Noah's Autism Therapy Part 2 - Miss MG (One of the Key Players)

Photo by liveandlearn.net.au

Brain gym is something that I'd heard about off and on during the years we were doing biomedical treatment with Noah. It seemed interesting, but wasn't really our cup of tea at the time. Noah stopped talking and started having infantile spasms the day after he received his DpT shot... and all his urine and fecal tests were showing that he had heavy metals in his body... and since I couldn't understand how doing a few exercises would help him recover from autism and get all the metals out, I just filed all the Brain Gym info into the part of my mind that was reserved for all the stuff that seemed like a neat idea but would never work for Noah.

Basically, it went into the same pile that included homeopathy, chiropractors, natural medicine, RPM, and cranial sacral therapy.

Oh, hindsight. You certainly are 20/20!

Actually, I didn't even consider Brain Gym for Noah until about 4 or 5 months ago. We initially started going to a Brain Gym therapist about a year ago for Eli. You see, I can't really tell you - in proper technical terms what exactly Brain Gym is... I'll link you to the official site instead... but our former Occupational Therapist had mentioned that Eli was having trouble crossing midline. And at the time, he was writing all his letters backwards (still does some of that) and was writing complete words in mirror image. In fact, he could write his name E-L-I with his left hand (and he's right handed) but then he'd switch to his right hand and write I-L-E. Except it was backwards and I don't know how to do that on my keyboard.

Also, if he wrote with his left hand, he'd start writing words on the left-hand side of the page - like you're supposed to. But if he wrote with his right hand, he'd start at the right-hand side of the page and write backwards until he got to the middle of the page and then he'd switch to his left hand and start at the left hand side of the page. His writing basically looked like this...

I love dinosaurs zuc l00c era yeht.

Translated as.... I love dinosaurs cuz they are cool.

See what I mean?

Anyway, one of the reasons Eli did this is because he never crawled. Ever. He went straight from sitting up to bear crawling and he would walk with his legs straight and his butt up in the air. He did this for a little while and then took off walking. Now, he couldn't even sit up on his own when we adopted him at 9 months. He had zero trunk control, but picked up things quickly. But he never crawled.

There's a school of thought out there that crawling is a major developmental milestone and helps link both sides of the brain together and that kids who skip crawling can develop learning disabilities - especially with reading.

Now, this isn't true across the board. Lots of kids skip crawling and are developmentally fine. Geniuses, in fact. And, like any therapy out there, there's going to be critics. No therapy can single-handedly satisfy everyone. But we couldn't ignore that Eli seemed to fit all the signs of a child who could benefit from Brain Gym.

Like a lot of therapies that are good for kids with ADD or Autism, etc, Brain Gym isn't covered by insurance. If you can find an Occupational Therapist who does it, then you're in luck b/c most insurances will cover it. But Brain Gym on its own... nah.

And don't even get me started on my soapbox about that. I mean, insurance companies won't let you try it out, say, 15 times to see if it works... but exactly what is this country going to be like in 15 years time when there are thousands and thousands of adults with autism who are going to be without insurance and relying on Medicare? How much is THAT going to cost?? You would think the govt and these insurance companies would do whatever treatments are necessary to get our kids healthy... because our "unhealthy" kids are going to become adults someday and who's going to pay for their medical needs? And the kids who actually end up being institutionalized? Who's going to pay for that? Yep...... but I digress

Okay, so, anyway, this time last year we were pulling our hair out over Eli. He was terrified of everything. Throwing awful fits nonstop. Everything was a battle and we were worn out. So, we said, "Okay, we're going to try Brain Gym. What can it hurt?" Except our wallet, of course.

Like most therapies that insurance doesn't cover, Brain Gym can run up to $100 a session - with a session being anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Well, we didn't know what to do. We thought, okay, maybe we'll find a therapist, go a couple of times, learn all we can, and do it at home.

That's when we met Miss MG. She has an actual name, but she's so swamped that she's asked me not to mention her name on here. BUT... if you are able to take your child to Tyler for therapy then leave a comment with your email and I'll get back with you.

Look, I'm a Dallas girl. All our therapists are in Dallas. It's a big city. I have faith in it. It's a snobby attitude, I know, but I never, ever, ever go east.

