In the post titled "Behaviors are Communication", I talked about how important behaviors are. I talked about how I didn't listen to my client's words, I listened to his behavior. All behaviors tell us something, even if we don't know what it is.
At Brain Fit, we have lots (well pretty much all) clients that come here with what many may call "unexplained" behaviors. It might be the parents that call the behaviors unexplained. Or maybe it's the teachers at a school. Or maybe it's a therapist- or even a doctor. But "unexplained" behaviors are a norm around here.
You may be wondering what type of behaviors I'm talking about. Would you like some examples? Let me list a few and see if you recognize any of these in anyone you know:
- Covering ears with loud noises
- Wrapping feet around chairs when sitting or "w" sitting
- "Deer in headlights" look when asked a question
- Awkward writing position or pencil grip
- Holding pencil so tightly the person has an indent on their finger
- Difficulty sitting in a chair or on a stool
- Difficulty with reading- keeping track of words on the page
- Extreme panic and anxiety
- Constant or prolonged "meltdowns"
What do you think? Recognize any of these in your child? Or maybe in you??
Like I said, at Brain Fit, we see kids with these types of behaviors all. the. time. And, this is only a short list!
Now, it's not that all of these children have come to Brain Fit and no one has ever tried to figure out where these behaviors come from- far from it. Many families come to us when they are looking for "someplace else" because they have tried other interventions, therapies, and so forth and haven't found the success or changes they were looking for.
So we have these kids come to Brain Fit. They attend a screening with a parent and we are able to tell them why their child may exhibit the behaviors they do. We can tell them why because we look at things that most people don't. We look at the way the brain and body are working together. We look at the primitive reflexes - those early motor patterns. We look, and we listen to the behaviors their body is showing us. And you know what else? Most of what we tell parents is new to them. It's new because not many people look at things the way we do at Brain Fit.
Not many people are looking at the way the child's brain is organized. They aren't looking for the root cause of the behaviors. They aren't looking at where the behavior comes from, they are looking at how it manifests. They are looking at how to help the child based on the behavior they see, rather than looking deeper to find what's causing it in the first place.
But for us, we do know what to look for. We know what to look for and so it just jumps out at us. The fact that others aren't aware of this type of work is also why we are so passionate here at Brain Fit about getting the word out to everyone!
It's not rocket science, and yet many just don't know about it. They just don't know what to look for or how to help. Many, many people come to Brain Fit and tell us we just "get" their child.
Yeah- we get it.
We get it because we know what to look for. We get it because we are able to "explain" the "unexplained". We get it because we can meet the child where they are and move them forward. We move them forward and things become easier.
Explaining the "unexplained". Crazy cool work. Amazing changes.
That's Brain Fit Academy.
