Posts Tagged ‘Neuro-Educational Approach’

 This mother would like others to know how life can change dramatically with the Neuro-Educational Programs for children that struggle.

“Where does one begin to share about one of the greatest gifts God has given our family? Little Giant Steps (LGS) 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, M.Ed., M.ND. Certified Neuro-Educational Specialist (The Brain Coach) 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 hippo-campus 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 Alysa’s administrative gifts.”

We will keep up with Luke and let you know as he moves through this setback.  In the meantime, pray for recovery and that he be restored.  The plasticity of the brain is amazing, and no one knows it’s boundaries in cases like Luke’s.  We’ll keep you posted.  May God bless all children who struggle with learning.

Helpful Products:

Stretching a hyper-flex ball for a minute two times a day will build up the flexor muscles of the fingers.  Consider products like putty-eye creatures, squirt fish, poppers, puzzibits and button on a string to develop cortical opposition (index and thumb touching pad to pad) which is important for manipulating a pencil.  A “claw” can train muscle memory for holding a pencil correctly. 

Learn more about utilizing developmental advantageous toys to make the best opportunities available for your child as they get ready for their academic future!    Little Giant Steps offers free articles that instruct you in how to make a big difference in your child’s learning experience.  We back up this instruction with a wide array of products to make the most of the opportunitiy you have in helping your child’s brain get organized, insure mind-body connections that in turn gives them improved processing abilities, better thinking and comprehending abilities and most important is neurological efficiency for ease of learning that develops curiosity and a true love of learning!

 I just had to share a few more things from parents about the Early Learning  Foundations program and thought you might like more information about it. There is level 1 an level 2.   You can start your 2 to 5 year-old child on the road to success with this multi-sensory curriculum for early learners, and this program is a real bonus to those with learning difficulties. Best of all it’s fun and the children love it!  We’ve added a new DVD to teach you how to use this program more effectively! All facets of the activities within this program will stimulate the brain to improve and enhance your child’s Auditory, Visual, Tactile and Gross Motor abilities. You’ll be amazed at your child’s new found skills when they become neurologically organized. They will be able to stay on task, follow directions and they will enjoy learning.  Now, let’s listen to the parents:

“My 3 year old grandson absolutely loves to do his Early Learning Foundations each day. In fact, he would like it if I’d let him continue past the two pages you recommend. Each day he wants to do more. He had terrible ear problems between ages 1 & 2. He missed a lot due to not hearing and his speech was distorted. It’s amazing how he’s picking up in his speech now that we’re doing some of the neurodevelopmental activities. Thank you for helping our children!” C.R.  

“My three year old really enjoys working on the activities. One day I got some other activity books out that I had bought at the department store, my little guy said, “no mommy, I want my big school book (meaning the Early Learning Foundations notebook)” K. C.

Come visit the Little Giant Steps Store and see all the wonderful curriculum we’ve developed.

Today on the radio I heard a message from our state govenment educating people about the importance of the the first five years of development in a child’s life.  One statistic quoted states: “Those children entering school lacking learning skills and are behind developmentally, tend to stay “behind academically” throughout their entire school experience.”  On a state-wide basis they said, “If you want to retain a “good life”  and have our youth to grow up to be prosperous and innovative citizens, then we all must make sure they are made ready to learn by the time they go to school. We must invest time and energy in teaching them in their pre-school years.  This was music to my ears!  We all must take heed, as our slippage in our children’s academic abilities are at an all time low. The U.S. A. now ranks 9th in the world!

Little Giant Steps has been in the business in reclaiming academic lives since 1992, and we also noted our pre-schoolers are lacking in neuro-efficiency (ability to receive, comprehend, store and recall information).  When you look back at what the capabilities were in this country and the rigorous educational expectations were, today’s learning abilities pale by comparison.  The good news is that we do have a program to get our two to five year olds on track and it’s called “Early Learning Foundations“!

