Birth Defects, Birth Injuries and
Brachial Plexus Treatment
- Are you a parent, grandparent, or care taker of a child with Brachial Plexus Injury, Infant Torticollis, or other birth injuries or defects?
- Is your child still suffering from limitations despite the Brachial Plexus treatments that he/she are getting?
- Have you been told that surgery, or splints, braces etc are necessary and inevitable down the road?
The Anat Baniel method for children offers an innovative and highly effective method to have the child born with Brachial plexus injury, Infant Torticollis and other birth injuries and defects overcome limitations and achieve successful functioning beyond the usual medical prognosis. You can read about one example of these dramatic results as published in the January, 2007 issue of Massage and BodyWork Magazine, New Possibilities: A revolutionary approach to helping children with special needs.
“I started noticing things after the first few sessions. Her arm is no longer just an appendage. The Anat Baniel Method for Children woke her brain up which allowed her to use her arm. And it continued to unfold even during summer vacation when we did not have additional formal work. She crawls now. She feeds herself with her right hand. Her arm is stronger, it has greater flexibility, and reaches higher. There is balance between her two sides. She is doing what the Dr. said she wouldn't ever do.”
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Betsy Ginkel, mother of Grace diagnosed with Brachial Plexus Injury
The Anat Baniel Method for Children (ABM) is scientifically based. The practitioner of this method uses very gentle and innovative hands on techniques that provide the brain of the child with Brachial Plexus Injury, Infant Torticollis and other birth injuries and defects with new information necessary for it to form new neural connections and patterns. With these new patterns and possibilities the child quickly discovers solutions that lead to great improvements, and often lead to full functioning despite the initial structural and/or functional limitations.. Because these children normally have an intact brain, they learn, change and adapt remarkably well. While it is a process, the changes begin happening right away and are often quite dramatic. For more information, you can read our medical opinions page or watch dramatic videos of 3 children undergoing treatment at our video library.
“It is much too seldom that I encounter another professional who
believes in the “less is more” concept. You set a fine example of how when we as professionals can set aside our egos and trust in the power invested in each individual to learn, that we can facilitate more meaningful progress and increased awareness in the lives we touch. I appreciate the avenue you have created in evolving and focusing your Feldenkrais training into working with special needs kids. I have shared your printed literature and demo DVDs with several of the families on my case load already.
Wendy Zopel OTR/L Occupational Therapist
CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE:
Jeff's Story
George's Story
How Does the Anat Baniel Method Work?
Steps to Take For Concerned Parents
What Does Success with the special needs child Look Like?
How We Work With Your Child to Overcome Developmental Disorders and Challenges
Jeff’s Story
Jeff was born with a condition called Arthrogryposis-a congenital joint-muscle disorder. For Jeff, this meant no biceps muscles in either arm, and his elbow joints were so malformed they could barely be bent. The doctors had told the parents that Jeff would never be able to bring his hands to his mouth, will have great limitations in movement and as a result would most likely be obese.
Jeff’s mom brought him to Anat when he was five weeks old. His arms where completely straight, rotated inward and he held them somewhat behind his back never moving them. He had already seen a physical therapist who attempted to move Jeff’s arms to insure “range of motion”. Jeff cried very hard during these two sessions and his mother decided to try working with Ms Baniel because she heard from a close friend that the Anat Baniel Method is very gentle.
Observing Jeff, Anat realized that due to his condition, his brain didn’t recognize his arms and wasn’t sending neural impulses to move his arms the way all infants move their arms randomly in the beginning. Without such movement, the normal neuro-muscular connections between the brain and the arms will not have the opportunity to form.
Anat asked the mother to nurse Jeff while she began working very gently and slowly with his pelvis, spine, ribs and neck moving them in such a way that Jeff’s arms began moving passively. The spasticity in his arms was reduced very quickly – obviously his brain was responding to the messages sent to it through the movements Anat was doing with him.
Within a couple of weeks Jeff began lifting and lowering his arms spontaneously while lying on his back. By the time he learned to roll on his belly he was able to bring the arms above his head so they didn’t interfere. Still Ms Baniel could not envision how Jeff could ever reach his hands to his mouth – such an important function for all of us. This happened one day when Jeff was on Anat’s table and she facilitated for him to come on his hands and knees. Very slowly Jeff began lowering his head and his upper chest towards the table still leaning on his hands with his pelvis up in the air. That got his elbows to bend passively. He did that very gradually until his mouth reached his right hand. Jeff stayed there for a long time chewing and sucking on his right hand and fingers for the very first time in his life.
