by Bette Lamont
NeuroDevelopmental Movement®, which you may have seen referred to as Neurological Reorganization, is an approach to addressing the challenges of a disorganized or injured brain. Brains can become dysfunctional with a patchy or spotty distribution of challenges that often stand out against a pattern of largely normal neuro-developmental skills, or may present themselves against a background of good intelligence, while behavior can be extreme and unmanageable.Some children have pervasive neurodevelopmental challenges that impact all areas of their functioning, and in worst cases children are globally delayed or brain-injured. One of the most stunning cases our team worked with was a 12 year old in a coma following a pedestrian/motor vehicle accident, whose M.D. was discussing taking him off of life support. This was in 2005. Three months after his injury he worked with the organization now known as NeuroDevelopmental Movement Consultants and regained consciousness, speech and social skills. He has since graduated from high school at grade level.
However, most of the children represented on this list have a wide range of not so extreme, but still extremely challenging, diagnoses, including most of the ‘alphabet’ diagnoses: RAD, ODD, OCD, ADD, ADHD, FASD, CP, Tourette’s, Autism, Aspergers, etc. ALL of these diagnoses are on a continuum of a damaged or under developed brain. This is the central problem. And, when you treat the central problem by treating the central organism, the brain itself, you can go a long way towards recovery.
NeuroDevelopmental Movement® (NDM), addresses these issues by evaluating skills at seven developmental levels, and considers reflexes, movement, and sensory development. If there are gaps at any level we then begin by working at the lowest level and building up the brain (with some variation on this if the child has been emotionally traumatized in utero). We do this by replicating the activities that nature, or God, or however you think of it, has provided to integrate the brain. If you reflect deeply on it you may become aware that the tools that are naturally provided to integrate the infant brain may indeed be the best tools to integrate a brain that is missing some of those functions, leading to the above diagnoses.
The infant goes through a series of reflexes, or whole body patterns of movement, that lead to mobility and expand their sensory world. The more they move and interact with parents and the sensory world around them, the more whole they will be neurologically, emotionally, physically, academically, and socially. Some children who were compromised at birth need more of these activities.
By going back to repeat the developmental sequence, we are prompting the brain to integrate the functions that, if left un-integrated, become rages, dyslexia, repetitive behaviors, bedwetting, poor coordination, dyslexia…the list goes on.
A Functional NeuroDevelopmental Assessment will determine where the brain has gaps in functioning, and as well, how those gaps are creating challenged skills or behaviors.
How do those gaps in functioning get there? Specific brain damage, which can mean a baby dropped on its head, a stroke in utero, or exposure to alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. All of these are obvious. Less obvious are toxins in our everyday lives, mercury, arsenic, lead, etc, in chemicals around us. A highly stressed mother’s biochemistry will also flood the fetal brain with cortisol, which damages brain tissue. Premature separation of the placenta, a difficult birth, jaundice, all can cause compromises in the brain. Separation from the biological mother (through adoption or merely mom going right back to work) can traumatize the neonate. High fevers and medications can damage the brain. Anesthetics are culprits and recent research has shown that babies who have anesthetic prior to two years are more likely to have learning disabilities. Then there is the interference with infants’ activities. Children who do not have adequate opportunity to crawl or creep due to constant holding, or growing up in a car seat or variations of the ‘walker’ can have specific impairments that lead to learning challenges.
NeuroDevelopmental Movement® will assess a child with all of this in mind and provide a program of activities that should take about an hour a day. It is not an easy journey, but in my life and work I have found it one of the most comprehensive and effective approaches to issues.
Traditionally our culture looks at challenging children and wants to do one of two things.
1.) Either change the behavior — social behavior, academic behavior, physical behavior, or
2.) Medicate. We are stuck in these modalities.
If medication would consistently work without side effects, parents might consider the effort put into recovery as ‘too much’. We spend two years for many children and for children with a lot of trauma, up to three years in the recovery process. And it is daily work. But one could look at it this way: I live near Microsoft, where teams of people spend maybe five years perfecting software that may last no longer than five years. Our children will hopefully live as long as 100 years, and a two- or three-year investment is not, after all, so very much. AND, I have met families who have worked for two years simply adjusting medications with no improvement, and sometimes some huge regressions in behaviors. So, as hard as it may be to take an alternate route, five years from now those who have worked with the source of the problem will be getting on with their lives, whereas those who only addressed the symptoms through the behavior/medication model, are still dealing with, perhaps, teenagers whose behaviors have escalated.
I truly believe that as little known as it is, NeuroDevelopmental Movement® properly done, can lead to tremendous healing in the vast majority of children.