Here’s a couple of notes we have received ~ From some very satisfied customers:

“I ordered Early Learning Foundations for my “just turned” 4 year old. This is the most incredible curriculum I’ve ever had!! It almost makes me have “momma guilt” for not having it for my two older children. I also ordered ABC’s in a Flash and look forward to using it. K. S. in Spring, TX

“I put the pages from Early Learning Foundations (ELF) in sheet protectors in a large notebook. My three year old really enjoys working on the activities. One day I got some other activity books out that I had bought at the department store; my little guy said, “No mommy, I want my big school book (meaning the ELF notebook)”. K. C. in Katy, TX

Start your 2 to 5 year-old child on the road to success with this multi-sensory curriculum for early learners, and this program is especially helpful for those with learning difficulties. We’ve added a new DVD to teach you how to use this program more effectively! All facets of the activities within this program will stimulate the brain to improve and enhance your child’s Auditory, Visual, Tactile and Gross Motor abilities. You’ll be amazed at your child’s new found skills when they become neurologically organized. They will be able to stay on task, follow directions and they will enjoy learning.

 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!

  Who says learning difficulties only happens in children?   There are adults who have spent their whole lives trying to figure out why they struggled so hard to learn, when they knew deep in their hearts they were smart, but for some reason they just couldn’t seem to receive and retain information like other people did.  Some got lost along the way due to never having rewarding experiences in their years in school. Some either dropped out, or chose paths that have lead them into conflict with people, institutions, and some ran afoul of the law.  Can you imagine what could have happened to these very discouraged souls if only they had someone to reach out and say, “Hey, you are smart, but your brain just needs a little help to prepare it to be ready to learn.”  So many of the adults we meet along the way have had lives of chaos and experienced very little confidence that they could ever be a success, not because they didn’t have the intellectual capacity, because they did!  What they had was a disorganized brain, poor early developmental experiences, very low auditory or visual processing skills. 
I have some good news! Lucky for those who are searching; there is a solution.  The brain can change,be trained and organized at the lower levels even if you are an adult.  As long as you are alive, the neuroplasticity of the brain is entirely ready, willing  and able to build new connections. There are techiques to make the changes so the brain becomes organized and all processing deficits, and other areas of dysfunctional symptoms in learning can be remediated and brought up to speed.
One of our Neuro-Educational Specialists has been working with an adult client with whom she shares the pleasure of watching a new world unfold for her as she embarked on her personal journey ina Neuro-Developmental Program. I’ll let the client tell you about her progress:
“I received the program. Thank you. Also, I’ve noticed that my ability to sight-read at the piano is better. I’ve really only been able to actually play a piece of music if I memorize it because, if I ever had to look down at my hands and back up at the music, I would be completely lost as to where I was on the page and as I would struggle to find where I was in order to keep tempo, it’s like all the notes on the page would be moving. It was so frustrating that I never wanted to read music again and decided to start doing my own thing at the piano. This isn’t happening as much anymore! P.C. Houston, TX”
We are so delighted she has discovered, like so many other of our clients; life can be very different, encouraging, and rewarding when the brain has had an opportunity to pick up those steps of development that were either missing, or needed proper stimuli to get them functioning.  Working in the world of Neuro-Education is a really rewarding experience.  We see people begin our programs with pain and struggle, then as they move on into more normal function; they blossom into people they’ve always wanted to be!  Now, that is exciting to watch!

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…..

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.

I was originally going to make my own digit span cards, and it never got done. So, I bought some (Digit Span Cards) from Little Giant Steps.

I bought some digit span cards. I love them. It is so much easier to get things done when everything is right there and done for you.  (Editors note:  We suggest you order a Free Test Kit to establish the current functional level of your child’s auditory and visual processing abilities. All directions are included with our products)

I bought the whisper phone- love it. My son is now saying Vincent instead of Sincent. I have also been using it with my other kids. My 8 ds had a hard time saving virgins (a bible quiz answer). Immediately he could say it correctly. Also, my almost 3 dd has been using it.

I bought some pencil grips -great!! Especially for my artistic ten year old.   I also bought Sequencing in a Flash and a cd. 

The service was very quick. I received my order in just a few days. (Thanks Jan)
P.S. Don’t forget there are a world of free information offered on their website, too!

www.littlegiantsteps.com ~ investigate, educate and bring your struggling child into his/her real potential!