Posts Tagged ‘sensory disorders’

  PROBLEM: My Child Hates Wearing Shoes, Shirts With Tags

SUGGESTION:  These symptoms may be caused by a hyper-sensitive tactile system.  The Neurodevelopmental 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 neuro-pathways 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.

Little Giant Steps (LGS) is here for you!

Problem:  My child always seems to be getting into people’s “personal space”; he’s also very clumsy and bumps into things and trips a lot.

Suggestion:  These types of symptoms are typically from a lack of Proprioception (the body’s ability to know where it is in space).  The Neurodevelopmental Approach can provide specific stimulation to the brain to develop proprioception and remediate these issues.  The activity that is typically recommended for these symptoms is called “Deep Pressure” and provides stimulation to the brain to build neuropathways from the deep tissue in the arms and legs to the brain.  The parent uses their whole hand to press or squeeze each limb, starting with the tips of the fingers and working their way up on both the inside and the outside of the arm all the way to the shoulder; and for the legs, beginning with the tips of the toes and working their way up on both the inside and the outside of the leg to just past the knee.  Deep Pressure should be done for 4 minutes, twice a day, for 6 to 8 months for lasting benefit.  For more information on The Neurodevelopmental Approach, please visit www.littlegiantsteps.com.

  KEEP IT FUN!

Research has shown that children learn best from their parents. A family’s familiar communication styles, systems, and cues make learning easier, even on those days when things are a struggle. Regardless of whether you are working with a child on a neuro-developmental program from Little Giant Steps, or doing curriculum or homework; the best thing to keep up front is your sense of humor. Teach through the eyes of a child - full of wonder, craving adventure, loving discovery of new things, and most of all, loving the undivided attention and interaction between you and your son or daughter or both!

INTENSITY, FREQUENCY, SHORT DURATION

When there is fun in the air, there is an added dimension of intensity that children love! Intensity is one of the defining features of getting stimuli to the brain. Repeated intensity  which leads us to the next step toward neurological efficiency is: Frequency (a couple of times a day). These two practices along with the last one I’ll mention will impact the brain to change, grow new pathways, and retain information.

Last,but not least is: Duration (short spirited sessions of two to ten minutes several times a day are more productive than spending a boring hour on a given subject). If you will focus on these three factors [Intensity, Frequency, and Duration] you will greatly impact any individual’s learning, whether on a formal neuro-developmental program, or not!

NOTICE: If some of you really don’t have any ideas for implementing fun with your child, please email me cj@littlegiantsteps.com and I’ll send you some examples you may like to incorporate into “teaching” your child and enjoying it more.  God bless.

A Solution That Works!

For over twenty years Little Giant Steps has been providing evaluations, academic testing, screenings, developed neuro-developmental programs, neuro-educational curriculum, tools, and learning aides. We have witnessed thousands of children (despite age or I.Q.) discover learning can be fun, fulfilling, and confidence-building by utilizing programs that change the root of functional problems by addressing and changing the connections in the brain – the source of our cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual development!  Please investigate. Then, take advantage of the free articles, auditory test kits, visual test kits, free webinars, and  free consultations. When you discover the program that makes sense to you, follow up and do it!  We work with people in our clinic, but also have great at-a-distance programs. In fact, Jan Bedell, our founder and mother of a challenged child, is so passionate about making the neuro-developmental/educational approach available to all who are searching for help, she’s developed a program that is done at home only. Developmental Foundations is one of many things she’s developed to help your child.

As a mother recently told me, “I realize with the changes I’ve seen in my daughter’s abilities to learn, and the her whole outlook on life improve, I can dedicate myself to working with her for however long it takes, because I now see and know that the time I invest with her will be a short time in MY life, but the benefits will for HER will be a whole LIFETIME!

Good luck!  Parents know their children better than anyone. You can do anything you set as a priority. Go to www.littlegiantsteps.com and gain the knowledge you need to proceed in changing your child’s life. Help them experience their true God-given potential!

What Is A Parent To Do?

There is nothing more frustrating than not knowing what to do when your child clearly needs help! In my personal case, I knew something wasn’t quite on target, with my youngest son. Even his pre-school teacher talked to me about him.  She said, “He is so bright, articulate, and comprehends beyond his years, but there’s a “glitch” somewhere. He can’t seem to do things he should be able to do. He may have a learning disability. Don’t misunderstand, your son has very high intellect, but I don’t know what we’re looking at, but I will tell you to watch and see how he develops in the next two years. You may need to find some intervention – I wish I knew more – just be aware.”

Seeking A Solution Can Be Frustrating

She was right. My son definitely had trouble learning things. While I’d watched my oldest son breeze through acquiring academic skills, my poor little one seemed like he was trapped in a glass bubble with no access to anything easily. He was so determined, and most painful of all, was that he was very much aware of what was happening around him and he would ask me, “Mom, what’s wrong with me…. I should be able to do things like other kids.” Then came the real heart breaker when he announced, “I’m just dumb, stupid! I can’t do what normal people do!”

