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When considering a whole child approach to learning, it is important to not only look at the academic deficits, but underlying factors as well. These include problems with sensory and motor systems such as balance, coordination, and poor fine- motor skills; problems with cognition, such as visual and auditory processing as well as memory; and physical problems connected to poor nutrition or food intolerances.
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The purpose of this website is to learn about the role each of these four areas play in the proper development of children and their learning. It is meant to help parents and teachers be proactive in helping to identify strengths and weaknesses in their children so they can help strengthen them from the inside out. These are not quick fixes, but slow processes to help heal and re-structure the body and brain to promote optimal learning. Every child responds differently, and what we learn from one child can help us help another more efficiently. Knowledge is power, and knowing what might be contributing factors can clue us in knowing which professionals will be key in the process of helping our children improve.
Learning is not one size fits all
The desire to learn is innate, and learning is fun for a child if it comes easy. However, there is an increasing number of students in our classrooms that find learning hard and down right exhausting. They sit in the classroom for 6 hours and need to put a lot of effort just to get by. They are easily tired and simply cannot keep up. These children may melt into the classroom to go unnoticed, or they might be highly disruptive to the teacher and others around them. The older they get, the more they realize that they are different from other students. Some may put in 500% of the effort of their classmates just to stay afloat and others will simply give up. Often times they are assessed, but do not qualify for special services. Parents may know that something is just not right with their child, but no one else seems to acknowledge it or know what to do. These parents tend to be desperate as they see their child falling deeper and deeper into the cracks.
The brain grows from the inside out and from the back to the front. When the brain stem, responsible for automatic functions such as breathing and eye movements, is working properly, it allows the parts of the brain responsible for learning free to do its job. However, if the brain stem did not fully develop and thus did not make the appropriate connections to the other parts of the brain, such as the pre-frontal cortex and language centers in the temporal lobe, then the outer layers responsible for learning need to compensate for the brain stem and will not be sufficiently accessible for thinking and learning.
There are a myriad of reasons that the brain may not be functioning as it should. Examples are complications at birth, reactions to vaccination, food sensitivities, poor nutrition, not enough practice crawling appropriately before walking, emotional or physical trauma, or simply a bad experience. However, neuroresearchers for decades now, understand that the brain can re-wire itself and change its structure with the right input, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. The books The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge and The Woman Who Changed Her Brain by Barbara Arrrowsmith-Young are excellent resources to understand how this is possible.
The brain grows from the inside out and from the back to the front. When the brain stem, responsible for automatic functions such as breathing and eye movements, is working properly, it allows the parts of the brain responsible for learning free to do its job. However, if the brain stem did not fully develop and thus did not make the appropriate connections to the other parts of the brain, such as the pre-frontal cortex and language centers in the temporal lobe, then the outer layers responsible for learning need to compensate for the brain stem and will not be sufficiently accessible for thinking and learning.
There are a myriad of reasons that the brain may not be functioning as it should. Examples are complications at birth, reactions to vaccination, food sensitivities, poor nutrition, not enough practice crawling appropriately before walking, emotional or physical trauma, or simply a bad experience. However, neuroresearchers for decades now, understand that the brain can re-wire itself and change its structure with the right input, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. The books The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge and The Woman Who Changed Her Brain by Barbara Arrrowsmith-Young are excellent resources to understand how this is possible.
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As we can see in the visual to the right, learning develops in steps or phases, and academic knowledge is the culmination at the top. Successful learning in school is dependent upon strongly developed underlying processes. Although each of the processes, or rungs, are not learned in isolation, they do build on one another and weaknesses in the lower part of the ladder effect all the rungs above. Therefore, when trying to address issues in the higher levels, it is important to look more closely at the steps below to determine where more hidden weaknesses lie. Addressing these areas will support the development of the upper rungs, sometimes without ever directly doing interventions in those areas. This means that there should not simply be one approach when helping your child. The school's typical response, especially in this day and age of high stakes testing, is to remediate by providing more instructional opportunities.
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This means that there should not simply be one approach when helping your child. The school's typical response, especially in this day and age of high stakes testing, is to remediate by providing more instructional opportunities. This method works best when the deficit is that the child has missed educational opportunities for reasons such as a move, undiagnosed hearing loss that is now being corrected with hearing aides, or illness that may have kept the child out of school for an extended period of time. Sometimes the child has matured since the time of when initial learning took place and is now more developmentally ready to receive it.
Experienced teachers can attest that children who struggle usually have other identifiable characteristics, such as not being able to jump rope, having poor balance and coordination, no being able to sit still, constantly falling or crashing into walls, and having poor fine motor skills in writing and/or speech. Their learning struggles are deeper than needing more instruction. If this is the case, the intervention needs to go beyond simply providing more academic support.
Experienced teachers can attest that children who struggle usually have other identifiable characteristics, such as not being able to jump rope, having poor balance and coordination, no being able to sit still, constantly falling or crashing into walls, and having poor fine motor skills in writing and/or speech. Their learning struggles are deeper than needing more instruction. If this is the case, the intervention needs to go beyond simply providing more academic support.
