Posts Tagged ‘struggling’

  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.

Take Advantage of our Neuro-developmental (ND) Screenings

Certified Neuro-developmental Screener

Nancy Williams will be providing ND Screenings in Spring, TXMay 1st, 2013.  If you’d like to get a snapshot of your child’s current developmental function, then please email Nancy ( nwilliams@littlegiantsteps.com ) for appointment times, location details, and answers to any questions you may have.

For more details about what screenings cost, how they differ from a full professional ND Evaluations, please visit this page on our website.

Little Giant Steps, a neurodevelopmental/educational consulting group, has been providing services to those who struggle with learning for over twenty years. Remember, you can improve the levels of academic success – learning difficulties do not have to last a life-time! Conact Nancy today, space is limited.  nwilliams@littlegiantsteps.com

I thought development just happened naturally!

Almost everyone assumed that to be true, but as our society has “invented” items for the sake of safety, convenience, and progress, the human being has a natural path of development that has been interrupted from many of those practices we’ve adopted over the past 40 years.  As we’ve come along, there have been signs and symptoms that there was something happening educationally to our children. Now, we totally understand as we find ourselves in the midst of an epidemic of learning disabilities in our children. People back in the 1800s had better recall and processing abilities than most of our society does today! This decline in our learning abilities has been evident for over 40 years now!  Scientific research has born out the fact that we are raising our children from infants in ways that cause them to miss out on vital developmental steps. Thank heavens the Neurodevelopmental Approach was developed in response to this need.

If the brain and body do not establish strong, fast, and efficient-performing connections, there will be gaps and learning becomes a struggle which is most evident about age eight(8).  It’s at that time, because that is when the educational requirements will no longer accommodate a child’s natural coping and compensating strategies they’ve intuited in order to perform adequately in a school environment.  When their disorganized brain can no longer cope with the amount of information coming in, and they can’t keep up with the input, they are not storing the information where they can get recall; you often begin to see behaviors that show distress such as frustration, short tempers, lack of control, and sometimes very high ranges of anger displayed in as many forms as there are individuals!

What vital developmental steps are missing?

The most prevalent issue is that we are placing our babies in seats for most of their waking hours instead of where they need to be ~ on their tummies on a hard surface.  In order to map and organize the brain and get efficient neuro-pathways established, the body must send stimulating signals created through our sensory system efficiently to the brain.  That’s how God designed us, and no amount of technology will change the natural developmental progression of requirements of early development.  Quite frankly, God’s design will always outperform man’s technology!

A baby needs to feel resistance to let the brain know the signals from the limbs and body. The brain has to learn the functions of each part of our bodies, and get connected in the first six months of life.  The brain also needs to develop it’s ability to feel sensations, textures, temperatures, and begin to build into itself the distinguishing abilities of the millions of impulses it receives. On top of all the sensations it needs to learn about from the environment, and their cause and effect, it also has to learn about the babies “internal environment”!  It needs to develop the neuro-musculature required to be able to move the limbs, body, head, and all body parts in purposeful ways, rather than the reflexes and random movement we are born with.  In fact, all this developmental movement is a part of organizing the lower levels of the brain ~ a very distinctive and necessary part of learning successfully.

What can be done if our baby didn’t have time on the floor to develop properly?

So glad you asked!!  The answer is simple and natural.  Little Giant Steps has been developing corrective tools for families for over twenty years.  Jan Bedell, M.Ed., M.ND., LGS’ Brain Coach, has created an at-home program that can be administered to every family member, if they want to have improved receiving, storing and recall of information by getting DEVELOPMENTAL FOUNDATIONS.  You do specific activities for 2 minutes a day, twice a day for  3-4 months, or until the function shows up.  It’s amazing simple, everything you’ll need to be successful is in the kit, in fact you will be trained how to do the activities by being given access to our online professional training program. It’s a watch and learn training program that helps you to gain confidence in helping your family to unlock the key to their true God-given learning potential.  View the comments of those people who invested a short time and the powerful life-changing rewards they’ve experienced.  Just getting the family down on the floor crawling in a proper cross-pattern manner (Cross-pattern: opposite arm and leg extend forward at the same time ~ right arm, left leg, then left arm and right leg.) twice a day for two minutes for several months will help a great deal.  It organizes the brain!!

