New Breakthroughs for Children with
Human Genetic Disorders:
Fragile X Syndrome, Spinal Muscular Dystrophy, Down’s Syndrome and more
As a parent, grandparent, teacher or caretaker of a child with one of the Human Genetic Disorders like Fragile X Syndrome, Spinal Muscular Dystrophy, Down’s Syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, or Chromosomal Disorders, you might feel, or perhaps you were told, that there is very little that can be done for your child.
Luckily that is not the case.
Most times a lot can be done for your child. Over the years Ms Baniel has discovered that the brain of children with Human Genetic Disorders, through formation of new neural patterns and learning, can transform the anticipated dire prognosis into an extra-ordinary path of development and accomplishment.
With the Anat Baniel Method (ABM) children diagnosed with Human Genetic Disorders like Fragile X Syndrome, Spinal Muscular Dystrophy, Down’s Syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, or Chromosomal Disorders have improved in remarkable ways, in both physical and cognitive functioning. 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.
“We were overwhelmed by Joshua’s (name changed for privacy reasons) Bar Mitzvah last night. He was so poised and collected at the service. He read his Torah portion flawlessly, behaved like a perfect gentleman, and was having such a good time that his enthusiasm touched us all. Throughout the periods of waiting at the service and then later at the party, he was patient and never stopped smiling as he listened to the tributes paid to him. The whole evening was magical!”
-
D.E. Chicago, a close friend of the family of a child with
Fragile X Syndrome.
The Anat Baniel Method for Children (ABM) is scientifically based. The practitioner of this method uses innovative, gentle movement, verbal and touch techniques that help the brain of the children diagnosed with Human Genetic Disorders form new neural connections and patterns that transform the child’s limitations into incredible possibilities. The child with Fragile X Syndrome learns to speak and to think abstractly; the child with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease begins to use her hands and fingers and develops strong leg muscles; the child with Spinal Muscular Dystrophy is able to sit, stand and walk and the child with Down’s Syndrome learns to speak and construct sentences. Speech, emotional and social functioning, thinking and coordination – all improve. While it is a process, the changes begin happening right away and are often quite dramatic.
“My third child was born with a genetic disorder which caused him to have many developmental delays including delayed speech, delayed motor development, ADHD, sensory integration disorders, and a host of learning disabilities both verbal and non verbal. He was not diagnosed until age 4. He was in traditional therapy for 2 years with limited results.
At the time we met Anat he had no attention span, he spoke a few mono syllable words and did so in a robotic fashion. He walked hunched over as if he was a stroke victim. His back was extremely weak and he couldn’t lift his head when lying on his stomach.
For over nine years I have been leaving my other two children and my husband, and my practice 6-7 times a year to bring my son out to California to continue working with Anat. Over these years his progress has been steady, often bordering on the miraculous. His coordination is now like that of an average normal child his age. He never stops talking, and has a wonderful sense of humor. He is able to think and reason, read and write - he is doing unbelievably well.
Anat’s greatest gift me is that she gave me back my son.”
-Cheryl Cooper, M.D., mother of child with a genetic disorder
CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE:
Robbie'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
Robbie’s Story
When Anat first met Robbie he was an eight month old infant who had a rare chromosome disorder—Trisomy 8 q. His doctors at Stanford had told his parents that their child would never talk or walk and they should plan to institutionalize him. They had also run tests that convinced them that Robbie was deaf. He had been fitted with hearing aids that didn’t seem to make much of a difference except to make Robbie to cry a lot. By the time the parents brought Robbie to Anat, their expectations for the quality of his life were painfully low.
The parents placed Robbie on his back on Anat's work table. Due to his condition Robbie hardly ever moved. He lay there quietly with his legs extended and his arms out to his sides. Since the parents believed he was deaf, they were not surprised that he appeared not to respond to what was going on around him.
Anat explained to the parents that the brain, her brain, their brains, and Robbie's brain are all organized through movement. Newborns and young children move constantly during waking hours. Because of Robbie’s lack of normal experiential movement, his brain had been starved for information. As a result his brain was unable to form connections and patterns so he could make sense out of what was happening to him and around him.
While she was talking to the parents, Anat was gently and slowly lifting Robbie’s left shoulder, twisting him a bit to the right and then back. The parents had no idea what she was doing, but she was in fact providing, through the language of movement, concentrated, high level information to his brain, information about his own body and his surroundings. She continued by doing the same with the left side of his pelvis–lifting it a tiny bit and gently rolling it to the right. Within a few seconds Robbie began turning his head to the right as Anat was moving his pelvis to the right. That informed Anat that Robbie’s brain was waking up to itself and beginning to do its job of making sense of its experience and forming new patterns.
Soon, Anat pulled lightly on Robbie’s left arm and he immediately responded by rolling himself to his right side. He had never done this before. At the end of the lesson Anat stood behind Robbie and snapped her fingers. Robbie turned his head toward the source of the sound. He was not deaf. The first fifty minute session was over.
The parents called Anat later that day to tell her that for the first time in his life, Robbie was babbling, moving his feet, and happy.
What was going on? The job of the brain is to create order out of chaos, to make sense out of the flood of sensations that continuously bombard it. It is through movement that the brain gradually grows and gets formed. It is estimated that 96-98% of the brain is busy with movement during waking hours. As soon as Anat began to give Robbie’s brain the information it so desperately needed in a way that caught his attention, he was able to make great leaps in organizing himself. Today, at 5 1/2 years old, Robbie is about to enter kindergarten. He walks, runs, plays with toys, interacts with his peers and siblings, and communicates through spoken language and with the help of a computer device. Most importantly, Robbie continues growing and evolving.
How Does the Anat Baniel Method for Children Work with Children with Human Genetic Disorders
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 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 are 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 a Genetic Disorder, 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, or have very low expectations since the trouble originates from a genetic disorder. As many frustrated parents and hard working therapists have experienced first hand, trying to make a child speak, relate emotionally, understand what is going on, or perform motor skills when they cannot do it, normally produces little of the desired outcomes and often upsets the child and leaves her/him feeling bad and wrong about themselves and even more separate from the people around them. That happens because the brain of the child is unable to transform the stimulation into information that the brain can use to create new patterns and solutions.
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. The ABM focuses on helping the brain of the child suffering from a Genetic Disorder 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, verbal and non-verbal kinesthetic experiences.
With the ABM the brain of the child with a genetic disorder regains its ability to function in a healthy way. That is when the child can begin doing what all other healthy children do. Read What Parents Say How the ABM Worked For Their Child.
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, high quality way that that child can overcome limitations in ways that can be astounding and inspiring. Watch Anat Baniel working with 3 children.
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
We will not be asking your child to do what he or she cannot do because our assumption is that if the child could do it, they would. We instead discover what patterns the child’s brain has not been able to form and create the conditions that allow the child’s brain to do its job better and better. If he perseveres we will not try to force him to stop. Instead we will engage the child in a process he 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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