A couple of weeks later Jeff figured out, on his own, that while sitting, he could put one arm below the other lifting it high enough so that his elbow bent passively by the pull of gravity (he was missing the biceps muscles) and have the hand reach his mouth. From there on Jeff’s development sailed smoothly. He no longer needed any lessons.
George’s Story
After teaching an introductory seminar to a group of professionals, a pediatrician approached me and told me that she just helped deliver, through a C section, earlier that day a baby boy that was born with severe torticollis, his head tilted and turned to the left in a fixed position. She believed that it was caused as a result of him being “stuck” in the uterus for a number of months in one position. She asked if I thought the ABM could help. “Yes” was my immediate reply. I was very excited. I knew from past experience that new borns respond extremely well and quickly to the work.
From the description of this new-born – George – I guessed that portions of his skeleton must have grown asymmetrically. Since the growth of the bones is intimately connected to movement, to the pull of muscles and to the pull of gravity, and since the bones of a new born grow and form at a remarkable rate, I was eager to begin working with George as soon as possible to help his spine and head grow more symetrically.
George’s parents brought him to us when he was 5 days old. A colleague of mine saw him for the first few lessons since I was out of town. When I got back I gave George his 5th lesson. The father told me that the changes in George as a result of the first 4 lessons were just short of the miraculous. He seemed to have gotten much more comfortable in his body, after his first session he slept well for the first time, his feeding improved right away, and most importantly, he began turning his head towards the right side. When he was lying on his back, his head was lying more in the mid-line.
Looking at George I immediately saw that his jaw on the right side developed differently than on his left side. His spine was curved to the left. It was clear that the left side of his jaw and face were pressing against his left shoulder and clavicle while he was developing in the uterus. As I moved George very gently, he paid very close attention. Within a few minutes, his spine, ribs and pelvis began moving in directions that were not possible earlier. By the end of the lesson he was able to turn his head fully to the right. I gave George two more lessons. Each time he came back he was more symmetrical. His parents felt that his improvement was so great that he didn’t need anymore lessons. They agreed to have a few more follow up lessons to insure that there is no regression.
How Does the Anat Baniel Method for Children Work with Brachial Plexus injury, Infant Torticollis, and other birth injuries and birth defects.
The miraculous process of development we see any healthy child go through is a result of a complex process of differentiation in the brain that allows it to form new connections and new patterns. All the experiences the child has of her own initial random movements and her kinesthetic experiences coupled with all that is done with her by those caring for her, is used by the brain as information with which it develops and grows. While the baby and young child is completely dependent on his or her caretakers for their survival and well being, those caretakers have very little to do with the actual process of growth and development of the child. That process is done by the child, within the child, on the child’s own timing.
When a child suffers from birth injury or birth defect, this spontaneous process of differentiation and formation of new patterns in the brain is interfered with. Most therapy approaches attempt to make the child do what it should be doing according to his or her age and expected developmental stage. However, forcing movement on an arm that has only a small portion of the normal neural connections to the brain, or an arm that is missing some of its muscles and the joints are malformed, normally produces little of the desired outcomes and often is painful, upsets the child and leaves her/him feeling bad and wrong. That happens because the brain of such a child needs to discover and create unique solutions for their unique situation. When we try to get the child to gain functioning through forcing and repetition of movement, the brain of the child is unable to transform the stimulation into information and thus cannot create new patterns and solutions. Read more about this approach here.
With the ABM the focus is very different. Rather than try to fix the problem directly by focusing on the limitations, the focus is shifted to where the solutions actually lie – with the brain’s ability to invent different ways to achieve the same outcome. The ABM focuses on helping the brain of the child suffering from brachial plexus injury and other birth injuries and defects do its job better. It helps the brain right itself and regain its ability to powerfully and consistently create new neural patterns that bring about successful solutions. We apply gentle techniques that directly communicate with the nervous system of the child through, primarily, movement, enhanced awareness and non-verbal kinesthetic experiences.