What if I need more direction on where to start?

So glad you asked that!!  Then Little Giant Steps has created a survey  just for those who feel they need more information. It allows you to be a bit more specific in your quest for information. You fill it out, email it to us and a Neuro-Educational Specialist or Neurodevelopmentalist will evaluate what you’ve stated and respond to you personally as to their recommendation! This free service is a part of our ministry in helping parents find the right fit or best solution for their child or themselves to eliminate learning difficulties. We deeply respect you, as you are the expert on your child, your family, or self.  You understand better than anyone their needs, struggles, and what makes to most sense in seeking a solution.  The one thing we would have you know profoundly: ” Learning disabilities do not have to last a lifetime”.  Have a blessed day.

 MANY CHANCES FOR SUCCESS

One thing we are finding more and more of these days with our preschool, and kindergarten children are that many display symptoms of having lower level brain disorganization. Organization of the brain is a naturally occurring developmental step, provided our infants were given the opportunity to be on the floor, on their tummies most of their waking hours.  Sadly, most of our children in the U.S. are being brought home in infant/car seats and they are spending most of their waking hours on their backs, waving their hands and feet in the air which doesn’t do anything to help the brain and body develop required neuro-pathways.  Without the stimulation of being on a hard surface where they can push, pull, feel,they need in order to create connections, help the brain learn the stimuli from the limbs, fingers, and toes and actually “map” their bodily systems, these little people are placed in a deficit learning position.  Another problem of sitting too much in seats, jumpers, swings, walkers, is the neuro-muscular strength-building process goes missing, too.  Am infant who is not pushing against hard surfaces which provides the neck and back muscles to gain strength and control will de destined to other probelms with their eyes (tracking, central detail vision, to name a few). The same is true for the extremities, their muscles will remain in a flaccid state, rather than develop strength, and tactility abilities.  All muscle impulses must be experienced by the brain so it can develop and organize the body’s system. Unfortunately for too many little ones, it just isn’t happening as our divine creator has designed with our new off-spring! The good news is that you can help develop these lacking abilitiesand bring them up to speed by working consistantly as directed by the Little Giant Steps’ Programs.  See this article about Teaching Babies.

 First things first

Regardless of the age of the individual, we first must get the brain and the body communicating efficiently. Jan Bedell, M.Ed., M.ND., has created a terrific video training called the Neuro-developmental Approach DVD.  If you watch it, follow what she teaches; you will see functional lagging or lack of function being developed as you work with your child both congnitively and physically through activities that stimulate the brain in just the ways it needs to be stimulated.

The next thing we see is the need to make sure your child’s processing abilities are at appropriate age or grade level.  If a child can’t process information, then their short-term memory can’t retain information long enough for them to learn effectively.  If the short-term memory is impaired, then the long-term memory is impacted, which makes for a serious life of struggling with learning, comprehending, retaining, and recalling information. A very sad state for too many of our kids these days.  How do you change that situation?  First order the Auditory and Visual Test Kits.  Please read the information on that page, as well.  By doing this test you will get a snapshot of your child’s, or family member’s current processing level or abilities.  It’s amazing how when whole families increase their processing abilities, there are fewer misunderstandings, frustrating times, and a more peaceful interaction when everyone is functioning at “grade level” or age-appropriate.  Not only does it solve lots of stressed social interaction, but the benefits of the academic acheivements are really amazing.  At my next post, we’ll talk about what next steps you can do to move into a harmonious, successful, and confidence-building life. A life that you can set in motion to become a well organized brain (through our brain training programs) and when you have neuro-efficiency, it’s been discribed by our clients as a simular experience of going from an internet dial-up line to a high speed, high performance connection!  Until next time ~ Blessings.

Math Can Really Be Fun!

(it’s on sale ’til Wed. Oct. 31st)  Order one or all four operations. It’s all on sale!

Discount Code: RRS35  

(you must sign in to order and get your discount – we do not sell or share your information).

Jan Bedell, The Brain Coach®, designed it to be fun!  She also utilized the Neuro-Educational Approach which calls for three very important things to be present: (By the way this program is great from ages 5 to adult!)

