by Bette Lamont
Children who need help may ask for it in unusual ways. Jeremy flies into a rage of frustration whenever his mother tries to help him with his reading problems. He is a year behind his peers in school. Alicia loses her school books, her homework assignments, her glasses and sweater, but gets angry when reminded to take them with her. Samuel amuses himself (but not his family) by making continual high-pitched noises and clicking sounds with his lips, but is bothered to distraction by the sounds of other children in his classroom. He has no friends and his teachers have begun to allow him to take his tests in a small isolated room so he can concentrate.
These pleas for help are sometimes misinterpreted by teachers, friends, and families. The children are frequently labeled with words such as “stubborn”, “apathetic”, “hostile”, “lazy”, “fussy”, and “disruptive”.
Often nothing in the child’s background accounts for these academic and behavioral problems. As a group, the children’s histories are very mixed, coming from two-parent families, and single-parent families, from troubled homes and happy homes, from well-educated parents and parents with little education.
What the parents of these children usually share is a sense of frustration, because they know their child could be doing much better. They sense a wall between the child they know to be “in there” and the child who presents him/herself to the world. They may see in their child an intelligent young person failing in several school subjects. Some parents experience a charming, gentle son or daughter becoming uncooperative and out of control in social settings. Frequently, temper tantrums accompany homework sessions or the child’s attempt to clean a bedroom. And parents of these children watch sadly as they see their child’s self-esteem descend to new lows as he or she is faced with poor grades or rejection by peers.
NeuroDevelopmental Movement is a method for dealing with academic, social, emotional, and attention deficit disorder problems where the cause is neurological impairment or brain injury causing neurological disorganization. Many of the children who have successfully completed NDM programs did not have a recorded history of specific brain injury, though they may have suffered a traumatic birth or high fevers in early childhood.
Despite all of our scientific, educational, and social progress, most experts readily admit that we can clearly identify the causes of neurological handicaps in only about one of five cases. For this reason, many of the symptoms are not addressed as neurological impairments interfering with learning and development, but are treated at the level of the symptoms, often with frustratingly poor results.
NeuroDevelopmental Movement plans help bypass barriers to learning and normal development that exist in the brains of some children. NDM organizes brain function with formalized exercises – including creeping and crawling – that stimulate the child’s neurological organization. We define neurological organization as the step-by-step development of reflexes, movement, and sensory inputs that normalize the central nervous system.
Many healthcare providers and teachers see the concept of neurological organization as a means of improving the minds and bodies of neurologically impaired children. This approach has been recognized and used by schools, healthcare providers, and the British government, which has done a documentary about NeuroDevelopmental Movement.
Beyond the category of specific brain injury, there are millions of children in our private and public schools who are unable to read. A good many of them may have some flaw in their perceptual processes that hampers them in transferring printed or written words to the brain.
Many mysteries remain about exactly how the brain “learns”. However, NDM theory recognizes that the stages by which a child’s nervous system normally develops provide a key. This key facilitates understanding and addressing brain injury, developmental delays, and learning problems.
NDM proposes that the nervous system of each new human being must go through a specific series of developmental stages before the brain can operate at its full potential. As the baby grows, it goes through a process that is somewhat like programming a computer. The baby “programs” its motor-perceptual equipment, nerves, and brain cells by using its whole body and all of the senses.
When there is an impairment resulting from brain injury or lack of opportunity, phases in this developmental sequence will be skipped, causing problems at higher levels. Since the upper brain works through the lower brain to function, impairments at lower levels disrupt the full functioning at the highest level of the brain, where skills such as reading, writing, speech, and mathematics are learned.
NDM plans are based on the concept that academics, social, and emotional functioning depend on the integrity of each level in the brain hierarchy, beginning at the lowest levels. So children in these plans will repeat activities that stimulate the brain level that has a gap in functioning. These children may be asked to do creeping, crawling, and other developmental activities.
As the child masters all of these stages, their intellectual and academic functioning is enhanced. In addition, striking personality and behavioral changes are often seen in, for example, the withdrawn, apathetic child with high distractibility and short attention span. Frequently, families and teachers report children becoming outgoing, well-adjusted individuals. These reported and observed changes demonstrate the holistic character of this approach to neurological impairments, learning disabilities, and brain injury.
How can we know if a learning disabled, hyperactive, or otherwise challenged child is dealing with a neurological impairment? The developmental profile, used by the Developmental Movement Consultants, gives us an excellent window into the child’s functional neurological skills. It tests sensory and motor skills at seven developmental levels. If there is a gap at any of these levels, and if that gap is reflective of reported learning or behavior problems, we can understand the basis of the neurodevelopmental component of a child’s learning and behavior profile and begin a stimulation plan to support associated intellectual and psychological capabilities.
Assigned activity plans following assessment usually take an hour or less of time daily. Most parents are so happy with the time they have put in as they begin to see their child progressing. As one mother stated, “You can do a lot of work now and see your child become more competent, or you can forever work to simply get them through life.”