Pauline Shannon
Neuro-developmental therapist, Tomatis consultant and NeurOptimal® trainer.
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Individual movement programmes which remove physical blocks and make real changes to the lives of children and adults living with Dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
Dyslexia
With or without a diagnosis this may help you.
The inner ear acts as a fine tuner to the brain. And when there is a problem, the visual and hearing signals coming into the brain often become blurry or scrambled or twisted. And the same thing happens to the balance and coordination signals going out. That explains why some people have difficulty reading, some have diffculty hearing things clearly and rapidly and why others often trip and fall.
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Many people think dyslexia is only when letters and words they read reverse but it is many other things, too. Dyslexia may scramble or mess up the way you write, how you speak or it may make you hyper, clumsy and confused about directions such as left and right. Dyslexia could also make it difficult to remember things, like numbers or maths, telling the time or following directions. And often people with dyslexia will have nightmares and fears. (from Upside Down Kids by Harold Levinson)
Fortunately it is possible with out drugs or anything unpleasant to help the brain improve its fine tuning. By regularily repeating special exercises, 5 to 10 minutes every day, you can improve your brains processing which will make the things you find difficult in life easier for you. This is what we do in our INPP movement program.
Our son and his experience with Dyslexia
He was in P3. I could see that he was struggling with reading despite being a bright boy. The school saw nothing, telling me was just different from my older two children. I did not agree. I requested an assessment which I discovered was my right as a parent. Eventually the school arranged for him to be seen by an educational Psychologist. The results were clear. He was very dyslexic, not just a little bit but very. I remember the words they used. ‘Don’t worry’ they said, ‘he will get someone to read and write for him at high school’.
I asked what I could do to help him to make life easier. I could not believe they were writing him off in p3. ‘Mrs. Shannon’ they said, ‘there is no cure for dyslexia’.
I was not prepared to accept this. There had to be something I could do. Then someone mentioned INPP to me. They explained that it identified physical reasons for learning difficulties and then reduced them. I did some research and it seemed to make sense. It was also the only thing I could find that offered hope.
I found a practitioner in Edinburgh and made our first appointment. She explained how retained reflexes can result in inefficiencies in the neural pathways which make learning more difficult for some children.
Our first appointment was in October. We saw her every 8 weeks and worked on integrating the Moro reflex, the TLR and the ATNR. The exercises were ridiculously simple. I thought I was throwing my money away. Still she offered hope where no one else was offering anything so we did the exercises everyday.
In January, the school phoned me to ask what we had been doing as he had written his first ever full page of written work. They were astounded at the difference in such a short time. His spelling was still awful but his writing and reading had improved significantly. He also learned to ride a bike which he had been struggling to manage before.
The programme lasted 18 months. We travelled to Edinburgh every 8 weeks and paid a fortune. We continued his daily exercise. As he was managing better he was less willing to do his exercise and for the last few appointments I encouraged him with lego figures.
He is now in second year at high school, in the top class for all subjects and with no additional needs what so ever. The high school are unaware that he ever had any difficulties. He is a happy confident boy. How different things could have been.