“He’s a great reader, but math concepts are beyond him.” “She’s an academic whiz, but she can’t seem to make any friends.” “Everyone loves her, but she has no interest in school.” “Smart, but clumsy.” “Athletic but has no focus.” “…but still wets her pants.” “….but has huge tantrums.” “…but can’t tell time”. “Bright, but…..”
At the NeuroDevelopmental Movement Center, the majority of our clients are fundamentally competent children or adults, with gaps that stand out against a background of good general intelligence and typical development. These are the clients who are labeled Dyslexic, AD/HD, Behavior Disordered, or present a confusing, undiagnosed challenge to parents and teachers who work so hard to help them reach their potential.
The assessment process at the NeuroDevelopmental Movement Center provides great insight into these confusing situations. Testing and observing skills at seven different levels of the central nervous system, including vision, hearing, tactile responses, language, as well as gross and fine motor skills, allows the evaluator and the family to see where the problem lies. Gaps in foundation skills most frequently account for the child or adult who appears competent but lacks follow-through, who does not reach their potential.
In the first year of life, the brain lays the foundations for focusing, filtering, sequencing, prioritizing, compassion, integrating sensations, emotional stability, self-awareness, boundary setting, tracking, perception of three dimensions, among a host of other skills. Our academic, social, emotional and physical competences are based on a brain that is fully organized.
Any child or adult who has had a central nervous system trauma of any kind or degree or who has skipped one of the foundation stages of development is at risk for a confusing pattern of difficulties. For example, the child who did not creep on hands and knees, but instead spent their infancy in a walker, car seat or other ‘bucket’, may not have a fully integrated corpus callosum. This bridge between the two halves of the brain is critical in understanding the difference between ‘b’ and ‘d’, between ‘no’ and ‘on’. Without this bridge, fully integrated the child may be unable to control impulses, or may learn something one day, forgetting it the next. They sometimes have rages, and are sometimes labeled Dyslexic.
In this example, several areas of learning and behavior are addressed. The brain is extremely efficient and relies on a limited number of structures, many integrated during the first twelve months of life, to do a large number of tasks. In the case of the corpus callosum, the problems range from behavior issues to reading.
At the NeuroDevelopmental Movement Center, our practitioners assess dozens of functions and are able to pinpoint the source of your concerns. An individualized program involves retracing the steps of early development that were missed. Parents come back able to say, “We know she is bright and now her teacher is seeing it”. We help our clients move from “Bright, but….” to “Bright, and….”