Adam was like so many kids I work with. He felt angry, hopeless and stupid. He was thirteen and said to me, “I hate reading. It never gets better no matter how much I practice, and I feel like more of a loser every time I do it.” Adam had been struggling with reading, writing…
Continue ReadingHave you ever been told by your child’s doctor not to worry when your child skipped a milestone or didn’t seem to be progressing through the milestone the way you thought they should? Well if you answered ‘yes’, your mama instincts were correct. The sensory system and motor system when stimulated in certain ways help…
Continue ReadingHave you noticed that when we make progress or an advancement with a discovery, everyone jumps on the bandwagon and that’s all we hear about? Everyone seems to forget about the other pieces of the puzzle and thinks this ‘new advancement’ or ‘discovery’ is the answer to all of our problems. Our culture loves a…
Continue ReadingWhen Brian and Kim met me about their son Josh they had very different opinions about why Josh was struggling in school. Brian thought his son was just lazy. The teachers did too. Mom knew Josh was trying his best and that he didn’t want to be what Josh called ‘the dumb kid’. But all…
Continue Reading“He barely crawled.” “She was an early walker.” “He didn’t crawl.” “Her crawl was more of a shuffle.” I hear this all the time when it comes to kids with learning and behaviour difficulties. It’s the reason why retained primitive reflexes can wreak so much havoc on a child’s ability to read, learn, write and…
Continue ReadingI get really excited when I do a screening on a child who is struggling and find that there are clear areas of underdevelopment in the brain or areas of disconnection. Parents kind of think I’m crazy because for them this is really scary. I get it. Nobody’s debating whether the brain is an important…
Continue ReadingYou know what drives me bananas about how we address reading struggles? We have kids read more to try and fix it. We think that the problem and cause of reading struggles are related to reading itself. I am here to tell you – they are not. Reading struggles don’t even start with things like…
Continue ReadingWant to know if your child has poor vestibular function? Like right now? Read on to learn how you can tell if your child’s brain is disorganized and their cortex is doing the job of the lower brain levels. The lower brain levels are the survival functions, they allow us to be able to navigate…
Continue ReadingHow many times do parents and teachers tell a child to ‘sit still and pay attention’? Almost daily and yet what if the only way your child can pay attention and concentrate is if they are moving? Have you ever noticed that it is easier to balance when you are moving at least a little?…
Continue ReadingClaire used to struggle with helping her son, Kolby. She felt so hopeless and stuck and was always so worried about how much further Kolby would fall behind in school. It felt like every year Kolby was struggling more. Sure he would make gains in some ways, but Kolby couldn’t sit still to save his…
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