Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Experience with Brain Balance program?

Oh, Bronalex I know somewhat how you feel. My son has had 5 yrs of ot, 2.5 yrs of vt, and about 2 yrs of neuro on/off. We saw the most improvements with vt too, some of them dramatic.

Does my son still have coordination/body issues, social issues, and emotional intensity? Yes. He was born with severe SPD, visual deficits, etc. Have some of them improved over time? Yes. And I haven't done any therapies for the last year. Ds is now 9.5 yrs old.

I hate seeing my son struggle too. I know it stinks. However, your son is 8. Over the next couple of years, you will see changes regardless. Eventually his brain and body will start catching up to one another, but it may take some time.

Have you tried water therapy, martial arts, or something similar? Ds did water therapy for a bit and that did help a bit. Also, he's starting to bike more and that's been helpful as well.

Those are all good suggestions. I haven't heard about water therapy so I will investigate that. I do know that my son is deathly afraid of putting his head underwater and refuses to learn how to swim. I even had him in special one on one swimming lessons through the therapeutic services at the city rec center but he can't do anything in the water except sink. I worry about this a lot.

He won't try to learn to ride his bike. I haven't pushed martial arts but he said he wasn't interested after going to a bday party once at a center. Maybe we can look at it again.

I know bronalex. DS did water therapy due to the 1st neurofeedback's recommendation (and partly insistence). Honestly, I don't think I would have thought or considered it otherwise. He did water therapy at 6.5 yrs old and then I put him in again last Nov. DH and I try to get him to swim on the weekends or whenever possible.

DS initially did water therapy with Dr. Burdenko himself, though he was expensive. He created his own program/ method and water therapy tools. Throughout the country, there are people who follow his method and perhaps do both water and land exercises. The water exercises involve a lot of snow angels in the water and gentle movements that use both sides of the body. The land exercises involve a lot of balancing and snow angels on an exercise log.

When DS was with Dr. Burdenko, we actually bought a therapy water suit (expensive) when due to his complete lack of body-in-space and inability to float.

Biking - that takes time and maybe some small baby steps or nudging and encouragement. My son did some biking last year but a few weeks ago he got on his bike again, which he hasn't been on for a year, and I couldn't believe how confident and controlled he was on the bike.

What is water therapy? Is an OT therapy, or something else? I tried googling but got a bunch of (seemingly) unrelated links...

My DS7 is also struggling with swimming - hates having water on his face, refuses to put his face in the water, and also dislikes the feeling of goggles. I struggle to wash his hair in the tub (although he at least doesn't scream like DD did).

He is in private swim lessons, and after the last one the instructor said she was going back to basics because he can't float! (Although I had thought he was progressing during the previous session)

He has some sensory issues (obviously) and also our OT suggested DCD. He does quite well riding his bike though - started on a balance bike at 5yrs old and now is quite good at riding (no training wheels).

Water therapy (or aquatic therapy) is its own therapy - separate to OT. I think usually done by PTs. It involves a lot of sensory, gross motor, and bilateral coordination, but not fine motor skills.

Here's the link to Dr. Igor Burdenko - http://www.burdenko.com/. He had a partnership with ds's #1 neurofeedback provider. She got all his olympians and professional athletes, while Dr. Burdenko got all her neurofeedback patients. Dr. Burdenko is from the former USSR and developed a national program there, which included water/land exercises. Quite an amazing person!

There isn't a label on the water therapy vest, but this is similar to the one ds used - http://www.hydrofit.com/wet-vest-ii-child/. I think Dr. Burdenko has the vest my ds used under his product tab.

Can2K - those water struggles sound like sensory ones to me! When my son was much younger and in ot/pt/speech etc., we used to rub his face at times with hands, bath scrubbies, soft fuzzy gloves, or other things to desensitize him. I think that helped ds but I still have a ways to go with the nail and hair cutting.

I had a friend do this with her son who has Aspergers. They saw really good changes with his social-emotional abilities and tolerance, and other behavioral and cognitive benefits with the first round. Teachers, therapists, friends- everyone was wowed, so they went ahead with another round which ended up causing him a lot of difficulty. If your child is showing any backwards movement, I'd probably withdraw early. Two others I know have had mixed benefits. Also, look for a "chiropractic neurologist" - they essentially do many of the same things and may be insurance covered. I believe Dr. Mellilo is also a chiropractic neurologist, but expanded and packaged it into the BB program.

Which therapy/modality are you referring to? I can say after 3 years in the field of Neurofeedback, I have seen nothing but positive results for those on the Autism spectrum (as well as virtually everyone else). That said, I use NeurOptimal® which is a pure feedback form of Neurofeedback, not operant conditioning like many of the others.

I have had several people tell me that they had done traditional neurofeedback with initial success but then problems emerged later in training. This can be a problem with the qEEG neurofeedback (operant conditioning) because that method involves human judgement about what your brain needs and protocols that "push" the brain one way or another with rewards. This can be very effective, but for many reasons it can also be problematic with the possibility of over-training and side effects.

NeurOptimal® is based on a whole different paradigm. Essentially the idea that when the brain gets pure feedback about its own activity, it will self correct in a way that is optimal for that individual Central Nervous System. Because there is no pushing involved, this type is non-invasive, non medical and safe for anyone to use at home.

You can purchase or rent a personal system and have the exact same effective training results as if you went to a professional's office. Rentals usually run around $800.00 for a month with 20-30 sessions. The cost of a home trainer is $5,500.00 with 300 sessions(with the option to add more for as low as $10.00 each). The systems have a fairly high resale value too, so you can buy one, train all you want and then sell it and get a good chunk of your money back. Or you can look for a used one (just make sure to verify with the manufacturer that it is still up to date and eligible for their tech support).

It wont "cure" any medical condition, but the training gets the brain in the best shape possible. Typically sleep and stress levels improve appreciably within 10-20 sessions. When sleep and stress are improved, the brain has a lot more energy to spend on other things. That's when all sorts of other symptoms start to drop off. I have seen people get off their sleep and anxiety meds and greatly reduce ADHD meds within 20 sessions (of course I advocate working closely with their doctor if that's what they want to do)

I was very skeptical to sign my daughter up at first because the research is sparse. Ultimately I was desperate and I'm glad I tried it. I now understand why the research is sparse. No one will ever get rich with this, people train for 10 - 100 sessions and get on with their life, not like medications that create customers for life.

IMHO, research starts with the flawed assumption that you have equivalent subjects to begin with. You simply can't control for all the variables in humans (genetics, leaky gut, trauma from birth or seemingly small head bumps in toddler-hood, food sensitivities, gut microbiome imbalances etc. That said, the research that has been done has shown nothing but positive results thus far.

Neurofeedback is not new, it has been around since the 1960s, NASA even uses it to train their astronauts for peak performance.

Okay, there's my 2 cents, I'm doing what I can to get the word out there, HTH. If that isn't hat you were referring to, please disregard ;-)