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So, what is going on? |
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Everything starts in the brain. When the brain is not wired up correctly it becomes functionally disconnected and different parts cannot communicate efficiently and may grow or connect at different rates, such as the brainstem and pre-frontal cortex, as well as the left and right hemispheres. All disorders on the attentional-behavioral continuum seem to involve immaturities in the thalamus, basal ganglia, and cerebellum and weak connections to higher thinking parts of the brain.
The left and right hemispheres have different jobs and, in a healthy individual, work together to complete tasks such as reading and mathematics. However, if one hemisphere is developing at a different rate than the other, the communication between the two may be jeopardized. See the image on the right to see some of the responsibilities of the different hemispheres. |
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The left initiates thoughts and movements. It is goal oriented and likes plans. The right is our brake and inhibits movements and thoughts. So, when the right side is active, it stops something initiated by the left. If the right is weak and cannot appropriately activate, the left runs havoc and repetitive thoughts and movements take hold. A classic example is incessant talking of an older child.
Conscious thoughts and actions take place in the frontal lobe. Any time you ask a child to do something and cannot, it is a frontal lobe problem. If a child is unable to initiate, it is a left frontal lobe issue and if the child is unable to inhibit, it is a problem with the right.
Below, we see what issues may arise when there are blockages in either hemisphere. Simply put, behavioral disorders arise from a weakness of the right hemisphere and over dominance of the left, and academic disorders arise from a weakness of the left hemisphere and over-dominance of the right. Most children in remedial programs, such as reading or math support, are left-weak and strong-right.
Conscious thoughts and actions take place in the frontal lobe. Any time you ask a child to do something and cannot, it is a frontal lobe problem. If a child is unable to initiate, it is a left frontal lobe issue and if the child is unable to inhibit, it is a problem with the right.
Below, we see what issues may arise when there are blockages in either hemisphere. Simply put, behavioral disorders arise from a weakness of the right hemisphere and over dominance of the left, and academic disorders arise from a weakness of the left hemisphere and over-dominance of the right. Most children in remedial programs, such as reading or math support, are left-weak and strong-right.
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Right weak, left strong
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Balanced
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Left weak, right strong
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What can be Done?
Although some children may be experiencing global weakness and immaturities of the brain, there is usually one side that is weaker than the other, and that is the side that needs the primary attention. Rather than teaching the child how to compensate, areas of weakness should be targeted and intense intervention be given. For children with functional disconnections in the brain, academic remediation is most effective if lower areas of the brain are simultaneously being addressed. In fact, even if the lower levels of the brain are the are the only foci of intervention, it sets in motion a ripple effect and higher order processes are strengthened. So, a child may spontaneously improve reading once primitive reflexes or other motor issues have been addressed. If the challenges are with the left, intense cognitive activities, such as auditory memory, auditory processing, visual memory, visual processing, working memory. If the challenges are with the right, the brainstem needs activation to be able to stimulate the parasympathetic system so the emotional centers of the brain can be appropriately linked. The goal is to strengthen the one hemisphere that is weakest, even if there are issues on both sides. Focusing the interventions to one side will help strengthen it to match the other, at which point the brain has a chance to develop as a whole.
Areas to work on
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Weakness in right
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Weakness in left
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Role of the Parasympathetic System
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The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). When the ANS is functioning appropriately, we have the capacity to move effortlessly from one branch to another in response to our environment and internal stress.
When the body is responding to either external or internal stress, it is in a sympathetic state. In this state, the pupils dilate, heartbeat is increased, and glucose is released in preparation to fight or flee (moro reflex). In this state, digestion is stopped, the body is unable to detoxify, and the immune system is depressed. The parasympathetic system, stimulated by the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X), which is connected to the heart, lungs, and all other visceral organs, is in control of detoxification, the immune system and digestion. It is also the foundation of social engagement. These are common areas of concern among our ASD children, who are in a constant sympathetic and adrenal state. Therefore, when a child has low vagal tone, these and other systems are highly compromised, resulting in an overactive mid-brain and chronic sympathetic state. A child in this state may:
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Increasing Vagal Tone
There are many ways to increase vagal tone. The more often the nerve is stimulated, the stronger and more efficient it will become. So over time, an individual will be able to shift back from the sympathetic state more easily.
- activate the brainstem by integrating primitive reflexes (especially moro and Fear Paralysis), and working on sensory motor skills
- cold - finish off a shower with some cold water
- stimulating the gag reflex and gargling
- spinning (our ASD kids do this naturally to try to stimulate the vagus nerve)
- swaddling (helps to integrate moro and feels sense of safety)
- prosody (intonation of voice by mothers with their infants)
- humming / singing
- deep touch pressure, massage
- aerobic activity
- yoga/ meditation / tai chi
- prayer
- Showing Gratitude
- stimulating facial muscles & specific cranial nerves
- accupuncture / auricular therapy
- sun
- chewing gum
- Sucking (activates nucleus ambiguus for self-soothing)
- suppplementation: phosphotidylserine, ashwaghanda, EPA, DHA, zinc, 5HTP, rhodiola, probiotics, green tea, caffeine
Whether you are a teacher or parent, this website will give you the tools you need to support your struggling child or student. Select the parent and teacher support tab and the sub tabs for a plethora of resources to get started on your own. Need more advice or support...
