Non-invasive, Neurologically Based Approach to Scoliosis Treatment: scoliosis exercises for the adolescent and child with special needs
- Are you a parent, grandparent, or caretaker of a child or adolescent that has been diagnosed with scoliosis?
- Are you trying to avoid putting your child through surgery or in a brace?
- Would like to find non invasive, effective scoliosis treatment and scoliosis exercises for your child?
If you suspect scoliosis in your child it is important that she/he be seen by a physician and have the child’s back X rayed. (Perhaps you have scoliosis and are looking for back pain help yourself?)
The Anat Baniel method for children offers an innovative and highly effective method to have the child born with scoliosis overcome limitations and achieve successful functioning beyond the usual medical prognosis.
You can read about the dramatic results we can achieve as published in the June 2004 issue of Cerbral Palsy Magazine, Movement and Learning Based Approach to Working with Scoliosis.
“My daughter Emily was diagnosed with an S-type idiopathic scoliosis when she was 10 years old. She wore that brace 20 hours each day. She became progressively worse over the course of 2 years. When Emily turned 12, the doctor felt she should wear the more traditional hard brace (23 hours per day) which would restrict her movement substantially. He also felt that surgery might be necessary in the future.
It was at this time I met Anat Baniel and Emily was introduced to her method. We threw away the brace and continued to see Anat every other month for lessons. Emily's thoracic curvature remained the same over the next 2 and a half years and her lumbar curve decreased by 5 degrees.
The ABM not only arrested the curvature, but improved Emily's posture and breathing. It is hard to tell Emily has scoliosis because the work has taught her how to make her body work more efficiently. She stands straighter, no longer has trouble breathing and is able to dance without any difficulty. She did not have to wear a brace which would have inhibited her from accomplishing so many physical achievements, not to mention the psychological effect it would have had on her.
Anat Baniel's method has given Emily a new life and for that I will always be grateful.”
Diane J. – Emily’s mother
The Anat Baniel Method for Children (ABM) is a non medical, scientifically based approach. The practitioner of this method uses gentle, innovative Scoliosis treatment and Scoliosis exercises to help the brain form new neural connections and patterns that take the child beyond their current limitations. We take advantage of the fact that we do not need a perfectly aligned spine in order to have full, well organized functioning, like bending easily and breathing freely and fully. With the ABM we help the brain of the child or adolescent suffering from scoliosis find alternative solutions that lead them to full functioning and some structural correction of the spine.
Click to read the article from Cerebral Palsy Magazine, September, 2003, Working with the Whole Body and see a streaming video of the Anat Baniel Method being used with 3 different children.
“I have observed Anat’s work with severely challenged individuals over a period of more than two decades, and have witnessed transformations that are simply stunning. Over the years, Anat explained to me the premises of her work, and I have become a life-long enthusiast.”
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Dr. Daniel Graupe, University of Illinois, Chicago
Click to Read Dr. Graupe's full letter
CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE:
Emily'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
Emily’s story in her own words
"In a different life, I was a ten-year old girl terrified of her future. When the orthopedist diagnosed me with an S shaped scoliosis curve, I sat in his office and absorbed as many blurred words as I could. He held up chunks of plastic and metal and talked of possible surgery if necessary in the distant future. I left the office confused, upset, vulnerable, and wearing a more flexible back brace made of plastic, stretchy fibers, and snaps. In the eyes of a child, such a restriction is punishment.
For the next two years, I continued to adapt my life to meet the limitations of my body. Around this time, I began to take a few dance classes a week to hopefully help my back. I expected success, but only in dreams did I ever make any progress with my technique. As my parents and I grew more concerned about my health and well-being, my curvature and rotation increased.
Then, in June of 2001, fate brought me to Anat Baniel. When a mutual friend of Anat and my family learned of my condition, she excitedly urged me to participate in a seminar to be held in Chicago. I now had a tough decision to make. Did I still have enough faith in the conventional treatment for scoliosis, or could I find the courage to start a journey with an unknown outcome? Frustrated that my brace was only adding to the existing curve, I grasped the opportunity.
I began seeing Anat every eight weeks in California for lessons. The change during and after each lesson was immediate and enormous. I discovered parts of my body that I never knew could move so freely. My breathing became much steadier as my rib cage and chest learned to be free. Anat also showed my back how to lie flat and twist with full range of motion, as well as my hips how to be loose to allow for better walking. I continued dance more than ever and started to make tremendous improvement when I began the Anat Baniel Method. With all of these physical changes come emotional changes to follow. With Anat's work, I am more confident, happy, and ready to seize opportunities I might never have considered before. I am proud to say my life began at twelve."
How Does the Anat Baniel Method for Children
Work with Scoliosis?
Everyone's spine has natural curves. These curves round our shoulders and make our lower back curve slightly inward. These curvatures are essential for our back to move well and powerfully. Some people have spines that also curve from side to side. This condition of side-to-side spinal curves is called scoliosis. On an X-ray, the spine of an individual with scoliosis looks more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line. This abnormal curvature of spine affects muscles, ribs, central nervous system, and endocrine system.
The vast majority of scoliosis is "idiopathic," meaning its cause is unknown. It usually develops in middle or late childhood, before puberty, and is seen more often in girls than boys. Scoliosis can occur in children with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal bifida and other miscellaneous conditions. We have seen it with babies as young as a few days old suffering from torticollis to a few months old suffering from cerebral palsy.
Attempts to “stand up straight” are futile. The person with scoliosis has no perception or feeling of the curvature. They feel “straight” and “normal”. Scoliosis limits the movement of the spine, ribs, pelvis and head. The back tends to be moved as one solid piece. With the ABM we do not attempt to straighten the spine directly.
Through gentle movements and increased sensitivity and awareness we help provide the brain with new information, creating new patterns of movement in the spine and the whole back. The brain stops treating the back as if it were one chunk, but rather built of many movable parts. Bending, arching, twisting, balance and breathing all become better and easier to do.
Within one lesson the back begins to move more freely in ALL directions and over time the curvature tends to decrease. With the ABM we realize that the structure of the back does not need to be perfect or symmetrical in order for the person with scoliosis to have full functioning. What needs to happen is for the brain to find new and different solutions how to move the body.
You can read the dramatic results of the Anat Baniel Method 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 the school nurse that your child has scoliosis, or you yourself suspect that it might be the case, you should take your child to be checked by a physician. If your child is diagnosed with scoliosis, it is important that your child gets help as soon as possible
Here are some steps you can take to explore whether the ABM is something you want for your child:
What Does Success Looks Like?
- The child shows some progress/change within the first few ABM lessons or therapy sessions. Otherwise it means that the intervention is not working.
- The child, or adolescent can move better, has more flexibility and strength
- Breathing is improved
- Pain subsides
- The child or adolescent measures taller at the end of the session
- After a few weeks the child or adolescent moves more symmetrically and looks more symmetrical.
- The child should feel safe, comfortable and happy in their sessions. Crying and resistance should be the exception. 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.
- 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 Arrest the Progression and Reduce the Curvature of the Spine
We use gentle varied movement and awareness to provide his or her brain with the information it needs to form new neuro-muscular patterns that create more symmetrical pulls on the spine and allow for freer movement of the back and chest. The curvature is reduced and the child acquires full functioning and feels a lot better.
In the beginning we like to work with your child in a concentrated manner so that the changes can be integrated and replace existing habits on a permanent basis. 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 for many children and adolescents this concentrated process works very well where they experience important changes and get committed to the process. The adolescents get recorded lessons to do at home to accelerate and support their process of improvement even further and to give them eventual independence from the private lessons.
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. Very often we request halting the use of braces, 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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