Archive for the ‘The ND Approach’ Category

Here is a note from a teacher involved in a research program done in 2008-2009:

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 promptings 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. 

RAPID RECALL SYSTEM

What a fantastic math facts system!  In 18 years of teaching, 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.

Tanda Trussell, First Grade Teacher

Plemons-Stinnett-Phillips CISD

Stinnett, TX

Here is a note from one of our associates.  We believe in the ability to incorporate natural methods with the body.  This is one we’ve seen work more than once.  Here’s the account from Linda K.:

“I got this text about ten days ago …
            Cathy’s sister Mary fell on ice and cracked her skull. She is in the hospital fighting for her life. They have not been able to stop the bleeding.  Please pray.

I texted back…..
            Have anyone place hands on her.  Right hand on body, left hand perpendicular over top of the right hand and just stay there.  This is the TKM stop bleeding hold.

The next text in to me……
             Cathy wants to know how long to hold the position.

My next next text out…..
             Until the bleeding stops and then some.

The next text later that day to me…..
            Mary is doing so much better.  The bleeding has stopped!!

Mary went home two days later from the hospital.  All was well.

I do not usually check my phone while working with clients.  I had a young man working on a math test and I just felt the Lord’s tug to check my phone for messages.  What a great God we have.  What a great thing TKM is.”

When we came to Little Giant Steps two years ago, Timothy was barely passing 2^nd grade.  He wasn’t reading very well, couldn’t remember things that he learned the day before, couldn’t concentrate because the noise in the classroom bothered him and he was just really frustrated.  At home, just cleaning his room was extremely overwhelming for him.

     One of the first things we noticed after he was on the program for about four months is that he was able to clean and organize his room with little supervision.  It is like we have a different child!      

     Timothy has been back in public school for 4^th grade (after being home schooled for 1½ years and focusing on the Little Giant Steps program) and is making mostly A’s and a few B’s.  His reading has improved beyond our wildest hopes.  He has improved exponentially in every academic area.  His teacher said, “I don’t know what you did with him, but this is not the same child as in 2^nd grade.” 

     I met with Timothy’s dyslexia teacher recently because she sent out results of her end of year testing. Even though the report showed that his scores increased in every area, I wanted to know if this was satisfactory progress. His teacher said, “N o it wasn’t just ok progress, it was GREAT progress!”. She said he was the “STAR of the class” and that all of the students look to him. For example, at the beginning of the year he could read 15 out 50 words. At the end of the year he could read 45 out of 50 of the words on this specific test. She said most kids do not make this much progress the first year!!!  She said, “You know, he still has a whole year left in this class.” 

     Here are Timothy’s TAKS scores for this year: 

• Reading:  93 (only missed 3 out of 40). This score is one point away from “commended”.
• Math:  82 (only missed 8 out of 42). Because of this score, he will not be pulled out of class next year for math tutoring.
• Writing:  72 (only missed 7 out of 28).  His writing improved a lot this year and I know it will continue to improve next year.

     We are so proud of him and he is proud of himself, also. These scores are just more evidence to substantiate that the ND approach to learning is incredibly successful!   D. C. in Frisco, TX

The people who come to Little Giant Steps (LGS) usually are at their wits end trying to find a solution for their child’s learning disorder or problem.  Because we work from a natural developmental approach, we see things like this mother describes daily!  And it’s really fun seeing success and confidence growing and glowing in the faces of our clients.

“When I was asked to use one word to describe my experience with Little Giant Steps, I said, life-changing. When our daughter started the program, she was highly frustrated, emotional, and her attention span was terrible. The only way she could focus on school work was in a totally quiet environment. She wanted to help and follow instructions but could not remember. She was also hyper-sensitive, we had to cut out all tags from her clothing. Megan improved two grade levels in math, word recognition and comprehension in one year. She can now read in a noisy room and leaves most tags in her clothing. Her auditory processing skills have improved dramatically. We know that Megan would have been given several different labels if we had taken her to Scottish Rite. We feel blessed that Little Giant Steps has given us hope for her future. Thank you and God’s blessings. “T. E. in Plano, TX

“Thank you so much for the encouraging words and advice – it really helps me to stay motivated and hopeful. I appreciate this group so much.

FREEDOM

 And now…. I have some great news from my “neuro-program” boy… he learned to ride his bike without training wheels this week! Last year he just did not have the skills at all, but this spring he had picked up on his own and started riding his scooter, and his balance was so good on it that I thought it might be time to try the bike again. It took only one good head start from Daddy, and he was off down the road – he even turned a curve and came back!!!  He was so excited!!  He drove into the driveway, dropped his bike over, and came running up to high-five his daddy and me, saying, “I KNEW I COULD DO IT!!!” This is from the little boy who suffers with feelings of failure at so many things. And his sisters and brother were running along behind him cheering him on, and one of the neighbor boys shouted “YOU ROCK ISAIAH!” He was so proud and needless to say we were, too.