        I .INTENSITY ~  which is where the fun comes in. You smile, your eyes light up and you flip through the problems as fast as you can say the problem and right answer!  Remember with this method it’s all about INPUT!  We want them to learn, so it’s input, input, input, because output is a test!  You don’t even go to the tests until there has been sufficient input!  So, have fun. Let them hear, see, and say the problem for two intense minutes!  (See the fun these kids are having below!  Why? Because it’s always fun to get the problems right and life is more fun when you feel confident in your abilities!)

2. DURATION ~ All sessions are no more than 1 to 2 minutes in length!  That’s why Math can be fun…. it’s over in a flash!  That’s a part of the secret to this methodology! You quit while the brain is very stimulated and wide awake (the best environment for the plasticity of the brain to create change in the neuro-pathways and connections!)

3. FREQUENCY ~ Each session is done twice a day.  The good news….. you only spend 7 minutes a day actually doing the Rapid Recall System Program!!!  We just request that there be at least 10 – 20 minutes between each math facts session.  It’s not uncommon for kids to say, “Let’s do it some more!” Please restrain yourself!

See:  The Principal  Talks About Rapid Recall System

And yes, there are tests, because we are teaching math skills.  We look for speed and accuracy following sufficient input.

See This Classroom Taking A Speed Test.   Notice any thing different???  Are they having fun? Are they confident?  Rapid Recall System is truly a unique math facts program.  Order it while it’s on sale! Sign in, put in the discount code for great savings!  Discount Code: RRS35

There Is Overwhelming Evidence

Jan Bedell, The Brain Coach ®, created this very successful math-facts  program in 2005. It has been tested both in home school, as well as, in private and public schools.  All research shows it outperforms other programs, and the reason is because it is based on the Neuro-educational Approach.

Little Giant Steps leads those who need to learn math and retain it through a unique process.  Unique to the “typical math-teaching methods”, but not to the foundations of development of brain organization, improved processing (visual and auditory), and the importance for understanding sensory input, frequency, intensity, and duration and sensory output.

For a greater look into what is behind Rapid Recall System’s approach, please visit this article about the Neuro-developmental Approach by Linda Kane.

Test Rapid Recall System at Discounted Price

There are two weeks left to obtain one or more modules of Rapid Recall System at a greatly reduced price. Please don’t walk away from the best thing for learning math facts.  Sign into our Website,  Put the Discount Coupon Code  RRS35 when ordering on this page.  This offer expires October 31, 2012.

Little Giant Steps has a money back guarantee.  If you follow the directions as indicated and you don’t see improvement in math-facts performance within 30 days, send the module back for a complete refund of your money.

Test Eveyone In Your Family!!

Having a brain that’s organized, has excellent processing and memory abilities is available to everyone!  Little Giant Steps has been helping people help themselves for twenty years.  In fact, we know if you will order this free test kit, you can change the life of you, your husband and children by making sure everyone has developed age-appropriate and grade level function just by taking this test, then practicing as we direct within this booklet.

So… What are you waiting for???  Order it now!!  It’s free!  There is nothing as wonderful as freeing yourself or your child from the anxiety, loss of confidence, and just plain frustration because we can’t remember, can’t find things, can’t think fast enough!  Go, go, go!

 Remember the Smart Kid? The Totally Disorganized One?

We all have known very smart people who loose their keys, wallets, phones, clothes, etc.  They typically don’t get themselves to places on time, or remember what they were to bring with them when they did show up at the right time and place!  What on earth is wrong with them?

They can do advanced mathematics, blow everyone away with their ability to create complex science, language, art projects!  So what gives?  Little Giant Steps (LGS Services, Inc.) has worked 20 years helping people understand and remedy their dilemma. In fact, they will give you the answer today, free!  Please feel free to share this with all those who are struggling regardless of age or I.Q.

It’s Called Lower Level Brain Organization…

That is what is missing in these very gifted, yet developmentally incomplete, individuals.  But, do not despair!  The solution is there!  It’s not difficult, though it does take a bit of persistence to fix the gap that frustrates the bright guy and most of those dealing with him or her!  The “fix” will require at least two – five minutes a day from four to six months of specific brain-stimulating activity, (most folks comlete these developmental steps as infants) twice a day.

