach. She has made this wonderful educational presentation available from some of her professional workshops done this spring.  This one is a “how to” workshop.  She’s priced it at $14.97!  What a bargain for something that can make a difference for the rest of a person’s life!  It’s never too late!  The neuroplasticity of the brain is there to be worked with at any age!  YOU and this wonder girl I heard from today can get started today in making a difference for the rest of ones life!