Functional Neurology

A new name for IM training, at least functionally this is what is happening during IM training. If you watch this trailer, you will see one of the therapies being used is indeed IM. A must see video for all my parents.

Hope Restored: Functional Neurology Serves Humanity from Unseen Line Films on Vimeo.

The Importance of Automaticity

In IM, automaticity is hugely important. By automatizing your awareness of where your body is in space and how to move it with in time and space very accurately,you free up your conscious brain for higher level functioning. It is one reason IM is so effective and foundational.  Here's an article about automaticity in reading - also essential for good reading - but first you have to automatize your visual processing so the words stay on the page and your body awareness so the book stays in your hand :) IM tasks :)  We see an average of 2 grade levels gain in reading through IM with out ever picking up a book... automaticity.

Reading and behavior gains - follow up six months post IM

This adorable young man (7 years old)  went through IM about 6 months ago. He completed 20 - 25 sessions this past summer. Just before he started 2nd grade this year, his reading scored at the kindergarten level! In IM, we don't teach reading, we just prepare the brain to process information so the child can learn to read. I received this note from his mom today.:

"A----- is doing good in school.  He has been able to catch up to the class average in the area of sight words and doing MUCH better with reading.  I have worked with the school to get him into a special program that gives him small group and one-on-one learning to get him caught up with his basic reading skills.  And according to my most recent parent-teacher conference it shows that what we are doing is working very well.  He still has the occassionally off day but we have far more good behavior days then bad.  He also visits with the school counselor once a week after he had an incident where a few kids in his class were bullying him. He still does not have the self confidence I'd like him to have at this point.  BUT things are so much better. 

I still believe very much in the power of IM and would still like for him to get a refresher over the summer. 

Thank you so much for what you do and sharing it with my family. 

Sincerely,
 

K--- S---"

Dyslexia - left hemisphere connectivity issue

"Vanderbilt University researchers Sheryl Rimrodt and Laurie Cutting and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University and Kennedy Krieger Institute used an emerging MRI technique, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to discover evidence linking dyslexia to structural differences in an important bundle of white matter in the left-hemisphere language network.

Non Verbal Learning Disabilities behavior relationship to time and space

UC Davis MIND Institute has another great presentation. by Dr. Tony Simon titled Problems with Space and Time.....   Specifically this is about a specific population of children with spatio-temporal challenges. These children are often labeled as having Non Verbal Learning Disabilities, NVLD.

Though this research is not IM research, it shows that some challenges, often labeled as NVLD, are directly identified as weak resolution of time and space, the exact processing that IM impacts. Specific areas of the brain are implicated as well as networks with in the brain. Some of the areas of the brain that Dr. Simon mentions are the same sub-cortical brain areas that  MRI's have shown to be activated in IM including the cerebellum and the basal ganglia. He ends with the statement that "there is plenty of evidence that typical spatio-temporal systems are 'plastic' " and the we can 'fix' the problem. Practice and stimulation is what is needed to change and improve these processes.

Re-wiring the Brain - It's possible!

Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist specializing in neuroplasticity discusses the cause and cure for children with language  delays. Most children with learning impairments have a brain that has specialized for "noisy" speech. The brain processes in a defective form because early in life the process was noisy. Causes vary from noisy environments, to ear infections, to a 'noisy' brain. That is, a brain that has different time concepts and different space concepts!

Dyslexia Link

As many as 15% of our children may have some form of dyslexia. Visit here to view the warning signs and find more information.

Parts of the right hemisphere of the brain implicated in Dyslexia

Parts of the right hemisphere of the brains of people with dyslexia have been shown to differ from those of normal readers. Researchers writing in the open access journal note that in all cases, differences could be seen in either the right cerebellar declive or the right lentiform nucleus. Click here for more information.

IM is considered a cerebellar exercise by many professionals. If the right cerebellar declive is exercised during IM, maybe this is a link to the large improvement in reading often seen through IM.

UC Davis MIND Institutes Toxicology Conference

This is not an IM post but a potential reason WHY we are needing so much IM. Click here to watch Dr.Stuart Freedenfeld, M   as he speaks in VERY people friendly terms in his presentation, Defending Your Child From a Toxic World. "The brain is particularly sensitive to toxic exposures during development.

Lanuage disorders are slowed auditory processing - A Matter of TIME!

Paula Tallal from Rutgers University gives this great presentation on how timing is essential for language processing."Language impaired children have difficulty in both receiving and producing brief, rapidly successive signals, specifically in the tens of millisecond time range."

Abnormal Connectivity for Dyslexia

Recently I have read several researchers who are calling autism a connectivity disorder. This NIH reasearch paper, Dec 2008, expresses that Dyslexia is a connectivity disorder as well. 

This study shows that with in a very short time, you can change the functional connectivity of the brain impacting how the brain preforms.  A quote: "fMRI functional connectivity may provide additional information about the temporal coordination of brain regions during specific tasks." Temporal Coordination - I believe this to mean  syncronized timing between brain regions. That's what IM does, synchronizes timing between various regions of the brain.

Mental Impairments Linked to Toxins

Yesterday I found this very informative sight, Institute for Children's Environmental Health . I am of the opinion that our children are 'the canary in the cave' so to speak for our environment today. The rise in neurodevelopmental issues is unprecedented. One in six children today have a neurodevelopmental disorder! Most of the children I see probably have recieved some environmental insult to their neurological system at some time in their short past. IM helps with the recovery of these affected neuropathways, but are there ways to prevent the issues in the first place!

With a grandchild on the way, I've been reading the latest in environmental safety and health. This up to date site covers almost all of the topics of concern. Parents, especially expectant parents and parents of young children, should check it out. We all should since these toxins are implicated in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, asthma, and cancer. As a society, we removed lead from gasoline years ago when we discovered how harmful it was. Today we can change the world again.

TIming and Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities and Timing Article: A quote, "Abnormal brainstem timing may serve as a reliable marker of a subgroup of individuals with learning disabilities. ....faulty mechanisms of neural timing at the brainstem may be the biological basis of malfunction in this group." Read the whole article. Brainstem timing and literacy.