All I can hear in my head is Dory from "Finding Nemo", but instead of "just keep swimming".... I hear, "just keep learning"!
Last night I went to a 2 hour presentation from Dr. Scire. He is one of the owners of some of the Brain Balance Centers in Georgia. He also works very closely with Dr. Melillo (creator of Brain Balance). Our local center had encouraged us to attend, because they had been learning so much from Dr. Scire. I get up at 3:50 a.m.......staying out past 9:00 is HUGE for me. But, I knew I had to be there. I am so HAPPY that I was. I learned so much more and heard some very humorous stories of others journeys. Trust me....when you are doing exercises 5 times a day, strict diet, 30 minute screen time, sessions at Brain Balance, homework, cooking, work and just regular life...you need some humor in your life.
As I sat through the presentation, I was beginning to question if R.D. really was right brain delayed. He fell into so many of the left brain delay traits that I was nervous. Had they gotten it right? After the presentation I found the director and expressed my concerns. They said that what I was suspecting was partially true....R.D. has what they call a "bilateral delay". I had heard this term mentioned before in a progress report, but I didn't really ask what it meant. They told me that in his initial assessment, they had studied his results closely to determine the right brain delay. Apparently, they had also talked with Dr. Scire about R.D. specifically. Here is the deal....since the right brain develops faster from 0-3 years and then kind of goes into hibernation while the left brain develops for the next few years, they need to stimulate the right brain first and get it up to speed and then they will move to R.D.'s left brain. This is exciting for me. Things that I saw that were left brain, but that weren't changing yet, are going to! I know they are.
How do I know? Because we see changes daily in our boys. It will seem very small and trivial to most of you, but if you have a child with ADD or ADHD...you probably understand what I am about to describe. R.D. is 11 years old. He has never been able to hang a towel up on a hook or towel rack. Simple to most, but unattainable for R.D. He just couldn't get his brain to connect the dots and make it happen. This week....it happened! We weren't telling him to, honestly we gave that battle up a long time ago. We just noticed that his towel is now hung on the hook after his shower. He does it and doesn't even know he is doing it. Just the way it is supposed to be.
Nathan has just started this week to "get" math better. All of the sudden he can figure out math problems in his head. He understands some of the concepts better. It blew me away. I asked him the other night as we did his homework in the car, outside of the Brain Balance center..."How did you get so smart in math?" He looked at me, pointed to the Brain Balance sign and said, "Duh mom, it's because of Brain Balance and I heard one of their commercials on the radio this morning." Who says radio doesn't work...(shameless plug). They know the program is working and that is why they are working so hard. The diet has become "what we do". They get it.
So we will "just keep learning, just keep learning".....
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