Today we’re continuing our deep dive into paediatric diagnoses and labels that so many children seem to have. My goal with these episodes is to help you understand how these diagnoses came to be and the specific protocols surrounding them. Unfortunately, all of these labels fall under mental disorders, which can really have an impact on a child’s future oppportunities. I’ve been working with kids for almost thirty years and I believe that I believe that sometimes these labels are given out too hastily and that clinicians are not actually looking at a child’s whole developmental and medical history. As a result, some children are given a label and a protocol, and no one is looking at how their brains got wired up and trying to fix the problems.

In today’s episode we are going to focus on autism. It’s important to realize that there are no blood tests or any other objective tests to diagnose autism – it is all based on observation. Additionally, the statistics about how many children actually have autism today vary depending on who you cite. Some say 1 in 100 children have some form of autism but others say the numbers are as low in 1 in 30 children. Regardless of which numbers you use, there is no doubt that the numbers are continuing to climb every year. So why are cases on the rise? Part of the reason has to do with the way that autism is diagnosed and the policies surrounding it, but I believe there are also biological factors that play a huge role in the rise in autism diagnoses. In this episode I’ll talk about the history of the autism diagnoses, the policies surrounding it, and why exactly the statistics surrounding autism are so unclear. We’ll also look at biological factors that influence the rise of autism such as heavy metals, vaccines, overuse of antibiotics in kids, and environmental toxins. Finally, I’ll share what is actually going on in the brain of someone with autism and what you should be doing if your child has autism or some kind of other developmental delay.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode94

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Today we’re going to talk about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This can be a delicate topic but, unfortunately, children are not exempt from it and so I think it’s important to spend some time talking about it. In this episode I’ll share some background to PTSD – what it is and how it can be triggered – as well as signs of PTSD to look for in both school-aged children and in younger children, how PTSD affects a person’s brain, and then what it is that we can do at Connect My Brain to help children who are struggling with PTSD.

PTSD was originally associated with something that happened to people who went into war, but now we know that many individuals can experience PTSD, for a variety of reasons. I often hear people say that children are so resilient, but I really don’t believe that is an appropriate way to think about childhood. Some of our children are exposed to more trauma and violence than we realize and PTSD from these events can last months, years, or even for a person’s entire life. This can be an extremely difficult path to break out of, but it is possible with the appropriate supports. PTSD symptoms in young children can be quite subtle and look much different than the symptoms that an older child or adult might experience, but if these symptoms are not recognized and addressed, these traumatic events can have a critical impact on a child’s life and development.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode93

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Today we’re going to continue the conversation we started in the previous episode, taking a closer look at anxiety and stress. Last week we talked about how the way a child develops impacts their ability to handle stress and anxiety. Today we’re going to talk a little bit more about this, but we’re going to talk about how stress and anxiety actually present in our brains, why so many children struggle with this, and how we approach this here at Connect My Brain.

Anxiety is on the rise in our children. It’s reported that 1 in 8 children are experiencing some type of anxiety and there are many reasons for this. Children’s lives have changed a lot over the past few years and thave different worries and challenges coming their way than children would have had one or two decades ago. Therefore, instead of looking at stress and anxiety as mental disorders, I look at them as developmental seasons in a child’s life and consider the question, “Did something happen that could have potentially led to the state this child is currently in?”. I cover lots of information in this episode including the development of worry, why movement is such an important tool to combat stress, the importance of allowing our children to make mistakes, outward signs that a child is experiencing anxiety, how our brains respond to stress and anxiety, and strategies that can help reduce chronic stress and anxiety.

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For the past several episodes we’ve been talking about how children’s brains get wired and what kinds of things can impact their ability to thrive. So far we’ve talked about attention issues and dyslexia and really taken a close look at these diagnoses, their history, and their treatments. For the next several podcasts, we’re going to be continuing in a similar format and talking about stress, anxiety, and PTSD. I believe that traditional healthcare often looks at these problems in the now but doesn’t do a good enough job thinking about the “why” and getting to the root cause. Often these labels are considered to be life time problems, but frankly, I don’t believe that’s true.