I wanted to share this with you guys, since I seem to share only when I get discouraged. I can see where his program has really helped his body awareness this past year, among other things. I am praying for more to come! “ ~ Selena

Audra is doing some of the same curricula that she did during her first 9^th grade year (the year she only completed ½ or less of her work and God provided LGS at the end of the year.) She was dreading it, saying she hated geography and literature.  Today is our 4^th day of school.  She has already completed her literature assignments for the week, and she says she understands it!  She is also really enjoying geography! I know now that a lot of the reason she didn’t like those things was because her reading level was so low that she couldn’t understand it. I thank God daily for LGS and the help this has been for my daughter.  Audra’s mom, Jeannette D.

It is amazing how nature will heal, if the right stimuli and system is set in order.  Read about this child’s recovery from his mother:

“A couple of days ago we were driving home. A song came on the radio and from the back seat I heard, “Oh, this is my favorite song. I love this song.” It was Jeremy. The song he was referring to is a good song, but his words were more beautiful to my ears than any song could ever be. It was not too long ago that Jeremy would ride in the car with us and never comment on anything. He didn’t look out the window. He never said a word. Not only is he talking, he is expressing his opinion, and he knows what he loves.

Today, we are home together watching it snow. He is playing with his toys on the floor. The radio is on and Jeremy is singing a worship song about Jesus… another song he loves…. what a beautiful sound.”

 The LGS Neuro-Educational Approach is a program that provides the necessary brain stimulation to form neuro-pathways that were never developed during the earlier developmental stages of a child’s life. Each child will advance according to their own capacities.  (It also works on teens and adults – see test results) There are a myriad of things that keep our children from developing neurological efficiency.  Some have to do with illness as infants, some have to do with ear infections, but by and large most of our kiddos who seem to be bright, yet struggle with school were never given adequate exposure to activities that early on organize the lower levels of the brain, build a strong neuro-networks and connections.  We are raising a generation of children who have missed being on the floor and having “tummy time” which allows for the body to help stimulate and map the brain.  It is unfortunate we place our babies in the car seat when taking them home from the hospital, and for the majority of their infancy they remain in the up-right postion and miss getting all of the vital tactile, neuro-stimuli that is required in order to process information at lightening speed and efficiency.  It’s all about the  mind-body connections.  What the LGS Neuro-Educational Program does is to work with the plasticity of the brain to form, repair and even create connections / neuro-pahtways to enhance internal communication.  Most of the “learning disability” symptoms literally go away when the child is experiencing the benefits of a well organized brain, good auditory & visual processing abilities (yes, we work with that along the way) and other areas that may show up in the child’s evaluation.  To discover more about our very successful programs, click here.   There are free articles for you to investigate the science, philosophy and design of our neuro-educational models.   Now, let’s listen to Jenny, a mom who discovered how her son could be helped:

“Our son came up two years academically in 3 months. 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.

By the way, we have designed curriculum utilizing our approach, as well as a Neuro-Edcational Program called Developmental Foundations which is an at-home program that will get your child up and running with improved academic abilities.

After 6 months on the Neuro-Educational Program this mother of a 6 year-old with developmental delays wrote: “Jeremy is doing VERY well. He’s getting easier to work with. His attention span is increasing and he loves the Early Learning Foundations (Math N’ More)! He likes to listen to the counting CD while he copies his numbers.

This morning at about 6:00 a.m., he was awake and I could hear him talking in the monitor. He was calling out, “Mom…” ~ That was a first! He has referred to me as mama for a while, but that was the first time he called out to me to come to him.
He’s using many more words all the time. A few weeks ago, we saw his old Special Ed teacher at church. She hadn’t seen Jeremy for a couple of months. She was amazed at how he’s changed. Her exact words were, “Oh my goodness. He’s here, he’s really here. He knows what you’re saying and he responds. That’s great.” She also told us whatever we’re doing it’s working, so keep doing it! I told her all about Jan of course. Thanks again for everything.  A delighted mom in Edmond, OK

Still singing LGS praises to family and friends and loving what we see happening in Amelia’s life and consequently as a whole family.  Two things happened just on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  One was a “twilight zone” type of experience  with a neighbor’s dog.  Walking by on just a daily walk I realized “O’ the neighbor’s dog is here wanting to play with our dog…their garage door was open, no one was answering the door, then I made the connection that it was the time of day for the neighbor to be at the bus stop, etc.  So we just waited ‘til they came home (it was a wee bit crazier than this brief descript…) but through it all Amelia stayed calm, followed directions, met the other kids without any fears, and when I told her okay lets go on with our walk she came right to me without lashing out!  This was the first time I felt a “normal” feeling (I think ever) with her!  And I’m not exaggerating.  It hit me when we got home how what could have been disastrous and totally exhausting for me was “a piece of cake!” 

 Then yesterday we realized our doggy had a cut on one of her pads.  Two part PTL:  I had the energy to want to take both girls and go alone to the vet and both girls where wonderful.  I didn’t have Amelia sliding on the floor, twirling away, fighting against me to go “look” at something and they were quiet little “audience” members while in the exam room.  Now, we missed program yesterday; mom didn’t have it all together or the energy to do both yet!  But what this said to me is if just getting through the neurodevelopment part of our INP once was turning out these results then O’ how I long to get to everything twice!  So the prayer request becomes Lord grant me the strength and give both girls the desire to get to the frequency and duration of our program.