Our evaluation process

Changing the brain:
Neurodevelopment Approach
 

Our evaluation process starts by reviewing the comprehensive developmental, medical, educational and social/behavior history you provide.  You may print it from the website or request a hard copy be sent to you.  Please fill it out as completely as possible then mail to our office at CAN LEARN PO Box 9233 Spokane, WA 99209.  We do offer a 30-minute FREE phone consultation.  Please notify us that you’d like to take advantage of this FREE consultation when submitting the history form.  We will contact you to set an appointment after 3 PM our time. We are requesting audiograms (hearing test) with the applications.

Video evaluation process:  Follow the instructions above.  After reviewing the application/history form we will contact you with specific information on what is needed in the video.  After completing the video mail it to the office.  We will review the video design an individual in-home therapeutic program make a video of the activities and how they should be done.  E-mail and telephone conferences are required every 2-3 weeks.

God designed us as an integrated whole; each system the foundation for the next.  The metabolic system is vital to a child’s health.  Problems in this area may include food or chemical intolerance’s, low Thyroid or blood sugar (both are common problems), parasites or Candida (yeast build-up) or other digestion problems, heavy metals in the system, deficient in essential fatty acids and/or simple dehydration by not drinking enough water.  A combination of any of these conditions can make it hard for the child to learn despite being provided remediation and the best therapy.  When a child’s general health and wellness are compromised, the brain/body is not able to take advantage of learning opportunities.

I recommend consulting a qualified clinical nutritionist to determine if the child is dealing with any of these issues or if modification of the family diet can help your child.

One tool for the neurodevelopment specialist is a developmental profile where we can evaluate the central nervous system (CNS) present level of function of an individual (adult or child) as compared to “normal” development.  The profile we use shows twelve levels of neurological function, four sensory and four motor areas.  The four sensory channels receive then process information from the tactile, auditory, visual and emotional communication systems. The motor channels, allows us to store and utilize the information received by the senses-- in the same manner received, are the observable fine and gross motor skills, speech and language, memory, academics, social/behavior, cognitive levels, and muscle structure.  Function (development) is a direct reflection of how well the brain receives, process, stores and utilizes information from its environment. If the information wasn’t received or processed efficiently the motor area will show as poor function or development.

A second tool is the brain’s (plasticity) ability to assume the function for a hurt or non-functioning area and to modify or reorganize its structure and performance in response to its environment.  The brain can make new dendrites (branching) to  ‘detour’ completely around a hurt or non-functioning area, even crossing hemispheres.  Stimulation increases the number of connections within the brain; and, as they increase so does efficiency and organization improving function and development.  The brain doesn’t stop developing new neurons as once believed.

At   CanLearn, We believe all children have unlimited potential when given the opportunity and specific stimulation.   We realize the severity of injury some children experience.   CanLearn can not offer miracles and there are no silver bullets; but, we have also seen miraculous improvement in children who previously not offered any hope or a future.

A lack of function is not a reflection of potential but rather lack of appropriate stimulation. 

The evaluation process starts by assessing function of the receptive (sensory) area.

Tactile system: is the foundation and integrates into all other senses. We determine if the child can move in many directions-waving the hands from one side of the body to the other (cross midline)? Use muscle groups independently of others.  Does the child have ‘normal’ internal sensation (do he know when he’s hungry, in pain, bladder control, muscle tone and motor planning)?  Is he oversensitive to surface sensation (tactile defensive)?  Does he have a sense of ‘space’?  Does he have good coordination and balance? Can he use his limbs together and separately?  Does he have a ‘pincer grasp’? Can he use each side of the brain separately or together?  Has the body integrated into the other senses?  Just because a child is born with muscles and organs in the baggie called the skin, doesn’t mean the brain knows they’re there.  If the brain doesn’t know it ‘has’ a certain muscle or group of muscles it can’t use it/them.  Stimulation (exercise) will teach that area of the brain and it will cry out “there you are!” and gain function!  Many children struggle from the brain’s unawareness of what it has and where it is.

Auditory and visual perception: Can he make sense of what he hears, discriminate between sounds, and locate sounds.  Can the child look and understand what he sees, rather than just being able to see?  There is a difference between sight and vision.  Can the child make mental pictures? Visualization is needed to learn.

