Yesterday, I was asked to choose between speaking about learning disabilities or speaking about anxiety in children. The more I thought about it, the more I realized they are one and the same for many of the children with whom I work.
The innate desire and ability to learn starts from the moment we are born. Nurtured by loving caregivers in an environment of safety and acceptance, the infant feels able to explore their body, their movement, their environment, the world.
This innate curiosity is founded on a sense of belonging and safety. To be willing to learn, we must be able to say, “I don’t know, let me find out, please teach me.” In order to say, “I don’t know”, we need to feel our own innate solidity that makes vulnerability possible.
For too many children with whom I work, the ability to say, “I don’t know” is not possible. To say “I don’t know” is to make oneself vulnerable. For too many children, being vulnerable can trigger shame, and for many of those children, shame triggers fight, flight, or freeze.
Those children raised in orphanages and adopted into our homes may be constantly fighting for survival. To be vulnerable is at some level to risk death.
Those children raised with birth parents who have had challenges in their development through infancy may have similar resistance to asking questions and learning.
Those children tend to be the ones who are unteachable, who already know it all, who rage if they are called on their mistakes, who don’t enjoy learning,
In our current culture, I see anxiety and shame as dominant drivers of learning, behavior, and social challenges.
Anxiety and stress damage the brain specifically through hormones such as cortisol, which are neurotoxins. That impaired brain cannot be available for learning.
Therapies that are punitive, therapies that encourage consequences for poor performance, therapies that encourage children to compete with their peers or a target measurement of performance, only exacerbate the problem.
Our goal through NeuroDevelopmental Movement is to encourage the sense of safety, self-worth, confidence, and curiosity that must underlie learning. We do this by making sure that all developmental gaps have been addressed at all levels of the central nervous system.
If you have questions about this topic or your child’s issues, please contact me.
I may never again be able to lecture purely about learning disabilities because anxiety is such a reality for so many of our children.