Posts Tagged ‘PPD’

 It may seem strange to have LD and thankfulness in the same sentence.  But, the fact is we are so thankful that the LGS Neuro-Educational Programs are successful at remediating and even eliminating learning disabilities.  After 20 years we see the successes in the lives of those children, teens and adults who came to us struggling to learn, but meeting failure (despite the fact they were smart, some even were gifted) .  LGS was able to bring the good news: Learning Disabilities are not a life sentence.  They discovered what it was like to leave the failure-laden experiences in the past and turn to a new life of liberty and freedom to do well in their future.  Yes, we’re very, very thankful.

 Today I received a picture of my 5 year old grandson dressed as Dracula!  He looked pretty scary.  I’ve seen him through many costumes.  My favorite was when he was a little leprechaun, at age one and a half! 

So while children dawn all kinds of scary outfits for this weekend’s Halloween, I wanted to address something I’ve found that parent’s are sometimes frightened about when it comes to their children. 

A parent told me of  her child struggling with schoolwork.  She knew she was bright enough, but she couldn’t seem to organize her thoughts or remember things from one day to the next.  She said she was scared for her child’s sake.  She is loosing all her self-confidence and seems to be loathing herself, because she’s just not doing as well in school as she knows she can and she’s frustrated most of the time.  

With a worried look on her face,  she asked,”What does Little Giant Steps do?” 

First, we are a neuro-educational consulting group. I explained we simply test the child to see what a child’s, teen’s or adult’s current academic placement is by utilizing the same testing instruments utilized in schools. Those scores establish benchmarks as to the current academic performance.  Next, we check to see how neurologically efficient they are functioning in areas required for learning. Lastly, we look at their developmental status.  They are checked on 6 levels of  functional abilities and 9 levels of development.  The Neuro-Educational Specialist does the evaluation, then based on those areas where the child, teen or adult is having difficulty or show symptoms diagnosed in learning disabilities, an individual program is devised and very specific activities, cognitive and physical are recommended to help develop those areas in the brain that are not functioning up to that person’s grade or age level.   Then we teach the parent how to work with the child at home.  We  re-evaluate every 4 months and re-adjust the program until all of the symptoms or deficits are remedied or they are functioning at grade or age level.  This type of neuro-educational intervention is effective on so many kinds of developmental and educational under-performance.  It works for Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, Autism, PDD, Dysgraphia, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, and many other learning disabilities, even brain trauma.  It works because its a matter of re-wiring the brain so it can function with be best possible neurological efficiency, organization in the lower levels of the brain, and processing abilities and many more advantages when it comes to learning. 

 Just last week an article appeared that again confirms what we have known for two decades, but without brain scans:  “Imaging Study Reveals Brain Function of Poor Readers Can Improve.”  The study appears in the May 1 Biological Psychiatry and was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), one of the National Institutes of Health.  According to Dr. Sally Shaywitz (a member of the research team), the results show that “Teaching matters and good teaching can change the brain in a way that has the potential to benefit struggling readers.”  I am happy to report we are in our third year of working in public schools, gathering research data, teaching teachers how to utilize our programs and this year one of the schools we are in our second year of working with them, they went from academically unacceptable to an exemplary school!  So, now we hope to teach the teachers what we have known and done for thousands of individuals.  We know it’s all about input and stimulating the brain to get more efficient and re-wire or create new neuro-pathways. 

The one thing about being a parent of a child, or even being that person who doesn’t seem to function like everyone else around you, is that there is nothing to fear.  Learning disabilities are not a life sentence.  Much can be done to alleviate and even eliminate the symptoms of learning issues.  It  matters not whether you are gifted, typical or mentally challenged.  Life can become less frustrating, more satisfying and successful when a program like Little Giant Step’s is undertaken.  So, stop being scared for you child, or for yourself, or someone you know and love.  It is never too late to get over these deficits.  The neuroplasticity of the brain, is what allows the brain to change. It serves in re-routing and creating new neuro-pathways around areas not functioning well and builds stronger and more efficient neuro-networks that can increase the communication between the brain and the body and can open doors for you, your child or your loved one.  All can experience what it’s like to approach something new without anxiety, dread, and/or frustration and fear.  Investigate, educate and act.  That’s all it takes!  Have a blessed harvest season and stop being fearful of doing something that will change a life for the better.

   Several years ago I had the privilege of visiting a prison in Texas.  There are several ministries that assist inmates in their last 24 months of incarceration to prepare them to deal with the realities of the world outside the confines of the prison walls.  All of these programs are voluntary and they are prisoners who want to leave their past history behind them.  They lead exemplary lives in these programs. I went there to explore LGS doing a pilot research program and to talk about our  neuro-educational program. I presented  how over 15 years we had seen how through treating learning disabilities at the root causee (in the brain) had made significant functional differences in peoples lives.  Statistics show that most of those who are incarcerated in our society have some form of  learning disabilities.  I spoke not only to a group of 39 inmates taking part in the ministry program, but also to the Representatives serving on the Texas Criminal Justice Committee, as well as the warden.  There were two issues keeping us from providing such services and getting a research project off the ground:

1. Did this program resonate with the inmates.  Could they see the value and would they participate?

2.  Where could we find the funding for this project?

Before I finished my presentation, there were a flurry of notes being handed forward and put on the desk close to where I was standing.  After the presentation, I looked at these notes. Everyone of the inmates in attendance said they would participate in a research project.  As I described the symptoms of  learning disabilities and the symptoms, it was instant recognition for them.  Some even described their self diagnosis, or struggles they’d encountered since they were little and how negatively it had impacted their lives.  They talked about they were not dumb, but just couldn’t get things to stick in their minds, or couldn’t concentrate, but most of all they recognized themselves as I described the kinds of learning problems our clients encountered and the problems associated with these quirks of learning.  The inmates recognized there was hope. 