It took me ten (10) years before I found a solution! It wasn’t because I wasn’t asking for help, either.  I even became known as the pain in the” you-know-where” to all of the elementary teachers.  They saw me as a meddling, over-protective mother hen.  The schools wouldn’t test him, because he was doing above average work, even though they recognized he struggled terribly!  He was so aware of the things he should be able to do, but couldn’t execute regardless of how much we drilled, coached, suffered. He could do advanced math in his head perfectly, but couldn’t translate that to paper. He showed all the signs of dyslexia, but no one would test him!!!!

Finally, I gave up on the school and drove 250 miles to a Montessori school to talk with them (I was ready to commute with him, because as each year went by, he got more and more discouraged and depressed.) They saved his life by telling me it sounded like he had a developmental problem. They thought I should seek out a professional neuro-developmental specialist. Was this a doctor? I’d never heard of such a professional. (I had a medical background and was surprised that I’d never heard of a neuro-developmental specialist.)  No, most of them are teachers with specialty training in neuro-development, academic testing skills, and understand how to get these kids like my son on track. They even told me some of the kids they knew had their learning disability eliminated! Needless to say, I found a neuro-developmental specialist with these skills. I had my son evaluated. He had dyslexia (even though they were not big on labels), he also had some serious eye tracking/ hand coordinating problems and they had us see a developmental optometrist. They put a program together. We saw our son begin to blossom in so many ways. Today he’s the one with the doctorate in our family!!    See us tomorrow for part 2.

 A Great Service For Children Struggling With Learning.

Remember, learning issues, disabilities do NOT have to be a life sentence!

Little Giant Steps will be offering Neuro-developmental Screenings in OKC on May 2^nd. We have a few appointment times open. If you or anyone you know would like to take advantage of this special offering: $25 for each family member, plus a free seminar to teach how to interpret the testing and discover your child’s current level of processing, and resources you can use at home; please have them contact Neuro-Educational Specialist, Ruth Young (be sure to give her your phone number). Ruth will be providing screenings that day. She will schedule your child, give details, and answer any questions.

Thank you for sharing this information with those who are seeking help for thier child.

 What a Difference A Neuro-Educational Program Can Make

Meet Timothy.  Little Giant Steps,(LGS) and his dedicated family had the pleasure of working together toward making learning easier, successful, and opening doors that seemed to be closed to him. I hope his story will encourage you, and if your child needs help, then visit our services page on our website.

We provide professional neuro-developmental and academic testing followed by an individualized Neurodevelopmental Program and Training, which is what Timothy’s family chose to do.  However, we also have programs that will meet the learning issues or problems, regardless of where you live.  Jan Bedell, M.Ed., M.ND., founder of LGS has created neuro-educational programs such as  ”At-home Programs,” “Developmental Foundations“ and “At-A-Distance Programs” so you have a choice.  If you live outside of our home state of Texas, we can help you help your child, teen or adult to become neurologically efficient, and make learning easier regardless of age or I.Q.  Whether your loved one is gifted, typical or challenged; receiving, comprehending, storing and recalling information can be improved and you will see a confident and successful individual emerge as a result.  Now, listen to Timothy’s mom in 2009:

“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, “No, 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,

NOW…FOR THE UPDATE WRITTEN IN APRIL 2013!

” Timothy is doing great!  He is making mostly A’s in school. The teachers are blown away with the fact that he really doesn’t need any accommodations especially when taking the standardized tests.  He reads very well but struggles with spelling.  I cannot tell you how many times he notices how much better he reads than his friends who are dyslexic. He says, mom, they need Jan Bedell’s program!

The reason I am contacting you is because Timothy is on the tennis team at his middle school and will try out for the high school team in May. He has found that if he does the skip cross before he plays his match, he does better. So, he wants to know if there are any exercises or movements that would increase his coordination. He really is doing very well in my opinion but he wanted me to ask anyway.  Tell Jan thank from us.” D.C.  

Seeing Is Believing

Early Learning Foundations is a program developed by Jan Bedell, the Brain Coach, who was the founder of Little Giant Steps. It is program based on the Neurodevelopmental Approach. For those lucky enough to seek an educational program that also addresses the root causes of learning struggles, they will discover the difference between teaching coping and compensating techniques, and actually fixing the underlying problem.

Ok, now be exposed to what this mom has to say about Early Learning Foundations:

“We received the package you mailed us with the student work book and Bible flash cards….THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  We are greatly enjoying our “new” school time and the boys love having their own workbooks!  With this, I thought it would be nice to share the big hug with you that my second son gave me when I pulled out his very own workbook…so please consider yourself bear-hugged by my 5 year old this morning!

Please also extend our appreciation to Jan and the rest of the team for their loving endeavor to provide an easy to follow “structured” approach to combining math and the basic block of ND program exercises through the Early Learning Foundations Curriculum!  This curriculum has really helped us stay more on program the last two weeks AND has made integrating our personalized programs into the day much more achievable!  Needless to say, our boys are enjoying the school-exercise routine that’s finally getting (consistently) set in our home! The bonus for us as parents is that we’re really beginning to SEE differences in their processing and social skill abilities since adopting this ELF program into our personalized exercise program….the consistency and repetition really do help(!).  So, thanks for physically showing us HOW to integrate it altogether with ELF so we that could achieve this new level of growth in our ND program!

