I am a lucky mom working with Bette Lamont when she comes to our state. For those who have been debating about whether or not to do NeuroDevelopmental Movement®, I want to just share a thought…
I had no intention of doing any more interventions with my daughter (8 years, adopted from China at 1). We felt we were basically pretty close to where we wanted to be with the combo of the other interventions we had done (sensory integration, attachment work, craniosacral, Nancy Thomas). The only area we were still slightly worried about was language (and my friends will tell you I have very high expectations :)).
Then, a wonderful mom here in Michigan arranged for Bette to come out here and work with a group of families. I was lucky enough to be asked whether or not we wanted to be a part of the first group, this past February. We weren’t sure we needed to do it, but thought, “Ah, what the heck…it’s pretty reasonably priced with Bette coming out here…maybe it will help her language issues…” So we said yes. We were wondering if Bette would even be able to find any issues during the evaluation. We thought that, in and of itself, would be interesting!
Well, lo and behold, we were shocked that there were some significant issues. They were very clear to us as we watched Bette evaluate her (in a very fun and non threatening way). And, it became clear that our daughter had been doing a very good job compensating for her weaknesses…we could see her do the adjustment and compensation during the evaluation! And, it was clear that she was smart enough that the issues weren’t always showing…So, it was clear to us that doing the program made sense.
Well, since doing NDM®, we have discovered a healthiness we didn’t even know existed for my daughter. She is becoming “freer” (my daughter has always been kind of quiet…kind of an internalizer…but we have always known there has been a lot brewing in there!) in a way I never dreamed was possible. I see her doing things now that I have never seen her be able to do. We were recently with a few other families for a fireworks event…my daughter joined in with and played with the other children in a way I have never seen her do…comfortable, fun, appropriate. It was a joy to see.
We also see her just getting freer and more open in a wide variety of ways…happier too, etc.
So, I just wanted to share this for anyone who is thinking about doing NDM®. If you have a way to do it that can work for you…even if you can just get the evaluation and see what you think then…it sure has been good for us.
Two other thoughts – we had done Move to Learn right after six months of vision exercises for convergence and reading issues. She had some minor improvement in reading with the vision exercises, but after doing MTL, her reading skyrocketed….I don’t know if it was the MTL alone, or if it was MTL piggybacked on top of the vision therapy. BUT, I want to say, that even with the benefits that we saw with MTL, the benefits we have seen with full NDM® have been much greater. That is not to say that MTL doesn’t help. It did. We were very glad for what it added. BUT, it did not begin to match the overall growth we are seeing with NDM®.
Finally, I am a smart, but superstitious mom….So, that I don’t have to worry too much about the “Oh, you think so gods…” I have to say…”Pretend I have not written this post, okay?” Do you all think I’m crazy now :)?
Kathy