 Closing The Developmental Gaps

This by no means is rocket science!  But it works!  However, as a human being stumbling through life with most of their days disorganized, frustrated, anxious beyond belief, and with a low self-esteem, the solution is very natural.  It works regardless of the reason developmental steps were missed!  To really understand the solution, please read this article.  It has the answer!  In fact, if you want to check your or your child’s neuro-developmental function and age appropriateness in their auditory processing abilities,  Little Giant Steps will give you another freebie!  Order a Free Auditory Test Kit.  Stay tuned. I’ve got more really super things to offer for FREE!!  Have a great day!

The Answer:

Cultural practices we do everyday with our infants are costing them academic success! The practices I’m speaking of are developmental steps that are missed because we have been starting our children out by placing them in seats from the day they come home from the hospital and on through the next 10 months or so.  What you may have forgotten, or perhaps have never known was  the human brain and body were made to develop “after” the child arrives!  Little Giant Steps, a Neuro-Eucational Consulting Group supports families with game-changing technology that changes the root cause of learing difficulties. When a child is born, as my colleague Jan Bedell, Master Neuro-Educational Specialist, states, “They are really only functioning about a half step above a coma.” 

How  Could That Be?

You see, humans have the most complex of systems when you look at it from a technical point of view.  After all, we were made in God’s image and he’s extremely complicated!  Our brain was designed to run the machinery of our bodies.  However, the brain must first  “develop” connections to the body in the first months of life.  Everything is in place to have the neuro-pathways grow, except the stimulation.  That (stimulation) comes from parents and  practices we carry out daily and are exceedingly some of the most important aspects of developing their potential. The brain must be “mapped” much like a hard drive on a computer.  In order for the brain to know where the arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and all those “parts” to our body are and how to run them must come from being stimulated.  The brain must “learn” by repeated experiences of feelings, thoughts, motions, and actions.

The eyes must learn to track, the muscles must learn to lift the head and limbs. Movement, pressure, and stimulation is the name of the game for our new-born sons and daughters.  At first, the body has involuntary movements, but as it gets an opportunity to develop and receive stimulation, the brain learns to define where the stimulation is coming from and as it discovers more, it continues a refining of those movements until the brain can do an intentional act successfully (that’s just the mechanics of it.) Next, comes the sophistication of visual, auditory, tactile systems, not to mention the development of language, thought and motor skills.

So what’s that got to do with academic success?  It’s all about how we teach parents and teachers how to “REVERSE THE CURSE”. If your child is kept in a seat and not allowed to be on their tummy digging their toes into the carpet, or feeling with their hands the textures and temperatures beneath them, the pressure of pushing against a hard surfaces; then they miss these valuable developmental steps required by the brain. It’s not in a seat where the brain is best stimulated. Their hands and feet need to feel the pressure, the body and brain need to experience the rocking and locomotion attempts throughout their first year of life. Without “experiencing or feeling their body in the environment”, they cannot develop neuro-connections required for higher levels of development.  It would be like trying to build a building without a solid foundation beneath it. It may do fine for a season, but when it is tested through strong winds and physical forces, it will crumble under the pressure. (Ever see your child crumble under the pressure or have an emotional melt down, or loose self-confidence because they tried and tried so hard, yet failed?)

If your child didn’t have the opportunity to struggle on the floor on their tummies and discover how to move themselves, and develop the “cross patterning” (creeping and crawling) which is a total requirement for brain organization, then the lower levels of the brain can’t be organized.  Without lower level brain organization, then a cascade of developmental issues result.  Memory and motion are tied together.  Processing abilities are wired to our ears, as well as our eyes.  Do you see the implications?  Do you see how just this one cultural practice has impacted our children?  Can you see the possibility of why we are seeing so many children struggling with learning, or learning disabilities? 

The problem is that this is so basic and so simple, people discount the significance of these vital developmental steps. However, it is the truth. Babies need be on the floor, on their tummies, during their waking hours, not in seats where their arms and legs receive no stimulation (pressure, texture, temperature,).  Their poor little hands and feet are left to flail around in the air, their much needed torseau muscles are not receiving strengtening motion or activity. The natural progression of developing eye tracking, combined with body movement, neuro-muscular development, and brain organization is delayed and for some totally missed.  Our prisons are about 85 percent filled with people with learning issues and disabilities.  Yes, there is great cost associated with these facts I’ve shared.