Today’s episode will set the foundation for the rest of our conversation surrounding stress, anxiety, and PTSD. Before we can really dive into this topic, we need to understand the developmental background of these conditions. We are going to go all the way back to the beginning of a child’s life – conception – and take a look at how our bodies are wired to handle stressful situations right from nine weeks of pregnancy. In this episode, I’ll share how our nervous systems should respond to stress, how a parent’s state of mental and physical health impacts their children, what happens in our brains when we experience trauma, and how you can turn things around if you or your child are struggling with chronic stress or anxiety. I truly believe that these problems can be solved rather than just labelled.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode91

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For the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about different types of emotional struggles such as stress, meltdowns, anxiety, and PTSD. Before we jump into each of those topics, I want to take the time to broaden our viewpoints and understand the foundation of our emotions. This foundation is completely linked to where we are at the beginning of our lives while we are still totally dependent on our caregivers.

Why do kids have meltdowns? Before we look at the kids, we actually need to look at the parents and the caregivers. Even during pregnancy, major stress or grief in the mom’s life can dramatically impact the development and wiring of her baby. Understanding our role as parents is the most important part of raising a balanced child. If we as parents are not regulated and not balanced, we cannot teach our kids to be. In this episode I’ll share how the experiences of a parent can have a lasting impact on their children, why it is so important for adults to be regulated, some tips for helping your child navigate their emotions, and how we can help you with this at Connect My Brain.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode90

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Today’s episode is part 3 of our miniseries on the history of Dyslexia. When a child does not respond to a typical medical approach to cognitive and emotional issues, that’s when an alternative approach and different types of perspectives is usually sought out - a perspective like mine. I look at the circuitry of the brain and the developmental processes that each person needs to go through. Through a developmental assessment we can literally pinpoint where things did not come together correctly and why you are seeing what your seeing right now in your child.

One of the things I learned early on as I was getting advanced training in pediatrics is there is a very important process called lateralization that is needed to organize the brain. I talk about how the circuitry of the brain, right/left dominance, and developmental milestones affect lateralization, learning outcomes, and emotional regulation that can lead to a diagnosis of Dyslexia. I also discuss looking at the body’s physical responses for root causes of academic issues, including eyes, ear, hand, and foot, that can affect the developmental sequence. Be sure to listen to the end where I share a simple test to see if your child has lateralized correctly.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode89

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In our last episode we started the conversation about dyslexia and I jumped right in with sharing the history of the dyslexia diagnosis. If you listened to that episode, you’ll know that there was so much information to cover that I couldn’t even fit it into one episode. So in today’s episode, we’ll be continuing our history lesson on dyslexia and then looking at the question, “Is dyslexia really a mental illness?”. This episode is just as jam-packed as the last one and I’m going to throw a lot of information at you.

We’re going to start off by looking at the disagreement that occured between the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) over how dyslexia was categorized and what went on at their secret meetings. We’ll look at the controversy surrounding dyslexia today. Unfortunately, when it comes to dyslexia, there is a main narrative that has been given over and over again for years. Yet when we look at the history, we will see that there are conflicting ideas about what causes dyslexia and whether or not it should actually be classified as a mental illness. There are other reasons why children with different types of developmental delay would have problems with skills such as reading and spelling and I believe there are many pieces to the puzzle that have been lost. If we take a step back and look at how kids are developing right from conception, we might be able to catch these problems earlier and help our kids be who they are intended to be.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode88

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In the past four episodes, we took a close look at attention issues such as ADD and ADHD and really examined the history behind these labels, the treatments used today, and the overall big picture. In today’s episode we’re going to start a similar mini-series and this time we’ll be looking at another common label given to children – dyslexia. Dyslexia is one of those terms that we don’t think much about. We just accept it. If your child is diagnosed with dyslexia you might feel relieved to finally have an official diagnosis so that you can move forward with the proper supports. However, I believe it’s essential for parents to understand how this term came to be, what a diagnosis means for their child, and that there might be some other pieces to the puzzle that need to be included; I believe there are other issues with why a child might have trouble with reading, writing, and spelling.

