Have you ever noticed that your child has certain behaviours that escalate and then seem to calm down again only to reappear a time later? Why does this happen? You might be surprised to learn that the answer lies in your gut (and immune system). Our guts are full of good bacteria, but if we aren't taking good care of our guts then these good bacteria can be taken over by bad bacteria. And, surprise surprise, our gut health is closely linked to our brain function!

It's extremely important to understand the connection between our children's open windows of development and their brain function. When we see a child with a history of illness, especially in their first three years of life while their immune system was maturing, we now see a little body that only know how to be sick and that's a dangerous place to be. Take a listen to this episode to learn why behaviours occur in cycles of calm and elevated, what factors can hurt our gut biome (and brain health!), and what you can do to change it all.

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In today's episode we're going to spend some time on one of my favourite topics – reflexes! If you've been following the Connect My Brain podcast for even a short time then this won't come as a surprise. Today we're going to talk specifically about the tonic labyrinthine reflex, or TLR. The TLR is extremely far-reaching and is connected to our center of gravity. When it's not integrated properly, it causes balance issues, proprioceptive issues, and more.

As we talk about TLR, we will also talk about the importance of addressing the root cause of the struggles your children might be having. For example, if a child is having trouble with reading or math we might first try to find them a tutor. If the problem is purely academic, this might help. However, if the problem is related to something deeper (such as a reflex not integrating properly and causing problems in the ocular system), then this will only be a short-term fix and as soon as the tutoring term ends, the child will be back to square one. We cannot try to work on our children's higher brain function without fixing the lower brain function or they will always be tripped up. We need to get to the root cause and focus on resolution instead of adaptation.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode79

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

If your child is struggling with something such as reading or handwriting, it's important to step back and look at the big picture. What are the skills and milestones that a child needs to attain in order to successfully read or write? What would happen if those skills or milestones were interrupted?

In this episode we're going to look at a handwriting sample done by one of my patients, a 7 year old boy and I'm going to tell you what his handwriting tells me about his development. Everything we do is built on a sequence of past events. If there is a problem with something, we need to go back to the beginning and figure out where things went wrong.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode78

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

Have you ever looked at a situation and felt hopeless? Today I want to talk about finding hope in those areas where it feels like hope has been crushed. As we go through our days, we are constantly giving ourselves feedback, whether we realize it or not. This feedback can take the form of positive self talk or negative self talk. If you feel stuck in a pattern of negative self talk, that could have been going on for years. If you don't change these patterns, life will continue on, but you will not thrive. In order to break this, we need to do a lot more than just try not to think those negative thoughts. And fortunately, there actually is a way to do this.

The same goes for the things going on in the brains of our kids. Many of the behaviours and struggles that we see in our kids are actually the results of patterns that have been created through repetition and it feels like our kids are stuck in them. The good news is they aren't! At Connect My Brain, we want to be the last stop for kids and families. We want to be the stop where we can actually figure out how to change those patterns. We want to be the stop where you find hope. Don't give up on your child!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode77

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

Today we're going to talk about retraining your child when their neurological development has been disrupted. When a child arrives at Connect My Brain, I begin to notice many actions by the child that will have to be retrained. When I mention this to parents, I think most parents feel like they did something wrong and the state of their child is their fault, but this is not true. You as a parent did not cause your child's condition. As parents, it can be very easy to blame ourselves, but this will only cause us to become more overwhelmed and burnt out and does not serve us or our children. Parents do play an important role in child growth and development and because of this you actually have the power to help retrain your child. Retraining your child won't be easy. There might be some hard lifestyle changes that need to be made. You might feel even more tired than you do already. But there is hope and changes can be made. Remember that as a parent, if you're not taking care of yourself, you won't be able to take care of your child. If any of this resonates with you, please listen to this episode and please reach out to our office so we can help!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode76

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

I've been studying reflexes for almost thirty years. If you've listened to my podcast for a long time, you'll know that I talk about them frequently and that I've even done a series just on reflexes. You'll also know that I am quite passionate about these reflexes and why they're so important for us to talk about. So today we're back in the world of reflexes. My goal for this episode is to take a deep dive into the way that our withdrawal reflexes, primitive reflexes, and postural reflexes are all interconnected rather than just looking at individual reflexes.

Everything we do can be linked back to reflexes. Reflexes that are firing at a heightened level can cause all kinds of chaos in a little person's life. Many of the "behaviours" children struggle with can actually be explained when we take a look at their reflexes and whether or not they have integrated properly. It's not innate in us to not be able to self-regulate so if things don't seem to be functioning as expected, get a professional opinion. The earlier an intervention is made, the more easily a change can be made.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode75

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

If you've been following along with my latest episodes, then you'll know we just finished a series on chronic stress and what this looks like in kids, adults, and seniors. For our newest series we are going to take this a step further and take a look at some clinical cases of students experiencing chronic stress and retained reflexes.

In today's episode we're going to take a look at the clinical case of a child I worked with who came in to my clinic experiencing high levels of stress and overwhelm. There are many children that have very heightened emotional reactions, but how do we navigate this? Children don't have a point of reference to tell us if something is wrong, so if you are concerned it's always a good idea to get an evaluation. In the case of this child, at first glance it seemed like he was developing as expected, but on a closer look, it became clear to me that he had a retained Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR). The ATNR is such a far-reaching reflex and it was no wonder this child was experiencing so many emotional difficulties. This wasn't a kid having behaviour issues, this was a child demonstrating something faulty was going on. The good news is that the earlier we can recognize this in a child, the earlier we can change it!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode74

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

Today we are finishing up our series on chronic stress. In the last two episodes we looked at children and young(er) adults and how chronic stress impacts them. Today we're focusing on the old(er) or elderly population. Chronic stress has a huge impact on every part of our bodies and it's really important to get it under control before you reach "old age". Once your body begins to drastically slow down, it is so much harder to make these changes. But, if you're listening to this and you already categorize yourself as elderly, the good news is, you can change your brain!

In this episode I talk about how the specific impacts of stress on the elderly population and I also share a little bit of my own mom's story of stressful events and how they have drastically impacted her health. I've seen firsthand how stress can wreak havoc on a person's quality of life. Your health and your brain could already be impacted by stress. So start asking questions and get that stress under control while you can!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode73

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

Did you know your brain actually listens to you? How many times have you said the words, "I'm stressed."? When you say things like this, your brain is paying attention and eventually will start to act accordingly. As adults, it's easy for us to focus on the things we think we're doing wrong in our lives, forgetting to celebrate our successes.

Last week we took a look at chronic stress in kids and today we're going to talk about the influence of chronic stress on adults. The longer stress goes on in our bodies, the larger the impact it has. However, you probably won't notice this happening because it's a very gradual change. Yet, if left unchecked, stress will eventually have an impact on every area of your life. In this episode, I'll talk about areas where stress may be creeping in, why exercise is key to a healthy brain, what's going on in a brain with PTSD, and the good news - that you can change your brain!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode72

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

The past three years have been stressful for everyone on so many levels, and these events have influenced how your children's brains have turned on. Today I share with you how a child's perception of the world and of their parents or caregivers is what wires up their brain. I discuss how early childhood stress and experiences can lead to issues in self regulation, endurance, auditory processing, vision, reflex integration, communication, dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, social and behavior issues, and learning outcomes. I examine a stress test response in a pediatric patient, the Moro reflex, developmental milestones, and brain organization. With more education about how stress affects your child's development you will be able to help them make adaptations and improve their learning, behavior, and brain health.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode71

What do you want to learn more about? Submit your questions here: https://www.connectmybrain.com/survey/

Phone the office: 678-501-5172