Brain Coach Tips

Podcast #13

Have you ever thought that your child is not trying? There could be a number of reasons for your child’s behavior. In this podcast, Jan explores those reasons and ways you can help.

Visit our sponsor Little Giant Steps for information about

Show Notes: “He’s Just Not Trying

It is estimated that 1 in 5 US children suffer as a struggling learner.  Many of them deal with this in silence because they don’t know that anything is off. They have gone through life to this point in their current condition.  These children are typically highly intelligent and that intelligence helps learning struggles and even disabilities to hide because of their ability to cope and compensate.

Parents, knowing that their child is smart, can misjudge the situation and think the child is just not trying when in fact there may be inefficiencies in the brain that cause the troubling behaviors.  Learn in this episode several examples of smart children that were thought to be goofing off, not paying attention or just not trying.  There are ways to help these challenges and heal the relationship between the parents and the children.

Ruth Young, a 10 year veteran NeuroDevelopmentalist, certified teacher and home school mom of five, joins Jan to share some experiences with students that have labels like ADD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, high functioning autism and others.  You will also find examples of those without labels whose parents were extremely frustrated with the current academic performance and poor behaviors.  Discover the interventions responsible for turning a negative situation into understanding for the parent and help for the child.

A thorough description of the starter neurodevelopmental program called Developmental Foundations is given in this episode. Also, hear about the exciting results for a young man that wanted to go to college but ACT scores were too low before using the Developmental Foundations for 3 ½ months. Exciting transformations of lives and release of true God-given potential are possible when parents are educated as to the cause of struggles and learning/behavioral labels. 

Photo Credits Copyright Depositphoto.com 2017 All Rights Reserved.@sabphoto

The post He Is Just Not Trying appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Show Notes:

Everyone needs a break from the school routine but how do you gracefully get back in the swing of things after a holiday or summer break?  That is the focus of today’s podcast.   Breaks from school typically come with other challenges that make it fun, stressful, wonderful and exhausting.  Now it is time to get back in the groove for a successful new semester.  This can come with its own challenges but is often intensified when a child has learning struggles or label.

First, don’t try to start up full force expecting everything to fall into place as it was before the break. Another encouragement to you is to take a hard look at what learning takes place naturally during the course of the day and give yourself credit for that.  What vocabulary is being expanded as you talk to your children or interject as they play?  Look at how they are developing manners as they move through their day and you encourage them to be polite, ask a question a different way, respond to a situation differently.  Those skill will serve them all their lives even more that a lot of history lessons will do.   Even the little ones are gaining skills like number sense when counting match box cars they got for Christmas or interacting with gravity as the cars careen from the table to the floor.  There is so much more to life than learning from textbooks or curriculum.

Getting back into math for many children and especially for those with dyscalculia or math dread can be challenging to put it mildly.  Jan Bedell, the Brain Coach will give you tips on how to make that transition much easier.  The recall of previously learned math concepts can be an easy one with the right technique.

Hints for the first few days back at school after the break:

Recommended reading:

The post School Reboot After A Break appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This podcast discusses whether or not labels are effective and the amazing work from Jan Bedell at Little Giant Steps

Show Notes: Avoiding Labels

It is a very challenging world out there for parents of struggling learners.  All types of questions arise like:

There are often many ramifications when a label is given to a child.  It will probably become part of the permanent record that follows the individual throughout life. Expectations are often lowered resulting in reduced performance because we often live up to others’ expectations. Labels typically imply there is something wrong and that the person has to live by coping and compensating for a lifetime.   A label, more times than not, can result in reduced academic workload that causes the child to get further behind each year.  According to the Brain Coach, this is no way to reach one’s full potential in life!

The NeuroDevelopmental Approach takes a different look at the symptoms in the questions listed above.  Looking for what causes these challenges is the first step toward finding the way to stimulate the brain so it changes.  A changed brain produces changed abilities.  Changed abilities causes changed behaviors. Many times labels like dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia frequently come with a vague list of things that could be tried and often leave parents confused as to what to do next. Sometimes labels come with recommendations for expensive therapies.  The “Brain Coach Tip” here is that these type labels can and often should be avoided.

Learn in this podcast about families that had labels like PDD-NOS, Angelman’s Syndrome and Autism but through a different approach, beat the odds. In all these cases, the outcome was totally different from the expectation given with the label. You will also hear about those that didn’t have labels like dyslexia but would have if the parent had taken a different path.

This episode also explores the situations where having a label is advisable or absolutely necessary.