However, before we get into those reasons, we are going to take a close look at the history of the dyslexia diagnosis. The term dyslexia was first introduced in 1883 by a researcher who was studying five adult patients who had problems with reading as the result of some kind of brain injury. This should already raise some questions due to the fact that the researcher wasn’t studying children and due to the fact that in this case, dyslexia was only used to describe incidents where a brain injury impeded reading ability. In the years to come, dyslexia was known by many different terms but was typically only used for individuals who had suffered from brain injuries. Eventually, dyslexia diagnoses were classified in two different categories – acquired dyslexia (also known as alexia) and developmental dyslexia. The term “developmental dyslexia” hints that something likely went wrong during the child’s development, and if you’ve been listening to my podcast for any length of time, you know how strongly I emphasize going back right to a child’s beginning in the womb and looking at how that child developed. This episode will focus solely on the history of the dyslexia, but stay tuned for the next episode where we will continue to look at what dyslexia actually is and step back to really understand the big picture.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode87

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If you’ve been listening to the last few episodes, then you’ll know I’ve been doing a mini series on ADD and ADHD. There is so much to cover on this topic but it is so important to have a good understanding of these disorders so that we can help find the root cause of these symptoms. Unfortunately ADD and ADHD are thought to be very normal, but just because something is common doesn’t mean it’s normal. Unfortunately doctors are usually just treating the symptoms of ADD or ADHD subjectively and not actually objectively looking at the brain chemistry or the root cause of the symptoms. Sometimes a child might truly have an attention disorder but oftentimes there are other factors causing ADD and ADHD-like symptoms. At Connect My Brain we look at the cause rather than the symptoms because there is always more to the story and we can’t just look at the outcome.

Today I want to focus specifically on motivation. Every parent who has brought their child to me because of attention issues also says that their child is not motivated. First off, it is important to know that, just like attention, motivation has a sequence of development in our brains. Motivation is an internal process and we need to teach this process to our kids starting when they are toddlers! Expectation leads to motivation. We need to teach our kids to clean up, be involved, and contribute to the home. This is easiest to teach when our kids our toddlers because we can gradually increase expectation as our children grow. However, it is possible to implement this with older children, but you will experience more resistance and it will take several months to see a change. In this episode I’ll talk about creating the environment and tone you want for your home, setting age-appropriate expectations for your kids, and why it’s so important to be consistent with our kids from the time they are young. You've been given the gift of a child and it is your job to raise them to be an adult that can contribute to the world. At Connect My Brain we are here to support you and help you figure out what will work for you and your family.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode86

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In the past two episodes we’ve talked about ADD and ADHD and the history surrounding these diagnoses as well as the medications used to treat them. Today we’re going to continue the conversation on ADD and ADHD. This topic is so broad that I couldn’t possibly cover everything, but I really want to help you understand the complexities of these disorders. It worries me that society has come to a place where attention issues are considered normal. If your child is struggling with any type of focus and attention, this information is for you.

When it comes to children, I think we’ve really missed the boat because there are many reasons why people have attention issues. Today we’re going to look at one of these “causes” of ADD and ADHD – diet and nutrition. I have seen cases where children act like they are never full and eat an incredible amount of food at a time. Afterwards, they appear extremely hyperactive and it would be easy to assume that they have ADHD or just had too much sugar, but we need to go back and look at what is causing the immense hunger. It could be that the child has nutritional deficiencies that aren’t being met, and after eating a large amount, it appears they have ADHD because their body isn’t able to properly process the nutrients in their food. On the flip side, we might think a child has ADD but in reality their metabolic needs are not being met. In some cases we would see a child’s ability to focus drastically improve if they were able to eat more frequently. As we go through the episode, I’ll talk about brainwaves and what is actually going on in our brains when we’re hungry and how diet can actually alter our brain chemistry leading to problems with paying attention, impulsivity, social interactions, and motivation. I’ll also talk about what we do at Connect My Brain and how we can help you and your child.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode85

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172