East TX, to a North Texas girl, is kinda backwards. But we live here now and my kids are growing up to be East Texans... so I need to change my attitude, right? Well, I did find a Brain Gym therapist in Tyler, but I was kinda like, ehh. I mean, there's nothing in East Texas for kids with autism. Slim pickins, folks. But we called and, oh my word, I take back everything I ever said. This lady is a Godsend!

I am floored by her. First of all, and this has nothing do with anything, but she used to be in the Peace Corps and so I totally love her. She's got a great heart! Second of all, she loves my kids - even when Eli takes his shoes off and stinks the whole place out, she just grabs his feet and goes to work. Third, she thinks nothing of me taking notes and doing the exercises at home. In fact, she encourages it. Fourth, she goes to these expensive trainings that I could never ever afford and she tells me all the stuff she learned. And, finally, she only charges $25 an hour.

That's right. $25 an hour! Ya'll, I'd be paying 4 or 5 times that much in Dallas. Yay for East Texas!

And the cool thing is that not only does she do Brain Gym, but she also does the Masgutova Method .

I don't know of anyone who does that except for Miss MG.

Let's shout it out load. Yay for East Texas!

Svletana Masgutova does neuro-sensory programs and works with kids who've retained their primitive reflexes. You see, and here's where I really start talking in layman's terms and probably getting everything wrong, infants are born with several reflexes that usually go away by the time they're 1. But some kids still retain them. In fact, as of last year, Eli still retained 9 out of 11 primitive reflexes. And if kids retain these, then issues can occur.

Think about the child who gets in trouble at school because he always does his work with his head on his desk? Or the child who slumps in his seat. Or the child who fidgets. Now, what if you realized that maybe it's physically painful for that child to sit up straight? What if the only way he can work is with his head slumped on the table? What if that 5 year old physically can't sit cross-legged in a circle during story time? What if it's so uncomfortable that the child is concentrating only on being able to sit cross-legged and, therefore, unable to hear what the teacher is saying?

That's what kids with retained primitive reflexes go through. Every single day. And the goal of Brain Gym and the Masgutova Method (which also works really well for kids with cerebral palsy) is to help repattern the brain and lose those primitive reflexes so they can catch up to their peers.

There's so much I can say, but I think I will leave you with two things.....

1. Here are some links that you can look at for more information...and that will really tell you all you need to know.

The Official Brain Gym Site

The Masgutova Method Site

Reflexes, Learning, and Behavior by Sally Goddard. Actually, all her books are pretty good.

2. And finally, I'm going to tell you how Brain Gym is helping Noah.

I think Brain Gym, plus seeing Dr Rosenthal (look a few posts back for info on him) have really helped Noah's brain/body connections. I know I keep harping on this, but Noah's brain works. His cognitive abilities are in tact. He just can't get his body to cooperate.

Noah's seen Miss MG about 5 times now and last week was the FIRST time she was truly able to spend a good hour on him without him protesting. He came home that night and started throwing up and having diarrhea. The next day, he was fine and we started seeing some great changes. Noah is babbling more. He is starting to play games with us by taking turns playing with his spinning top. Yesterday at Walmart he imitated me putting the groceries on the conveyor belt by taking off his shoe and putting it on the belt to be scanned (lol). For the first time in his life he is actually bringing us things.... like a toy that ran out of batteries. A dish cloth to dry up a spill. He is choosing which spinning top he wants us to spin and picking it up and handing it to us. If he drops a fork, he picks it up and puts in back on the table. For the last year, all he's done is drag us to things. He'd drag us to the toy that needed batteries and throw our hand on it. He's drag us to the spill and throw our hand on it. He'd drag us to the fork for us to pick up. But now he's actually bringing us things and that's a huge accomplishment!

1. RPM

2. Chiropracter work and Cranial Sacral Therapy

3. Homepathy

4. Brain Gym

Next time, once I remember to plug in my camera battery (!!), I'll take pictures of all the equipment we use with Noah and then I'll talk about the exercises we do and how we use the equipment that we have.

And, hopefully, it won't take another two weeks for me to get around to it! =)