Our program is unique in that we evaluate emotional communication: Does the child understand social cues?  Can he calm herself?  Has he formed relationships or bond/attach to the caregiver?  Can he participate in two-way conversation or give single word answers?  Does he understand body language or gestures?  We move on to the expressive channels.

Now that we have determined how well your child’s CNS receives and processes information from its environment lets look at the how efficient it is stored and utilized.

Fine and gross motor skills: Can the child use their hands in a controlled meaningful manner.  Can he button, ties, write, feed self, use hands together or independently?  Can the child belly crawl, crawl on hands and knees, walk, run, kick, climb, hop (one foot and both), skip, jump with controlled movement, muscle strength and structure?

Language:  What level of listening (receptive) is the child capable of?  How can the child communicate (expressive)?  What is the quality of the child’s sounds (articulation)?  Does the child have good tongue and jaw movement or adequate oral sensation (oral motor)?  Does the child breathe through the mouth or nose?  Does the child produce enough ‘air flow’ for speech?  Does the brain know it has all the muscle necessary for speech?  Does the child have an inner voice (can he hear himself think inside his head or does he need to say everything out loud and talk himself through everything)?  You know the child they never shuts up, they can’t.

Processing skills (short term memory):  Vital for learning. The brain must be able to hold together individual pieces of information from its environment in order to understand, interrupt, or categorize and do something with that information.  If processing skills are low, children often struggle to learn, are unable to learn phonics, don’t understand consequences or actions, have poor cause-and-effect, make poor decision, are impulsive and seem socially immature.

Cognitive (thinking) ability and social/behavior:  A child with poor processing skills struggles to think, learn and understand the world around them.  They must live in the ‘here and now’ since for them there is no yesterday or tomorrow just now.  They are unable to understand consequences, their own or other actions, are unable to ‘read’ body language or gestures, don’t understand abstract thinking/logic or reasoning ability (time and money among others).  They are generally impulsive jumping from one job to the next or relationships.  Generally, school is a nightmare for the child and family as they struggle to learn reading, writing and arithmetic skills; by high school many drop-out.  Suicide rate is tremendously high for this population of children.

There is hope… in most cases a child’s struggles are only in the brainstem area of the CNS. As these areas become organized the Cortex can relax and do its job… learn and think!  To watch the Cortex take over and learn we administer the K-TEA achievement test.  It isn’t unusual for reading, math and spelling scores to jump 2-3 grade levels (sometimes more) in a year.  The struggling child’s face beams with joy when he/s sees how truly smart he/s really is and the sky becomes the limits!  I consider it a privilege to be part of it all!

How do we put it all together?

As mentioned earlier the CNS will only change with specific stimulation in a consistent frequency, intensity and duration three to five days per week.  Less time doesn’t provide the necessary amount of specific stimulation and is counterproductive.

Frequency refers to how many times a day the child participates in an activity.

Intensity refers to the strength of the input during the activity.  I feel this is the most important of the three but also the most difficult to maintain.  If the child loses interest or we feel we must push to ‘finish’ we lose productivity or positive results.  We may be able ‘to lead the horse to water but not make him drink’.  We might be able to make her sit for extended periods of time while we go over and over the material; but, ultimately she has control over the intensity (interest) of the input.  If she is ‘turned on’ she’ll learn the information quickly; if ‘turned off’ learning may never occur.  Our staff spend a great deal of time evaluating high interest, age appropriate activities for all ages.

Duration is how many minutes the child spends doing the activity.   We try to keep the times of input short so the child remains interested and positive.  Activities of long duration are counterproductive.

We believe parents are the most effective teachers and are the true experts on their children, so YOU are an integral part of any evaluation.  YOUR observations and insight are invaluable in determining the best remediation program for the child and family.  We provide the training, expertise and on-going support allowing you to assume primary responsibility for your child’s development and learning.

Can Learn cannot offer miracles. There are no silver bullets.

Our results are not perfect but they are substantial, observable, and better than other more restrictive methods.

To schedule an appointment please call our Academy (509) 624-3109