via The Role of Brain Fitness in Self Help Programs:

All of those programs involve regular practice of certain behaviors, and there are three behaviors we humans can hope to manage or control, our thinking, our feelings, and our behaviors, or how our body moves.

If you have read Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW, which is treatise on the psychology of optimal performance, then you know that we process sound, visual, touch, smell, and taste information at the rate of seven bits of data every 1/18th second, so self help programs need to be learned and implemented in a very short period of time. (1/18th second is twice as fast as I can blink my eyes).

Self help then must be a process of awareness and management of sensory processing done very quickly and very frequently.

I liken the process for my anger management clients to steering a car, you make thousands of small adjustments to the position of the vehicle on the road, and are paying attention to hundreds of variables at a given moment, traffic in front, behind, traffic lights, children, the policeman six blocks ahead, ect. As you do this, you keep the vehicle going in the direction you want, at the speed you want, in a safe way for yourself and other drivers. You avoid potholes.

Dr. Edward (Ned) Hallowell, ADHD expert and best-selling author, announces making the Learning Breakthrough Program available at the prestigious Hallowell Centers in both Massachusetts and New York.

Dr. Hallowell’s inclusion of Learning Breakthrough’s proven balance and sensory remediation program is a welcome addition to the therapy options offered at his US centers. Learning Breakthrough will be critical to his positive, multidisciplinary, “strength-based” treatment aproach and is being used to help solve the challenges of ADHD, Dyslexia, CAPD as well as other cognitive needs. The program’s value lies in enabling clients to further their developmental and academic objectives as well as social, behavioral and self-esteem ones, which is exactly why it has been so valuable as a complementary treatment in similar clinics for decades.

Found this article with commentary and tips. many you may have heard before but regardless, reminders that keep us focused on the most important themes are always useful and I enjoyed the article as well. As an example, I found the homework advice a good refresher…

This is also first test of Zej’s new tool recommendation of “Press This” for fast publishing of links and just raw text from any source. Excellent tool for efficient publishing.

ADHD Special Education Teacher’s Best Advice | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Help & Info.

A newly published article by the Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine outlines another look into the role the cerebellum plays in language development and cognition. There are many researchers investigating this part of the brain that is so deeply involved in movement and a huge variety of “automated” functions. The exact logic of how the brain uses all its various systems to divide and tackle the complex cognitive tasks it performs every day is still in its infancy. However, the efficiency of cerebellar functions and how it can be enhanced through calibrated neuro-motor and vestibular training is constantly being examined as a likely method of improving brain fitness generally and as a way to overcome specific learning challenges.

The entire article is available here: Functional Topography of the Cerebellum in Verbal Working Memory, with the abstract printed below for your convenience.

Abstract :

Welcome. As we launch this blog and work to communicate with our program users and readers from many fields, we plan to do as much listening as talking. We will be elaborating on our mission and better defining what we call “The Belgau Hypothesis” and we are thrilled to have the input of blog readers regardless of their background.

LBP has had much anecdotal success for a couple of decades on the learning disabilities and cognitive efficiency fronts. The program continues to be used by therapists and doctors as an “alternative treatment” for challenges like auditory processing delay, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, dyspraxia, memory, comprehension, executive function and as an academic improvement tool for users of all ages. However, it still needs the type of scientific validation that takes great time and resources to establish. If the web is good at anything…it is moving a clinically proven concept like LBP to a community supported, scientifically validated treatment model. We invite the assistance of all like-minded supporters as well as skeptics. We believe that Frank Belgau’s work will only become more widely appreciated as time goes on.

Years of working with Frank and Beverley Belgau (and their son Eric as well as others close to the program) has generated a working  hypothesis of cognitive organization (based on sensory integration treatment with a precise vestibular remediation component). We intend to see this become the basis for the future scientific study of LBP. Supporting and documenting the general efficacy of the program is of primary importance. However, sharing relevant and helpful information, concepts and the writings of others with all who are interested in strength-based, “alternative” interventions, is a close second. Watch this space, share your thoughts and help us spread the word in what ever way you can.

Thanks for reading and for not keeping Learning Breakthrough a secret.