With the ABM the brain of the child with birth injury and birth defects is given the opportunity to discover alternative solutions to the ones all other children naturally form. That is when the child with brachial plexus injury and other conditions can move towards full functioning in a powerful and pleasurable way. [LINK: Parent's Stories: Abby Natenshon’s parent story + 7 minute Elizabeth DVD] . It is very important to understand that it is only when we create the conditions for the child’s brain to function in a healthy and high quality way that that child can overcome limitations in ways that can be astounding and inspiring. Watch Anat Baniel working with 3 children– [ link to the free 3 children DVD.]
Steps to Take For Concerned Parents
If you have been told by your child’s physician that your child has a developmental disorder, or if your parental instincts are telling you something is not quite right (often parents know “something is not quite right” long before a medical diagnosis is given), it is important that your child gets help as soon as possible. Early intervention can make a big difference.
Here are some steps you can take to explore whether the ABM is something you want for your child:
What Does Success with the special needs child
Look Like?
- The child shows some progress / change within the first few ABM lessons or therapy sessions. Otherwise it means that the child is not learning.
- The child should feel safe, comfortable and happy in their sessions. True learning is a pleasurable and satisfying experience. Acquiring a better organization of movement, thinking and feeling is an empowering and wonderful experience for the child.
- On-going learning, improvement and maturation. In any growth process, there will be fluctuations in the rate of change. However, over a period of any few weeks, certainly months, as the child is receiving therapy, or ABM lessons, there should be clear learning, change and improvement.
- At home the child begins to spontaneously do on their own, without encouragement, what she/he was doing in the session. It may take a few sessions for that to happen with any newly acquired skill. If not, most likely the child is not learning and needs to be placed where they will be learning and improving.
- In between sessions, you should be able to see some additional spontaneous improvements beyond what was accomplished in the ABM lessons or therapy sessions.
How We Work With Your Child to Overcome Developmental Disorders and Challenges
If your child cannot sit up by himself, or if he cannot stand on all fours, crawl or stand up on his own, we will not try to force him into these positions, or place him in contraptions that will “hold” him in a position, unless we believe he will never be able to do it on his own. If your child is unable to read despite hours of coaching we will at first ask that she stops trying to read. If he perseveres we will not try to force him to stop. Instead we will engage the child in a process that provides his or her brain with the conditions and information it needs in order to begin learning. Through that process your child’s brain will form new neural patterns that were missing due to their illness or injury. Once enough of these missing elements are in place, your child will spontaneously begin doing what he or she couldn’t do before.
In the beginning we like to work with your child in a concentrated manner. That gives your child the opportunity to benefit from the ABM as fully as possible, and for you to be able to assess the usefulness of the method for your child. Initially we like to give the lessons in clusters of between 5-10 lessons in one week. The frequency of the clusters is every two – eight weeks, depending on your child’s situation. Occasionally a child might get two lessons in one day, in the morning and afternoon. Ms Baniel has discovered that in this concentrated process children can very quickly transform into effective learners and experience important changes in their ability to move, perceive, understand, initiate, think, relate to their surroundings, and make sense of what is happening to them.
Within 3-5 lessons it is usually clear whether the child is benefiting from the lessons. If both the parents and the Anat Baniel Method for Children practitioner feel it is worthwhile to continue, than a lesson plan for the child is created. The first session is scheduled for one hour. Consecutive sessions are scheduled for 45 minutes.
As your child progresses, we adjust your child’s program. Usually the frequency and number of lessons go down. You will be asked to temporarily stop other treatment modalities unless they are medically required. We will also ask that you do not place the child in positions that he/she cannot get into or out of on their own. Very often we request halting the use of orthotics, standers etc, at least initially.
We have a team of ABM practitioners that can work with your child. When you bring your child to the Anat Baniel Center you can choose to work with any of the teachers, or we can help place you with a teacher. When Anat Baniel works with a child often times she gives the child some of the lessons in the lesson-cluster and one of her team teachers gives the rest of the lessons in that cluster..If you bring your child to Anat from out of town, she will try to help you find a local practitioner for your child to work with in between visits to her center.
To discuss your child's situation, or to make an appointment,
please Contact Us.
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