The exercises within our program help to build attention, memory, coordination, and higher-level cognitive functions regardless of age or level of experience. Children with learning challenges, reading difficulty, emotional dysregulation, and physical delays will benefit. Also, adults and athletes can continue to improve their brains function using these movements.
These exercises require active attention and focus. They give immediate feedback when attention wanders. The feedback helps to improve focus, maintain longer attention and better control.

BALANCE brings together the most important elements that improve connections in the cerebellum. These include the vestibular system, proprioceptive system, and visual system. We specifically curate the movements to engage all three systems, progressively challenging the systems, for just the right amount of neurological "load" to create change.

The cerebellum is a key structure not only for sensorimotor control but also for language, social cognition, and emotions. It is well known that over 85% of children diagnosed with autism have delays in motor skills (gross motor, fine motor, coordination, motor planning). Recent research has shown some interesting changes in the brains of children with autism when compared to typically developing children.

Specifically, reduced size and connections in the cerebellum were noted as well as a reduction in the gray matter volume. Reduction in gray matter volume has repeatedly been correlated with severity of symptoms in social interaction and communication in children with ASD. Both hyper-connectivity and hypo-connectivity of the cerebra-cerebellar connections have been seen. Generally the hyper-connections have been seen within the somatosensory cortex, while the hypo-connections to the prefrontal cortex. Also, research notes less connections between the cerebellum and language centers of the brain.

Neurological treatment is essential for helping a child's cerebellum develop and improve connections within the brain hemispheres. As we develop the foundation of the nervous system using reflex integration, brain hemispheric integration and therapeutic activities for the cerebellum we notice symptoms related to autism reducing and children gaining incredible functional skills in language, motor, social, and cognition.

To read more on the study, head here: https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/66706

When the vestibular, proprioceptive, and visual systems have not fully developed and we begin placing demands on them, such as in school, we are putting our children in a place where they may fail, have behaviors, and become frustrated. Not because they are unable to learn, but rather because their brains foundation is not fully developed leaving them with less cognitive ability to process information correctly. This can be why we see difficulty with letter reversals, reading, writing errors, memorization trouble and others.

If children's foundational neurological pathways are not yet fully developed for reading and spelling words and for writing letters and numbers, and we push them to read or write too early, nonverbal learning challenges and attention and behavioral problems will result. Children will spend too much time struggling to think when trying to identify the numbers or letters they are seeing. They will be overwhelmed when trying to make sense of letters while reading and writing and frustrated when trying to write numbers during math. Children will experience so much stress that they will dislike school, dislike their teacher and dislike learning. Yet, we want children to love learning for their whole life. We want children to love and respect their teachers and to be enthusiastic about going to school. For when there is joy in learning instead of fear, children remain in the present moment, their autonomic nervous system is deeply relaxed, and their minds are fully open and receptive to experience and have curiosity for this amazing world.

Children need to be able to track and converge well with both of their eyes, since both tracking and convergence develop skills needed for pre-reading. Children that can't track or converge properly will often lose their place while reading, skip words, and tire easily. It will require a tremendous effort from these children to follow a line of letters (i.e. words) on a page or to copy letters and numbers from the blackboard. Sometimes these children will need to move their head side to side while reading because their eyes have difficulty tracking. This also will cause children to become dizzy and tire easily when trying to read or do written work. All of this happens without the child even noticing. They don't know that what they are seeing is different from other children, which is why it's so important to assess them. Often children with visual-perceptual challenges receive scores of 20/20 on eye exams yet are seeing double, or the words are jumping on the page and they don't know the difference enough to tell someone.

Most children who have difficulties tracking with their eyes will show challenges in the development of their vestibular system (sense of balance and moving the body in space). These children need to develop their vestibular, proprioceptive and other sensory systems via neurologically-based movement programs such as primitive reflex integration, brain hemispheric integration, and brain training. These programs highlight movements that integrate the senses and develop the foundation of the nervous system, which we need to develop cognitive skills needed for learning & reading.

In regards to reading and writing, smooth and sustained visual tracking along with convergence (the ability of the eyes to focus together) are needed for the correct understanding of the orientation of each letter and number. Children also need a fully developed proprioceptive system, a sense of their body in three dimensional space that we get through engagement of our muscles and joints. Without proper proprioception we will not be able to fully control our body or understand where we are in space, leading to a misunderstanding of directional movements (up/down, right/left, forward/backward). 
When children first look at a number or letter, they begin to understand how the number is created via curved lines, etc using visual tracking skills. Once again, these visual skills require a functioning proprioceptive and vestibular-balance system. Without appropriate stability in the core/postural muscles and head/neck muscles the eyes will have less stability and difficulty with tracking, gaze, fixation, and convergence.

Balance, part of the proprioceptive system, has also been noted to have strong correlations with anxiety and social skills. Balance gives a child the sense of being grounded and understanding where their body is in space. When a child struggles to balance (which we use vision for most of the time) they will have difficulty connecting to others, may have trouble with social skills & eye contact, and research has shown, they may have anxiety. 

Why the Cerebellum??

This is a great video explaining the importance of developing the cerebellum. It highlights new research that reveals the cerebellum is much more than just for motor skills. As it develops during childhood and teenage years - it helps with language, learning, reading, social skills, and automating movements. When our movements become automized, we leave more room to learn new things. 

Please note: We recognize this video is specifically talking about the relationship between autism and the cerebellum BUT it is still relevant for all children and the understanding of the cerebellums importance.