Thanks again for your help with our inquiries and blessings on you!  We’ll look forward to working with your team again for the next level of ELF! JP & Co.     Have a great day from all of us at Little Giant Steps!

Developmental Tip: Handwriting

Your child may know how to form letters and numbers but doing it neatly is a challenge. You may have taught your child to hold a pencil right but there is still a struggle. These types of symptoms are typically from a lack of good brain/body connections. The distance from the brain to the finger tips is a long way for signals to travel. The Neurodevelopmental Approach can provide specific stimulation to the brain to remediate these issues. The activity that is typically recommended for these symptoms is called “Deep Pressure on Hand and Arm” and provides stimulation to the brain to build neuro-pathways from the deep tissue in the arm to the brain. The parent uses his thumb and pointer to press or squeeze each of the child’s fingers, starting with the tips of the fingers and working into the child’s palm. Then the parent uses his whole hand to press or squeeze the child’s arm from the hand working all the way up the inside and outside of the arm all the way to the shoulder. “Deep Pressure on Hand and Arm” should be done one minute two times a day for six to eight months for lasting benefit.

“How I wish this had been around when I was a struggling math student!”

So says, Sarah Andrews, curriculum reviewer for Home Educating Family. Here’s the rest of what she has to say:

Math and I do not always get along well. I was one of those kids who still counted on my fingers in middle school. Eventually, I did learn how to add without the assistance of my fingers, largely due to my mom’s insistence that I must learn my math facts. I was determined that my kids would learn basic math facts from the beginning. That turned out to be easier said than done. Then, I tried the Rapid Recall System from Little Giant Steps. How I wish this had been around when I was a struggling math student!

For more information regarding learning from Little Giant Steps, see HEDUA’s video with Jan Bedell:

You can buy Rapid Recall one operation at a time.   (Register to set your account on the right side bar)

Or, buy a Complete Set of Rapid Recall Scroll down the page (all four operations – +, -, x, ÷) at discounted price.

More on the review…….  The system consists of the Teacher Play Book that includes a Play-by-Play Instruction Disc and Audio Input CD, one Student Practice Book, and flash cards. The Visual Input and Bonus Daily Review Disc is available separately for $15.77, but is not required for the program. The Rapid Recall System is available for addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts. The Play-by-Play Instruction Disc and Visual Input and Bonus Daily Review Disc both require a computer with optical drive to play. The Audio Input CD only requires a regular CD player. Each student will need their own copy of the Student Practice Book. Additional copies are available for $17.77 each.

The stack of material used for Rapid Recall can seem a bit intimidating at first, but it really is a simple program. I recommend that you read the Teacher Play Book and watch the Play-by-Play Instruction Disc right from the start. They explain the different steps of the program and how to implement it. The first two weeks are different from the rest of the system, and cover math facts that include 0 or 1. Detailed instructions for the first two weeks are included. Week 3 and on follow a simple pattern:

1. Listen to the Audio Input CD track for the week.
2. Visual input session using either the flashcards, or the Visual Input and Bonus Daily Review Disc.
3. Discovery game using the Audio Input CD and a worksheet from the Student Practice Book.
4. Speed drill using a worksheet from the Student Practice Book.
5. A second visual input session.
6. Optional review using either the flashcards, or the Bonus Daily Review Disc.

Each of these steps should only take one to three minutes to complete. However, they should not be done all at once, but rather spread out throughout the day.

What I like best about the Rapid Recall System:

• The same basic system is used for learning addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Using the same format means that my kids can go through all four systems without having to adjust to a different teaching style. It also means that I don’t have to learn how a new system works!
• This system can be used in either a classroom or homeschool setting.
• It is a simple and easy to implement system. Despite the fact that it sounds rather complicated at first, once I watched the teacher disc and read the teacher book, it all makes sense. Breaking it up throughout the day also sounds difficult at first. I find it easiest to do one step between each subject. That breaks it up sufficiently, and makes it easy to remember to get all of the sessions in each day.
• It really does work! I used Rapid Recall with my first grader, and my third grader. Both of them enjoy the short sessions. Most importantly, they retained the facts that they learned!

What I didn’t like as well about the Rapid Recall System:

• The Teacher Play Book on its own doesn’t give me a clear enough picture of how the system worked. I had to watch the presentation on the Play-by-Play Instruction Disc before I understood exactly how to implement it.
• The Audio Input CD tracks include some odd sound effects throughout each track. The reason for this is not made clear, and though my kids don’t mind them, my husband and I find them a bit annoying.

The Rapid Recall System is aimed at elementary students, but you could easily use it with students of any age who are struggling to learn their math facts. Even though I would like the instructions in the Teacher Play Book to be a bit clearer, I still find the program very easy to use. My kids enjoy it, and I am certainly pleased with the results! I will not hesitate to recommend this for any family on the market for a program to help their child learn math facts quickly and easily.

You can buy Rapid Recall one operation at a time. (Register to set your account on the right side bar)

Or, buy a Complete Set of Rapid Recall (all four operations – +, -, x, ÷) at discounted price.