The post Avoiding Labels appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Podcast #10

Intelligence comes in many forms. In this episode, Dr. Jan explores Dr. Howard Gardner’s identification of many different ways in which a person can be intelligent.  Besides your specific “IQ smarts,” you may also have kinesthetic, spatial, musical, logical/mathematical, linguistic, naturalist, interpersonal or intra-personal intelligence.  Most people have a combination of several of the intelligences, but God made us different for a reason.  Our differences make the world go round.  It would be very boring if we were all the same and many needed jobs would go unfilled. The different intelligences also may influence a person’s learning style. However, just as we discussed in the learning styles episodes recently, you have to have an organized brain that is functioning optimally or symptoms of learning struggles and learning challenges start to appear.  Many symptoms on the ADD/ADHD, CAPD, dyslexia and even the autism spectrum checklists (or tests) come from not being able to fulfill your giftedness in a particular intelligence because of a disorganized brain.

Handout – ways-we-are-intelligent-handout

Visit our sponsor at Little Giant Steps 

Learning Style – here

Shoring UP Learning Style – here

Key Points: God Made Us Different

The brain has to have good working pathways to be able to receive, process, store and then use information.  Different parts of the brain are responsible for different social and personal skills.  See the Brain Training handout associated with this podcast for a more comprehensive list.

A short list of brain levels and their responsibilities:

In her book How Am I Smart, Dr. Kathy Koch breaks these intelligences down into very understandable stories that demonstrate: word smart, logic smart, picture smart, music smart, body smart, nature smart, people smart and self-smart. This book can be very encouraging to you and your children.

Also included here is a Ways We Are Intelligent handout with details of each of the intelligences.

Graphic Credits: 2016 DepositPhoto.com All Rights Reserved @Syda_Productions

The post God Made Us Different appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Podcast #9

The brain has an incredible ability to grow and change in order to shore up the foundations for learning.  There are certain natural intelligences that are God given which are outlined here. The question is, what is the best way to take advantage of these intelligences?  To overcome the learning challenges that are plaguing a staggering 1 in 5 US children and to build a foundation of proper functioning, one must understand the brain’s amazing abilities and how it can change from proper stimulation. Learn how to enhance the function of the auditory, visual and tactile systems so learning can flow naturally through the best learning channel for each particular task.

The labeling of our children with learning disabilities is at epidemic proportion.  Many labels have their origin in specific inefficiencies, i.e. dyslexics often have visual issues, low auditory and visual short term memory and mixed dominance; a major contributor to ADD symptoms stems from low auditory sequential processing and ADHD adds sensory issues to that low auditory processing deficit; CAPD can be a combination of low auditory processing and tonal or hypersensitive hearing issues; the autistic spectrum population has many sensory issues including the hypersensitivity of the tactile system.   The good news is that these inefficiencies in the brain can change.  Listen in for tips and strategies to change the brain’s structure for superior function.

Visit our sponsor at Little Giant Steps 

The post The Foundation: Learning Styles appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

The Learning Styles Philosophy has become a paradigm of many in academia and adopted by homeschool families as well.  It promotes the notion that you should find the primary learning style of each student and then teach whatever you are teaching through that style.  The NeuroDevelopmenatal Approach to life and learning promotes the idea that it is best to have brain efficiency in all areas to be most successful in academic pursuits.  Brain inefficiencies in a tactile, auditory or visual channel can cause a student to choose a particular learning style or have a particular learning preference because of the shortcomings in another area.  If there are several inefficiencies in the way the brain is taking in information, the student will most likely be labeled with such things as  ADD/ADHD, autism spectrum and dyslexia or struggle with reading, writing, math or all of the above.  The good news is that with the right kind of brain stimulation, learning struggles don’t have to last a lifetime.

Visit our sponsor at Little Giant Steps 

Key Points: 

The foundation of all learning styles lies in how well the brain is working in each area.

Brain inefficiencies that effect a person’s learning style:

NeuroDevelopmental brain training can often eliminate these inefficiencies and help the individual learn through all learning styles.

The post Understanding The Foundation Of All Learning appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Reading can be a roller coaster when you have a struggling child. In this episode, you will understand more about why we at Little Giant Steps say that most labels are symptomatic labels. When things are not going well, symptoms are what most people pay attention to or focus on.  Here Jan shares why the focus needs to shift to the root cause of the symptoms so there can be a different outcome.  Coping and compensating is typically what is offered from the educational community. From a NeuroDevelopmental perspective, the symptoms noted below are caused by a glitch in the brain and can be improved and in many instances totally eliminated by addressing the root issue that is causing the glitch/ miscommunication in the brain pathways. There really are activities that change the way the brain functions even when there is a diagnosis of dyslexia.

