Help for learning, speech, and more.
This 12-year-old girl had ongoing struggles with her expressive and receptive language, math skills, and social confidence. Using tools from the Brain and Sensory Foundations First Level course, her mom was able to help her improve her math scores, writing skills, and speech—to such an extent, she no longer needs speech therapy.
Submitted by Jennifer Davis, COTA/L
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Fearful of going anywhere in public without her mom | Able to visit the restroom on her own |
| Struggled with balance, skipping, hopping, and toe walking | Much less clumsy and has stopped running into things around the house; also shows improved gait pattern and stronger heel strikes |
| Struggled with writing fluency | Can write multiple paragraphs that are on topic, flow well, and use much more mature language and correct verb tense usage |
| Struggled with math | Scored an ‘A’ on a math test for the first time; also, mental math has improved significantly |
| Struggled with focus | Studying on her own without prompting, using much more mature language and vocabulary, and has all A’s and B’s on her report card |
| Struggled with speech | School speech pathologist says Reagan has met her goals for understanding and using analogies and idioms |
| Required speech therapy since age 3 | Dismissed from speech therapy |
Reagan is my 12 year old daughter who has had an IEP ever since she was 3. She was born 5 weeks early, via emergency C-section, following a very high risk pregnancy. She met all of her motor milestones, however, exhibited delays with expressive language, and was only using 2-3 word phrases, at the age of 3. Reagan has always struggled with her expressive and receptive language, math skills, and social confidence. She has a medical diagnosis of ADHD (Inattentive Type) and an educationally diagnosed math learning disability. Her teachers have reported they see more anxiety at school than they do ADHD type symptoms.
I started doing the rhythmic movements [from the Brain and Sensory Foundations course] with Reagan, because as I looked back at her infancy, I remembered she hated being on her stomach. She would typically lay on her left side, or back, and we really had to work to get tummy time in. The first night we began, we started with RM1 [Rhythmic Movement] and she laughed hysterically, had her arms over her face, and had absolutely no head nod. So we began doing the Brain Tune up [from the Brain and Sensory Foundations course] before the rhythmic movements and she was much more settled and ready to work after that.
I introduced a new rhythmic movement every week, which she tolerated well. On about the 3rd week, she had an emotional meltdown with lots of crying, so we immediately did a Hook Up, and took a break for the next 3 days. When we went back to the rhythmic movements, I opted to do every other night for a week, and to start using Heart Connection, which she tolerated well. After 2 weeks of every other night, we moved back to doing the movements every night, and had no problems from there on.
After about 2 months of doing the rhythmic movements, Reagan asked to go out to eat at a restaurant we had never been to before. This was a big deal as she opted for the same old restaurant every week, dismissing any suggestions of changing it up. In addition to selecting a new restaurant to eat at, she went to the restroom by herself. This may sound silly, but Reagan has always been very fearful of venturing out anywhere beyond my side in public.
With this clear leap in progress, I moved to doing reflex work [from the Brain and Sensory Foundations course]. I started with TLR [Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex], since that was the first reflex taught in this course. I figured it was a good place to start as Reagan had received physical therapy services during her time in an early learning program, when she was little. I remember her struggling with balance, skipping, hopping, and toe walking. So when I checked her TLR reflex, I was not surprised to find it was unintegrated. We started with the playful movements . . . I immediately noticed she was much less clumsy and stopped running into things around the house. Her gait pattern improved and I noticed much stronger heel strikes when she was walking.
Next, I assessed ATNR because of Reagan’s struggles with math, writing fluency, and lack of focus. This reflex was also unintegrated. We started the ATNR [Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex] playful movements and games [from the Brain and Sensory Foundations course] at the end of November, and by mid-February Reagan was writing multiple paragraphs that were on topic, flowed well, used much more mature language, and had correct verb tense usage. She came home with an ‘A’ on a math test, which has never happened! Her math tutor reported her mental math had improved significantly. Reagan reported that her speech pathologist at school said she had met her goals for understanding and using analogies and idioms.
After addressing ATNR, and since we had so much success with TLR, I wanted to check Reagan’s feet reflexes to be thorough with her toe walking success. Both plantar and Babinski reflexes turned out to be unintegrated . . . She went from starting these integration activities being very ticklish, to not having any tickle response at all, once we finished them. She also had significantly less complaints of leg/foot pain.
Reagan has never participated in a sport at school before, but after doing the foot reflex integration activities for about a month and a half, she told me she wanted to try out for track and field this spring!
From there, I wanted to check spinal galant [reflex] since she was delivered via C-section. Again, this reflex was unintegrated, and on both sides. I also discovered her back was quite sensitive. After a few weeks of working on spinal galant, Reagan was studying on her own without prompting, using much more mature language and vocabulary, and had all A’s and B’s on her report card.
This was the point in this reflex journey that I realized almost half of her primitive reflexes were unintegrated. On account of this realization, I decided to check the other primitive reflexes to see where Reagan was at with those. Coincidentally, STNR was unintegrated, the palmar and Babkin hand reflexes were unintegrated (grasp reflex appeared integrated). The Moro reflex was also unintegrated, and I wondered if I was misreading her lack of social confidence; I wondered if it was the fear paralysis reflex creating the lack of confidence.
The next step I would like to take with Reagan is to start doing more of the isometric work now that she’s stronger and sees the benefits of doing this movement work. I have been so impressed with this course and the improvements Reagan has been able to make in such a short amount of time. She is even to the point where, if we forget to do the movements, I get a scolding from her; “MOM!! We forgot to do our movements!”
[Note: Results reported here were accomplished in 5 months, from Nov 2019 to March 2020]
Here is a recap of [amount of time spent on the movements] days per week based on the month:
November: 3-5 days per week
December: 2-4 days per week (we both got a cold at the end of December so that week we did nothing)
January: 3-4 days per week
February: 2-5 days per week (one week was taken off due to illness)
March: 3-5 days per week
The first 2-3 weeks in November we spent approximately 5-6 minutes doing just the rhythmic movements. After that, we would spend approximately 1-15 minutes doing a combination of rhythmic movements and reflex work.
[Update from Jenny, Reagan’s Mom (April 6, 2020)]:
“Reagan was recently dismissed from speech services at school, which she has received since she was 3 years old!!”
[Edited for length and clarity; emphasis added]