 | ||||||||||||||||
The Special Needs Child - a cutting edge approach to treating developmental disorders
The Anat Baniel Method for Children (ABM) is scientifically based and the results have been validated by medical doctors. The practitioner of this method uses gentle, innovative techniques to help the brain of the special needs child form new neural connections and patterns that take the child beyond their current limitations. While it is a process, the changes begin happening right away and are often quite dramatic. 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. “Anat Baniel’s work deserves to have the greatest possible audience, both in the rehabilitation medicine community and beyond. I believe that it is one of the most important approaches to physical rehabilitation, especially when conventional physical therapy is insufficient.” Daniel Graupe, Professor of Bioengineering and Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Watch Anat working with 3 special needs children or Order the DVD (link to the shopping page) Conditions the Anat Baniel Method for Children Can Help Conditions the Anat Baniel Method for Children Can Help This Method is a gentle, non-medical, learning-based approach. Movement and awareness are the main tools utilized for communicating with the brain, providing information the brain requires in order to form missing neural patterns. We have discovered that almost always, regardless of the specific diagnosis, the child’s brain is available for potent learning. It is through this learning process that children with diverse developmental issues can benefit from the Anat Baniel Method for Children. This method can be applied at any age; however, early intervention has generally proven to provide the quickest and most far reaching results. Children with the following conditions have benefited from the ABM:
Early diagnosis and early intervention are of utter importance. While we have discovered that the brain is almost always available to form new patterns and thus improve the functioning and quality of life of the child, the earlier the intervention, the better is the likelihood for full functional recovery. We have worked with newborns as young as 5 days old and with teenagers who have greatly benefited from their lessons. Even when there is no clear label to the challenges your child is dealing with, it is still important to get these challenges addressed as soon as possible and help your child follow the best possible developmental track. You may read about the results we have had with many of our children in the words of their parents in our success stories page. ^Top How Does the Anat Baniel Method Work? The ABM work with special needs children suffering from developmental disorders is based on the understanding that many diseases and traumas of childhood interrupt the normal and spontaneous process of pattern formation in the brain by interrupting with the communication that needs to take place between the child’s body and the world around it and the child’s brain. We have found that it is often possible to directly communicate with the nervous system of the child in very gentle, yet powerful ways primarily through movement, enhanced awareness and non-verbal kinesthetic experiences. Where in traditional therapies there is great emphasis on trying to get the child to do what it is supposed to be doing based on his or her age, (See this article from Cerebral Palsy Magazine for more information). With the ABM a very different approach is taken. Rather than try to fix the problem directly by focusing on the child’s limitations, be it stretching a short tight muscle, practicing reading over and over again, or telling the child repeatedly how to relate to others, the focus is shifted to where the solutions actually lie – with the brain. Everything we see a healthy child do is an end 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, be it her own initial random movements or all that is done with her by those caring for her, are used by her brain as information with which to develop and grow. When there is a problem like a stroke, autism, cerebral palsy or a genetic disorder, this process is interfered with and the child manifests a host of limitations. Forcing movement on a spastic arm will normally give very little outcome if any. Repeatedly attempting to get a child that is unable to sort emotional and social input to relate to others is partially successful at best. That is because the brain is unable to transform the stimulation into information with which to create new patterns that are necessary to bring about the desired changes. The ABM focuses on helping the brain do its job better. It helps the brain right itself and regain its ability to powerfully and consistently create new patterns and successful solutions. Surprisingly, this process can, and often does, move forward very quickly, as you can see in the 3 children DVD on our video library page. When a child begins learning in this manner, significant progress often follows. Early intervention can yield very rapid results, but we have also had great successes with children who had many years of conventional treatments before discovering the Anat Baniel method for Children. ^Top Grace was three years old when she received her first lesson from Ms Baniel. Born pre-mature and diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Grace was a petite, skinny, pretty girl with severe muscular spasticity. Her muscles were so tight that her back was constantly rounded, her legs tightly crossed, her elbows bent and her hands fisted. She was unable to roll over to her belly or her back, she couldn’t crawl, nor could she sit and had very limited use of her hands. In traditional therapy for Cerebral Palsy, from the time she was a year old, her therapists had placed her in a sitting position trying to make her sit, and placed her on her belly encouraging her to crawl. Being a very intelligent girl, she tried very hard to perform and failed. Being spastic, these great efforts got her to stiffen even more. Inadvertently she learned to associate any attempt to move with intense contraction of all of her muscles which only insured failure. When Ms. Baniel began working with Grace, she spent the first few sessions providing Grace with the experience of easy, gentle movements that required no effort on Grace’s part. Her brain quickly began to pay attention to the information Ms Baniel was sending it, and within a few weeks Grace was rolling over, beginning to crawl, and using her arms and hands better. As time progressed Grace continued to receive lessons learning to sit up, write, talk freely and clearly, stand on her knees and climb into and out of chairs. Now Grace moves all the time, easily and well. She is currently learning how to stand on her feet and walk. You can read more about 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. 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:
^Top What Does Success with the special needs child Look Like?
^Top 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 devices 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 may 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 Method 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 most times she shares the work with one or more of her team members, giving the child some of the lessons in the lesson-cluster and the rest of the lessons in that cluster are given by another teacher. When 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 your area in between visits to our ABM California center. ^Top In the early 1980s Dr. Feldenkrais began handing over the care of children in his practice to Anat Baniel and within two years Anat was responsible for all children coming for Feldenkrais work. Over the proceeding 25 years Ms Baniel has worked with hundreds of children with special needs with outstanding results developing her own Anat Baniel Method for Children. To date she has trained 190 practitioners in her method and will soon graduate another 70 practitioners. Anat, and the practitioners she has trained in the Anat Baniel Method for Children(sm), have helped hundreds of children with developmental disorders or special needs, for example, children with CP, sensory integration problems, brain injury, genetic disorders and childhood autism. To read more about the method, about Anat Baniel and about Dr Feldenkrais please click here Parents’ Stories To contact the Anat Baniel Center: administrator@anatbanielmethod.com To find a practitioner in your area click here ^Top |
 “Traditional therapies are all about the limitations of the child; Anat’s work is all about the possibilities.”
|
|||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 Anat Baniel DISCLAIMER