So, why would LGS consider working with prisoners?  Because we know it’s never too late!  We know the levels of frustration, the helplessness and hopeless that comes when a child repeatedly experiences that when they try to do things academically it  never comes out right.  We know how the impulsivity is fed by the rage of failure after failure, year after year. We know it leads to drop-outs in the school system.  Bad decisions become a way to vent the rage and hostility they feel and the self-hating behaviors that always leads to them falling though the cracks in our society. 

Through the LGS Neuro-Educational Program, we have seen children, teens and adults come back from lives that were on the brink of  being out of control.  We have seen them finally try and succeed.  We see their self-confidence build into purposeful positive actions and lives.  The inmates are still there. I pray God will help LGS find a way to make life-long positive changes for them at those crucial places in their brains, where the lower levels of organization, processing and comprehension abilities can be remedied so they can learn, know, understand and succeed like others on the outside.

If you wish to support these efforts.  Please send tax-deductable contributions to our non-profit:  Steps Of  Hope

Problem:  My child hates math.

Suggestion:  The Neurodevelopmental Approach to academics takes the stress out of academic performance (output) by providing lots of information (input).  Don’t send your child off to another room to do an entire page of math drills of a concept they are struggling with or just learning; this kills the motivation to learn and any enjoyment of learning!  Take the stress and tears out of your math sessions by spending just 10 to 15 minutes on math, twice a day.  During these short math sessions, when you are teaching a new concept, the parent/teacher should do three problems and then have the student do one similar problem and repeat.  Once the student understands a concept, you can gradually work up to the parent/teacher doing one problem and the student doing one similar problem.  For more information on The Neurodevelopmental Approach, please visit www.littlegiantsteps.com.

Problem:  My child does not like to be touched.  He is also irritated by tags in clothing and wearing shoes. 

Suggestion:  These symptoms may be caused by a hyper-sensitive tactile system.  The Neuro-Educational Approach can provide specific stimulation to the brain in order to normalize the tactile system.  The activity that is typically recommended for these symptoms is called “Tactile Gloves” and provides stimulation to the brain to build neuropathways from the topical tissue sensors in the arms and legs to the brain.  The parent should use scratchy bath gloves to gently rub their child’s hands, arms, feet and legs.  Use a very light touch, like you are rubbing on lotion over the entire surface of each limb, from the tips of the fingers to the shoulders and from the tips of the toes to just above the knees.  This tactile stimulation should be done for approximately 3 minutes, twice a day for 6 to 8 months.  For more information on The Neurodevelopmental Approach, please visit www.littlegiantsteps.com.

Why are so many students struggling?

Many years ago, when our educational system was developed, we were primarily an auditory society. The current education system is based on oral instruction as one of the primary means of teaching. (Young) This type of academic presentation was developed for an auditory society. Today, however, with the advent of TV and huge advancements in technology, our society has become primarily visual. Our children spend many hours a day with what is termed “screen time” activities, from TV to video and computer games, with more seeming to appear daily. The lack of auditory processing ability, due to prevalence of mostly visual opportunities, causes individuals to use compensating skills such as being alert to visual cues, picking up body language, and anticipating what will be said in order to function in day to day life. (Young p.7)  These compensating skills work well through the early part of elementary school because of the repetitive nature of the teaching techniques. When approaching middle school years however, listening demands accelerate significantly and picture cues are dropped from textbooks (Young) leaving the student with auditory processing challenges at a loss. Auditory processing ability is not some mystical or magical skill which a child either has or they don’t; it must be developed by experience and practice in listening. Without experiences, there are no concepts; without concepts, there’s no attention span because the child doesn’t know what people are talking about. (Healey, 1991, p.41) The huge number of attention problems in children and adults contributes greatly to the number of individuals labeled and plagued with attention deficits.

What is Processing and Why is it Important?

For our purpose, processing will be synonymous with short term memory. Processing, both visual and auditory, is very significant to intellectual functions. (Ness, Kay (2) 1999). Since auditory processing has more of a global effect on an individual. Auditory processing is multi-faceted.  There are many components that show the complexity of the term, “auditory processing.” In mild to moderate auditory processing instances, the individual might have the label of ADD or ADHD as many of the symptoms on these checklists are also symptoms of low auditory processing. In severe instances, an individual might have all or some of the symptoms listed below and could have the label of CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder). This refers to an “input” disorder that affects, specifically, the way auditory information is processed at a variety of levels in the central nervous system. (Bellis, 2002, p.30) 

So, this is just a primer on Auditory Processing and I’d highly recommend you get a very special booklet that not only will cover more on this topic, but also offers things you can do to improve your or your child’s processing abilities. As they say, auditory processing is the best kept secret in education.  Investigate, educate and then make a difference to stop the struggle associated with learning issues.  Auditory Processing is a key component to eliminating many problems.

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.