Wednesday, April 29, 2009

SPD and other challenges

Lasting Impressions

This article clearly explains that SPD not only effects certain sensory modalities, but it also effects emotions and physical abilities.

iPod and hearing

iPhones and iPods bad for hearing



Are you listening to your ipod now?  

Vitamin D - Cause of Autism?

Article about a connection with Vitamin D deficiency and autism - hmmm.



Ethics dilemma in medical schools

Harvard medical School in Ethics Quandary

This article gives you a hint as to the education your physician received.  

Vaccine Schedule

Vaccines

This is one of the most balanced articles I've found on the subject of vaccinations.  


In the spirit of being fair and balanced, here is another view on the current vaccine schedule.

Hacking My Kid's Brain

Wired Magazine Article

This is the first time I heard about the Sensory Learning Program.  I had never heard of it before, but my Sensory Integration background helped me to see that there was great potential in this treatment.

Vitamin D - Unsung Superhero?

Vitamin D

This article is about my new favorite subject: Vitamin D.  SO important, and so little understood.  Hey, if Dr. Oz is talking about it, then you know it is important!

Comparing Tomatis and Berard

Tomatis and Berard

A lot of people ask me how the auditory training we use in the Sensory Learning Program is different than other programs out there.  Check out this article to give you a better understanding.  

The three interventions used in the Sensory Learning Program were developed in isolation, so they needed to be slightly changed to fit inside the parameters of working together.  The Sensory Learning Program has a long reputation of effectiveness at retraining all three sensory modalities.

Use of Headphones from the horse's mouth

Headphones

This is an article from Guy Berard's website.  He is the developer of AIT.  The auditory training we use in the Sensory Learning Program is based on his theory.  He stressed how the use of headphones can further disorganize the hearing.

Colors effecting mood

Color article

This is a fun article talking about color and how it can effect your mood.  I found this on a random search.  

Syntonics - how it can help

Syntonics praise
This is an explanation of how Syntonics can help people from an Optometrist.  

Syntonics - the Science of light therapy

Syntonics

This is a great primmer on Syntonic Optometry.  This is the science upon which the light stimulation we use in the Sensory Learning Program is based.

Colors related to Chakras

Chakras

Interesting correlation between the colors we use in the Sensory Learning Program and Eastern energy medicine.  I am merely pointing out an observed correlation not a cause and effect relationship.   

Tactile and Visual connection

Science Daily Article

This article demonstrates the strong connection between the tactile and visual senses.  If we perceive these sensory modalities in an unorganized way, it will effect a multitude of areas.  This new research is only emphasizing how important it is to address poor sensory processing.  If these senses are disorganized, you can't treat just one and expect it to make a real change.  You have to treat all sensory processing because of all of the overlap in the brain.

Visual-auditory connection

Science Daily Article

This article reinforces how strong the connection is between auditory and visual stimulus.  It seems to be more direct then previously thought as shown in this study that found more direct connections between the auditory and visual systems.  

The occipital lobe of the brain is very large and shows one how much brain power is involved visual processing and visual perception.  

Motion Sickness

Science Daily Article

This is very interesting.  When I was learning about Sensory Integration, I was taught that a slow moving visual stimulus elicits a vestibular response.  You have experienced this phenomenon when you are driving and you stop at a light next to a semi-truck or a bus.  When the light changes and the bus or truck starts moving, but you haven't moved yet, you feel like you are moving.  

This could explain why we need to strengthen children's visual skills.  As they have shown in this study, visual stimulation alone can make one feel motion sickness.  No direct stimulation to the inner ear has occurred.   More study needs to be done, but I have seen children that walk around as if they are on a boat when they are firmly on dry land.  A strengthened visual system should help them function more appropriately.  

Vision and movement

Science Daily Article

This article gives us some insight as to how people with ASD are perceiving the world.  Anything we can do to change this perception will be helpful to their academics and more importantly their social interactions.

Plasticity of the brain

Michael Merzenich

Great TED talk about the changeability of the brain.

A little dry, but you get the point.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Brain video

Jill Bolte Taylor

I have observed that a lot of the children I've worked with are always talking about what happened in the past, or what is about to happen in the future.  They have a hard time being in the present moment.  This shows a dominance of the left side of the brain.  This is not unusual because the right side of the brain is where sensory and emotions are processed.  

As a baby, your right hemisphere should be the dominant hemisphere.   All your experiences are either emotional or sensory.  For some reason, this development becomes disordered.  The brain has a hard time making sense of this emotional and sensory information.  Because of this, the left side of the brain takes over.

The left side is the rational, logical, math and science side of the brain.  It is also the side of the brain that has to do with past and future and sence of time.  This may be why we see children with sensory processing issues reading early or they can recite their alphabet at 2 years old.  These skills should come later, but because the sensory system is stressed out, it must discount the emotional and sensory information it is getting which is disorganized and move on to tasks which the child can more easily master.  

Using the Sensory Learning Program, we are making children more conscious of what is going on right NOW.  They are better able to take in the sensory information and process that information.  They are better able to see the whole picture.  No longer do they need to break experiences down in to their component parts.  (Spin wheels of the toy car rather than use the car on the road and drive.)

New theory of autism

Science Daily Article

This is a very interesting article.  If you look up this area of the brain in Wikipedia (Locus coeruleus), you will see that this area is in the brainstem.  I would like to theorize that the Sensory Learning Program must work well on this area because it highly correlates with what we have seen antidotally with clients.  I will be following this and seeing how the research develops.