In this episode, you will understand more about why we at Little Giant Steps say that most labels are symptomatic labels. When things are not going well, symptoms are what most people pay attention to or focus on.  Here Jan shares why the focus needs to shift to the root cause of the symptoms so there can be a different outcome.  Coping and compensating is typically what is offered from the educational community. From a NeuroDevelopmental perspective, the symptoms noted below are caused by a glitch in the brain and can be improved and in many instances totally eliminated by addressing the root issue that is causing the glitch/miscommunication in the brain pathways. There really are activities that change the way the brain functions even when there is a diagnosis of dyslexia.

Symptoms of dyslexia as noted by Samuel Orton the originator of the learning label – dyslexia:

Problems are often characterized by reversing or transposing letters, clumsiness, figure drawing errors, and heightened emotionality.

Orton also noted deficits in areas of:

Be sure to get the handout attached here showing advanced progress of individuals labeled with dyslexia while participating in Neurodevelopmental intervention.

The post Dyslexia Reading Roller Coaster appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Pastor Alan Bias joins Brain Coach, Jan Bedell for some tips on how to hear God in the “everyday”.  Learn how to escape the “Big Gray Swirl” of busyness and distractions to experience life to its fullest.  When you have a child that has special learning needs as gifted children do or learning labels like dyslexia, ADD, ADHD or autism, life can get much more complicated.  Pastor Alan gives examples of why life can seem like a blur and how to slow down and be available to hear God speak to you. God has answers for us for every situation in life if we quiet ourselves and give Him an opportunity to speak.

You will also enjoy some wisdom from Alan on how to enhance your marriage in this podcast.

Be sure to get a copy of his book, Walking with God in a World Gone Busy at www.LittleGiantSteps.com.  It will help you:

This book makes a great gift for adult friends, family and assoiciates!

“Walking with God in a World Gone Busy”

Ready For A Less Hectic Life?  Click here to order.

The post Draw Close To God In A Busy World appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

According to some sources, 15-20% of the population has a language-based learning disability with the dyslexia dilemma being the most common.  From my experience, parents don’t really want a label, they want to know what to about it.  If you listen to the naysayers, one has to cope and compensate one’s whole life because of this condition.  From the NeuroDevelopmental perspective, dyslexia actually results from a combination of several different brain inefficiencies that can be changed.  Each person has a unique set of root causes that need to be addressed. This involves looking at the individual globally.  How are they taking in information, how is that information processed in short term memory and where is the information stored so it can be used in academics and everyday life later?  Today we are going to explore some social, emotional and life challenges for people with dyslexia.  My guest, Pastor Alan Bias shares his story of growing up smart but not feeling that way because of dyslexia. We will talk about one of the possible root causes of dyslexic symptoms, dominance.  Dominance pertains to which hand, eye, ear and foot that your brain is currently wired to use. You have to start with the hand because it is genetic. The ramifications if hand dominance is influenced to go against the genetic coding can be devastating.

When you understand the reasons why your child does some of the things s/he does, your frustration level will go down tremendously.  When you learn things to solve the inefficiencies, your whole family’s life changes.  Stay tuned for Episode #7 in a couple of weeks for more root causes and what you can do to make life and learning easier with The NeuroDevelopmental Approach to Life.

Key Points:

Photo Credit: Deposit Photo – All Rights Reserved 2016 Copyright @SIphotography

The post Dyslexia Dilemma appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

The Best Kept Secret in Education – Auditory Processing

(See handout below)

Auditory Processing is known in my circles as the best-kept secret in education because not many people know about it, yet it affects so many aspects of everyday life.  We are talking here about your auditory short-term memory. The dangers of low auditory processing have been one of my major focuses at home school convention across the country for more than 20 years.  This auditory deficit has reached epidemic proportion and now officially has its own label – CAPD, Central Auditory Processing Disorder.  There are varying degrees of deficiency in the area of auditory processing, and I contend that it is one of the root causes of many learning labels such as dyslexia, ADD and ADHD.  At the very least it is exacerbating a negative situation for children that are struggling whether they are gifted, typical or have diagnosed learning disabilities.

Auditory Processing Key Points:

Learn to test for and improve auditory processing regardless of age.

Find solutions for reading problems when phonics is not working well for a child.

Discover keys to opening the full potential for gifted individuals.

                Be sure to get the handout attached here:   podcast-4-handout

The post Demystifying Auditory Processing appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.