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Male child From Brain Gym Instructor: Gillian Hindshaw Report supplied by Sean’s mother: “Brain Gym Enhances Quality of Life Sean is my 12-year-old son who has a specific learning difficulty, he is severely dyslexic demonstrating the typical signs of dyslexia, particularly with his schoolwork. Dyslexia not only affected him in the world of academia , but also spilt over into his social world, as it is not organic and does not see or feel boundaries. For instance, he was always losing equipment or clothing, or forgetting instructions that were given to him by adults. Sean’s world was full of negativity and I just could not protect him from it all. ‘Sean don’t forget your football kit, and have you found your boots yet?’. ‘I thought I reminded you about your geography homework yesterday!’. ‘Mr King said you should remember to bring it in yourself…’. The list goes on and on … I would attend a parents evening or receive a report and typically it would say, ‘Sean does not concentrate in the classroom’. ‘Sean is lazy he could try harder’. Out of this cocktail of negativity low-self esteem and frustration began to brew, and I knew I had to do something and quickly. For a year I floundered from one recommendation to another, trying all sorts of ‘miracle cures’ some of which did work, but the improvement would quickly plateau and then trail off. I changed Sean’s school thinking that an environment with lots of sport and pastoral care would at least give him a boost. Again this worked, but it was limited, and again I had to find something else. The school recommended Sean to attend kinesiology (brain gym) with Gillian Hindshaw in North Leigh. Sean was eight years old by this time. I took him along to see Gillian and this was the start of a long and successful relationship, with Sean having approximately five to six sessions a year. Sean responds well to brain gym. For example, Sean was anxious when he held a book therefore this anxiety wouldn’t allow him to relax with reading matter. I did not even realise that just the act of holding a book caused Sean a problem. Gillian works directly with Sean... to seek out what requirements are needed to make his life easier... Over the past four years Gillian has worked with Sean on both his academic and social life and as you can imagine the list is fairly long. So it’s not the details of these sessions that I am concerned about here, as everyone is individual and therefore it is tailored around these needs. Instead I would like to explain the enhancement to Sean’s quality of life that brain gym has achieved. I have seen phenomenal changes regarding Sean’s academic and social life. The academic is now being accepted into Sean’s long-term memory and he can retrieve it weeks later and understand the schoolwork much better.... He is much more proactive and confident within classes. Ultimately Sean is happy and has high self-esteem and this attitude allows him to relax and not be so frustrated. I know that I will be taking Sean to Gillian for the rest of his school life (and probably beyond). I am so happy to do this with the knowledge that it works! Sean is no longer overwhelmed with life and is surrounded by ‘much improved, keep up the good work’. He looks and acts so together and is no longer so confused and overwhelmed.” Male child From Brain Gym Instructor: Gillian Hindshaw Report supplied by Nadine C (Luke’s Nanny - surnames supplied): “We cannot believe the improvement in Luke since having the Brain Gym sessions with Gillian. Luke has Dyspraxia and would struggle with everyday tasks in life and since going to Gillian (Brain Gym) he is succeeding so much more. He is so much more confident in things he does and is communicating so much easier. Luke’s maths has improved and is going from strength to strength. Over the last few sessions we have been working on swimming which has greatly improved. Luke loves his sport and Brain Gym has helped with his tennis also. Because of Brain Gym we feel Luke has made huge improvements academically and socially. It has helped him calm down within his class environment and interact with his peers much better. We are very grateful for all of Gillian’s hard work and would highly recommend Brain Gym for any child that is struggling.” Male child From Brain Gym Instructor: Ghislaine Freedman Little boy A., a low achieving autistic, first came to me 3 years ago. He was aggressive, holding on to his ears to block out noise and bear walking, on the inside of his feet. He had strong curvature of the spine, eyes were down, but he was able to write his name with his left hand and held onto the pen with the whole hand (full grip). He had never crawled. I was told he was due to have a spine correcting operation. I have been working with him, every two weeks, addressing one problem at a time. It has been a long journey with him and I will spare you the details. He came to me last Saturday, with a CD he wanted to listen to, at full volume, of course, and enjoyed it thoroughly with no problem. His pen hold has shifted from the whole hand to the thumb, index and middle finger. He now walks using the whole of the feet. And, more incredible, his spine has straightened nearly completely, so the operation is not now necessary. He can now swim, ski, and concentrate for about 20 minutes. His siblings (younger than him) are no longer frightened as he interacts with them, at his level of course, without aggression and with playfulness. His mother had to sign for him to understand simple commands. He can now communicate his needs, and even shows a sense of humour. All this has been achieved with Brain Gym, and of course, a dedicated mother. Male teenager From Brain Gym Instructor: Janet Illidge Michael, aged 15, was officially diagnosed with Dyslexia at age 8 by Huddersfield LEA. His Dyslexia Tutor in Huddersfield recommended that he try Brain Gym. Spelling age - as tested by Dyslexia support Teacher at his secondary school: 8 years Reading age - as tested by Dyslexia support Teacher at his secondary school: 8 years When Michael first came he had very obvious balance and co-ordination difficulties and walked with a very flat-footed, eyes down gait. On talking to him it emerged that he had 2 key goals:
In order to boost his confidence and self-esteem as quickly as possible we decided to work on his desire to able to achieve his sporting goal, which also it transpired included being able to play football with his mates and not let them down. I took him through the PACE process to see what happened and sow the seeds that this was a process he would be regularly using to help him reach his goal - he was willing to give it a go. In this session I also checked out his eye tracking and what happened when he had to read - the stress in his system was clearly huge after just a short paragraph. At the end of session Michael was clearly quite tired but willing to give it a go and practice at home. The second session 2/3 weeks later was truly amazing - unbeknown to me Michael had been tested by the Special Needs Support Department - he was due another assessment so it transpired - and the results were truly amazing to everyone - myself, his teachers, Michael and his parents. His reading age had gone up by 1 whole year and his spelling age by 6 months! Michael was clearly over the moon with the rapid response and came to see me every 3/4 weeks right up to his GCSEs. We went through Repatterning balances as he continued to progress and use more of the Brain Gym movements to assist his progress. His parents quickly reported progress, such as Michael's ability to plan what he needed to take to school each day, he could plan his own revision and was more easily able to meet deadlines for assignments than ever more. Plus he was extremely relaxed at home, he was so much more confident in his own abilities. He also started to make noticeable progress with his initial goal of being balanced and co-ordinated when playing Rollerhockey - after his 3rd session he told me had scored a couple of goals - he was over the moon. It was also plain to see that he was now able to walk with a lighter step and his head was up with his eyes looking out at the world and not down at the floor. Naturally, there were times when Michaels resolve would flag as he travelled over each month but he kept on as he was clearly aware that his life was changing in a very positive way and this was backed up by his Dyslexia Support Tutor who had encouraged him to try Brain Gym in the first instance. With regards to his second goal - ie, improving his reading and spelling and comprehension in order to boost his GCSE grades, he achieved incredible success. Michael went on to achieve 2 grade Cs and Ds which enable him to gain a place on the Computer course he wanted to do at College. I also worked with Michael’s younger sister for a few months, as she too, had difficulties with reading, spelling and concentration. We worked on vision and listening - it subsequently emerged that there were several vowel sounds which she was unable to register - a side effect it transpired from lots of ear infections aged between 2 and 3. She too, used the Brain Gym movements to enormous positive benefit and found that The Thinking Cap, The Owl and Repatterning processes all helped to improve life in the classroom. Female child From Brain Gym Consultant: Mandy Jenkins This is a report on her daughter by Mandy: Brain Gym dramatically changed my daughter’s life prospects. At age 9 she had fallen 2 – 3 years behind in the core subjects and, due to school phobia, had needed to change school. Her previous teachers had maintained that she was an average student with no real concerns other than an unduly fussy mother. I had invested in private Ed Psych, IQ and follow-on OT assessments which had revealed non-specific learning blocks and significant learning impairment issues as well as the need for long-term special needs tutoring. Clearly, I was on my own with the struggle to meet my learning daughter’s needs, but then I stumbled across the remarkable benefits of Brain Gym. At the initial consultation my daughter’s profound cross-laterality blocks were (for the first time) identified and then addressed, prompting improvement and ease in a wide range of skills from the 3Rs to ball catching and tying up shoelaces. During the subsequent sessions her concern issues, whether spelling, mental arithmetic, staying on task, coping with daunting teachers or friendship disputes were, one by one, resolved. The benefits of Brain Gym were clear to behold because her shifts in capability were goal focussed and quickly noticeable. Fast forward five years and subsequent IQ testing scores were so improved that the Ed Psych declared the results to be both impossible and inexplicable. Today she is thoroughly enjoying life at university where she is developing her creative and communicative potential as a fine art undergraduate. Having observed each step of this triumphant journey I have no doubt whatsoever that such an outcome would not have been conceivable without the facilitative influence of Brain Gym. Male child From Brain Gym Instructor: Virginia Armstrong H was a 6 year old boy who came for improvement with his handwriting. As part of the balance I asked him to "write a sentence", this on a roll of lining paper with no lines. H wrote the first sentence which I then tore off and took away so he couldn’t see it.