The Good News

Developmental issues can be addressed very successfully, once identified, and the specific stimulation-requirements through a neuro-developmental programs are initiated!  That’s what every Little Giant Steps’ Neuro-Educational Specialist does.  They reclaim the academic life potential of each child, teen or adult they work with through cognitive, motion, specifically designed activities to set the foundation on solid ground, as it was intended.  The programs Little Giant Steps has developed does what nature intended, but were missed. Our programs create the needed neuro-pathways and connections between the brain and the body. As each individual’s program progresses they move from a disorganized brain to an organized brain. They gain what we call: “Neuro-efficiency”.  When there is neuro-efficiency, learning becomes easy, memory, processing, retaining and recalling information comes without effort or struggle regardless of how old or young one happens to be. The issues of eye tracking, memory, processing are remeied, as well. It’s never too late to gain those missing elements of development.   The LGS Neuro-Educational Programs work.  We are so blessed to be in the business of truly changing people’s lives for the better, to improve their future, and help them reach their true God-given potential.

We Needed A Solution!

My son was typically a temperamental child from the day he was born. He had a lot of breathing problems and his first week of life was a real struggle.  I always felt so sad for him, as he could be startled so easily, then his little body would get so rigid. As an infant it seemed like  he  never could really relax.  I didn’t know what to do to help him become a calm little boy.  He seemed to be “wired” so differently from his siblings.  As he grew his disposition, attitude, and general demeanor seems to point in the direction of negative, rather than positive.  He seemed grumpy and worried far more than a little boy should ever be.  As he reached a year old, I could see he was lagging in his development. I read everything I could get my hands on to try to figure out my son’s problem and what I could do to make him more comfortable about life in general. I needed to help rid him of his fears and negative attitudes that seemed to hang over his head like a cloud.  I could see potential in him, but how to reach the part of him I only caught glimpses of was a serious dilemma.

Then when I traveled to a home school convention I happened to go to one of the workshops where Jan Bedell, “The Brain Coach” was speaking about children who struggle.  I only went because my friend wanted to hear her.  Little did I know she held the key that would unlock my child’s potential!  Thank God she was there and I found her.

Jeremy fit all the symptoms she talked about children who, for whatever reason, had missed important stages of development. She helped me identify issues, specific issues.  She talked about sensory disorders, brain organization, about auditory and visual processing, and resulting behaviors when these things were delayed. All of a sudden, for the first time,  I knew what I’d been seeing in my son and best of all, she explained how, if we keep doing the same old things, we are going to get the same old results.  She talked about the Neurodevelopmental Approach, the history, scientific data behind it, and the philosophy.  As she talked about children she’d seen (even her own daughter) blossom into children with academic skills, social skills, improved coordination,  who became calm, confident, and successful.  She told about a child whose life opened and his abilities grew to allow him to follow his dreams, interests, and life had become a place to explore and embrace, rather than a cave in which he needed to hide and feel ashamed because even though he tried, he failed at learning things like other kids. She even talked about a 10 year old boy diagnosed with Dyslexia, who no longer has any symptoms and has achieved great heights never believed possible. This is what I wanted for Jeremy!

I purchased several of the resources Jan has developed and they have turned our whole families lives around. Early Learning Foundation is a terrific program for preschoolers – 5.  Developmental Foundations is an at-home program to get your child neurologically efficient, totally prepared for math success through the Rapid Recall System (a terrific math facts program) that is included and she even has online professional training included! If you want some help, Jan’s provided a survey to help guide you in helping your child.

Jeremy is no longer the “Scrooge” in the household. He’s able to receive, store, comprehend and recall information. As Jan says, “We’ve helped him to go from the experience of being on a dial-up Internet connection (frustrating, demoralizing, and discouraging) to a high-speed connection (freeing, satisfying, and confidence-building). Jeremy is now functioning as God intended!  Our whole family is so delighted with this bright, and funny (yes, he’s even developed a sense of humor!) guy in our family.  No one hardly remembers those days when it was like walking on egg shells when you had to deal with him.  Oh, and he is excelling in school, too!  Thanks Little Giant Steps!

If you have a child who is struggling, stop doing what you are doing, and shift into a healthy, natural program (whether it’s a professional evaluation or the at-home program) and see remarkable, life-changing results!  By the way, start with Jan’s Free Auditory and Visual Test Kit.