Hi again,
I did the Brain Gym seminar on Saturday. The basic hypothesis is that certain points of the body are connected with certain parts of the brain, and specific body movements help trigger specific parts of the brain.
The program is 26 easy exercises that stimulate the brain and/or relax the body to help access information. These 26 exercises are done on a three day rotation, both morning and evening. For example, my son and I will do three exercises the first morning, four exercises in the afternoon; days two and three are similar - and all 26 exercises are completed in that three day rotation. Once we have gotten into a routine, it should only take 8 minutes morning and afternoon.
The exercises include a wide variety of things, such as gently massaging your ears to drawing the same thing with both hands simultaneously, to crossing across your body and touching your elbow to your knee. With the training, I received a matrix that has the exercises listed across the top, with the tasks the exercises help with along the edge, and Xs where they interface. The tasks listed include balance, coordination, concentration, depth perception, dyslexia, emotions, energy, eye/hand coordination, hyperactivity, left/right directions, listening/hearing, math, memory, posture, organization, reading, self-esteem, social behavior, spatial awareness, speech, spelling, vision, writing.
The person who trained me is a public school teacher (in a far away system) who heard about Brain Gym, and decided to try it with her kindergarten class. She said the first year she remebered to do it about every two weeks. The second year she made a concerted effort and started doing it two or three times a week. Then she noticed it was making a big difference in her class’s concentration and behavior. So she really started using it every day (third grade now) and it has made a huge positive difference for her students.
She told me to try the exercises consistently with my son for a month. After that I will see an improvement, and then if we want to, we can get into more specific exercises to help him with his learning.
I haven’t bought the Brain Gym book, yet - but I will (less that $20), and it was $50 for the session I did with the teacher.
That’s it in a nutshell - if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask, and I’ll try to answer them! :-)
Re: Brain Gym update
Thanks Linda,
As I’ve read about different therapies, there do seem to be a lot of similarities. I’ve tried to pick and choose carefully. So far, my son is doing Earobics at school, Home Vision Therapy, and now Brain Gym. Plus he takes Ritalin and Wellbutrin. I still want to try for interactive metronome over the summer.
Of course, as we do all this we continue to try to remediate specific skills. Over the weekend, I realized that some of the things I thought he was doing better with still aren’t really there. Very disappointing. I just hope that if we keep plugging away together, it will all fall into place for him one day. :-)
Lil
what I find difficult
is that progress appears in definable ways within the format of the therapy but I never seem to see a change in everyday life/school
Yet, being a typical mom, I get excited and am so sure THIS is the answer each and every time!
I have not done Brain Gym but can see how the exercises would get easier and focus would improve during the exercises but…..does the child actually do better in school or at home in acacemics, behavior, whatever?
Nor trying to discourage you(actually Brain gym makes good sense to me)but commiserating with what I suspect you are feeling a bit of as well
Re: what I find difficult
I have seen changes in my son but sometimes it is after the therapy is over. I think sometimes these therapies are draining and it adds to fatigue so at times he seems worse during them. I definitely saw this with interactive metronome and I think that is what I am seeing now with vision therapy. His eyes are much better but his school work has not improved. He seems more moody than usual almost as though he has taken a step back in that area. There is no doubt that the exercises wear him out.
They keep telling me I will see a major change any day now. I am waiting. He actually seems worse on a few things but that is not too frightening since we had this experience with the IM.
I saw a definite improvement that even he noticed with 3 weeks of intensive audiblox. I am sorry we had to stop for VT. I can’t wait to start that up again this summer.
One other thing, the therapist keeps saying he has no attention difficulties and if he has any trouble with attention it is all related to vision issues. They do see kids with ADD but they say he is not one of them.
Re: what I find difficult
We’ve done Neuronet therapy which has some similarities in that it works on integrating the brain more efficient. I will say I have seen tremendous carry over to school work. The only exception is some of the work we’ve done with visual-vestibular. He improved on the exercises but has not in real life. The therapist told me that is because it is only one of the pieces—in other words sometimes it can be the combination of issues that is the problem and you have to systematically improve a number of them, if not all, for there to be measurable change.
In Neuronet therapy, you are supposed to see changes in 6 weeks—carry over changes.
Beth
Re: Brain Gym update
It’s very interesting to me to see how different therapies address neurological deficits from different vantage points–and probably most of them help many kids.
You might want to check out www.handle.org which is the web site for the Handle Institute in Seattle, Washington headed by a woman named Judith Bluestein(I think). They have developed therapies to address many of these same issues. They also have satellite facilities in different parts of the U.S. If I lived near one, I would definitely check it out for my son!
If anyone has direct experience with the Handle Institute, I’m sure the rest of us would love to hear about it.
Re: what I find difficult
My 9 year old daughter didn’t think it helped her at all. Her response was, “Mom, do you think Dr. Patty is trying to trick our minds”. Scary.
I promised the book to someone. I’ll have to search old posts to find out who. I FINALLY found it.
Interesting, I think my son’s vision therapist addresses some of these issues. All of the remediation strategies I have looked at seem to have at least some exercises in common.
Just goes to show there is more than one way of getting it all done.
Good Luck and keep us updated!