After doing PACE and Lazy 8s [a hand-eye co-ordination activity which also involves crossing the body midline], he rewrote the sentence, on the same type of paper:
He wrote “I had a” and then said "cool" - he couldn’t believe how well he was doing it! I find it so interesting that he has obviously sounded out DaD in the first line as he has used capitals as well as lower case for 'had' and 'dog.' He was thrilled with the results when I compared them. The whole process took less than 2 minutes.
Educational Kinesiology Consultant: Ilaina Crozier Report supplied by Joe, aged 10: “I am Joe and I am 10 years old. I used to have very messy handwriting and I found it hard to keep my letters the same size and to write on the left side of the page where the margin is. Doing Brain Gym has helped me to write quickly, neatly and easily, keeping my letters on the line. I don’t find it difficult to write on the left side of the page any more. Also, the teachers used to get annoyed with me because I used to shout out my answers in class instead of putting my hand up and waiting to be asked. I couldn’t stop myself doing this and if I didn’t say the answer as soon as I thought it, I would forget what I was going to say. After my Brain Gym balance, I can put my hand up and remember what I want to say even if the teacher doesn’t ask me straight away. This is good because I don’t get into trouble any more.” Male teenager From Brain Gym Instructor: Gillian Hindshaw Report supplied by mother: “My son aged 14 started Brain Gym with Gillian Hindshaw in 2006. He was assessed with Dyslexia at aged 6 and found schoolwork difficult and some days impossible. A lack of confidence stopped him from making friends and joining in with group activities and he would not try anything including school work if he thought he would fail. These are my son's words:
Female child From Educational Kinesiology Consultant Hilda Pillay Cajon Hilda reports on using Brain Gym with her daughter: I will give you the reason why I started to train as a [Brain Gym] Instructor and that was because my daughter was having such difficulty in year 2 of infant school where she was not at the reading level for her age and maths was just another problem. I took her to David [DavidGillett, one of the earliest UK Brain Gym Instructors, now deceased] and he made Rhianne do The Cross Crawl and drink water. For homeplay we had The Double Doodle, Lazy 8s, The Elephant [all Brain Gym activities], and several others, and PACE and in three weeks she had risen to one level above her expected reading age. Rhianne is 18 now and she was 6 then. She continued to do well in her reading and never had a problem after that. Her Mathematics from being at Level 3 out of 5 she was put in Level 2. Her maths she has always had to work at it, as it is not her favourite subject. During her GCSEs we did Brain Gym too, working with Seven Dimensions of Intelligence [advanced Educational Kinesiology tools], because her predicted grade for Maths was a D, she got a B. Sophia (my other daughter) was 30 weeks premature, and she does have a problem with writing, not being able to grip the pencil and at 5 her teacher complains of her bad writing. I have used the Seeing Balance and could not believe my eyes, her writing improved within days, and was neat with better pencil control. Female child From Brain Gym Instructor: Mary Howard I worked with [a] 9 year old girl for 8 sessions over a period of 10 months. She was born prematurely (25½ weeks) after a long and traumatic birth. She had problems with her writing which, although creative, was unreadable and with co-ordination. I worked with both Brain Gym and Primitive Reflex activities. This is [the] feedback I received after working with her for 2 months: Report from mother, January 2006: “[My] daughter has started reading and is reading more all the time. Not quite up to Harry Potter yet, but the other day I had to drag her away from a book in order to eat - never happened before ever! She has about six books for Christmas and has read them all. Hoping this keeps up. Her writing is more legible now and her spelling is getting better so something is definitely happening here!” Adult male From Brain Gym Instructor: Gillian Hindshaw Report supplied by a 63 year old disabled man (name and address supplied): “I have been using Brain Gym for several years. Although sceptical at first, largely because I’m a mechanical engineer and want to know how things work, I came to understand that if I will just ‘listen’ to my body, I can actually feel the differences Brain Gym exercises make. My physical disability has always caused difficulties but the exercises I use enable me, firstly to maximise my abilities despite my limitations, and, secondly to vastly improve my psychological coping with them thereby making them easier to live with. I believe they also make me easier to live with too! I have had treatments – ‘balances’ – from a number of different Educational Kinesiologists and their skill in identifying issues in me that would benefit from improvement has been staggeringly accurate. And their treatments have, almost invariably, been amazingly beneficial, at home, in leisure activities, and at work.. It’s not necessarily easy to understand Brain Gym – it looks too simple and only experience will tell you that it’s not. But I don’t need proof that it works. I experience it working everyday.” Young adult female From Brain Gym Instructor: Gillian Hindshaw Report from 17 year old girl (name supplied): " I was interested to see how Brain Gym might help my confidence and learning ability, as I was stretching myself to play technically more difficult music on the cello and pedal harp. I found the Brain Gym exercises easy and enjoyable to do and found I could practise with greater ease and fluency as well as having a more positive and confident attitude." Report from parent of 17 year old girl above, who has attended the 4 day Brain Gym Foundation course (name supplied): ”I have done quite a few balances on my daughter for her music including exam preparation and also facing a particularly grumpy and critical teacher that she was dreading. The positive attitude exercises are so useful, she sailed through that lesson, even demonstrated a harp and helped to sell it afterwards!”
Educational Kinesiology Consultant: Ilaina Crozier Report supplied by Oliver, aged 12: “When I was preparing for my Grade 5 Saxophone exam, I found one of the tests really difficult. It involved having to sing back a melody I hadn’t heard before which was to be played to me by an examiner. In my practice sessions, I could usually remember the beginning and the end, but not the middle. After one session of Brain Gym, I found this test easy and was able to remember any melody I was given and could sing it back accurately and confidently. I did well in my exam and got full marks for this test.”
From Dr Angus Armstrong MA, MB, B.Chir.(Cantab), LRCP, MRCS, DCH, FRCGP Brain Gym® has been part of my life for over 15 years. As a Medical GP I was initially very sceptical but could not fail to be intrigued by the amazing results I saw from its use. I have subsequently completed the 4 day Foundation course in Brain Gym®, Stress Release with Wayne Topping and several courses with Brendan O’Hara all of which stem from and use Educational Kinesiology. I use Brain Gym® balances regularly finding that they clear my mind, focus my attention and increase my concentration and am amazed at how little I have to do to achieve hugely beneficial results. From the beginning I dismissed the scientific explanation of how it worked but, having witnessed such changes in myself and others, I have simply used it for the multiple benefits it brings. Some examples of the situations in which I use Brain Gym® regularly include:
all of which leads to increased confidence. I would recommend Brain Gym® to everyone as a turbo-charge of energy for 21st century living! Adult male From Educational Kinesiology Consultant: Caroline Campbell I have a client who has recently retired (he is 65) and he had decided to take up flying again. He had his pilot’s licence about 30 years ago but hasn’t flown since then. He was having trouble understanding the people on the radio and flying at the same time so he came to see me for a couple of sessions. We did a Listening Balance and he was sent home with PACE, The Thinking Cap and The Elephant to do [Brain Gym activities]. The next session he reported that he was able to ignore the unnecessary chatter on the radio and tune into the relevant details that he needed as well as listen to his instructor. He was very pleased and has now set the date to take his final exams! Educational Kinesiology Consultant: Ilaina Crozier Report supplied by Jade, aged 12: “I used to find copying from the board very difficult and I was always the last in the class to finish my work. I used to lose my place every time I looked up to the board or down to my book and I couldn’t remember what I had read so I needed to copy one word at a time. I’ve had 2 Brain Gym balances, and now I can remember what to write, I can keep my place looking from the board to my book and from my book to the board. I am able to finish my work easily on time.” Brain Gym Instructor: Kay McCarroll From Harriet Jedwab: Thank you for recommending it to me all those years ago - I still have my Brain Gym book!” |
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