So we have started to do a program called Brain Balance. It has some interesting theories. I started it with our 11 year old because we don't know what else to do with her. We've had her in counseling, we've had her on ADHD meds, we've took her out of a charter school, we've taken her out of public school to do home schooling and nothing has seemed to help. She's just all over the place all the time. She doesn't listen, doesn't know do anything about personal hygiene and she leaves little trails all over everywhere she goes. Maybe some of this has to be with just being a kid but it's not just that. There's something more that we've needed to do.
Our 11 year old has made comments about wanting to die or wanting to kill herself more specifically. After having worked with proctor kids and getting training with those programs we knew we needed to do something. That's when counseling and started and she meet with a therapist about once a week or so. The therapist prescribed medication to help her focus and help her with anxiety. That did seem to help but I've never loved the idea of medicating long term. I know there are times when that is important and essential but I feel like some of the behavior medication takes a part of the person's personality with it. When my nephew lived with us he was on some of the same medications and some others as well. He would get up to go to school and talk my ear off. Then he would take his morning meds and by the time he needed to leave to catch the bus he was just sitting there in a daze. No longer interacting with me just there. I felt some of the same things with our 11 year old.
After she had progressed through the therapists sessions they sent her on her way with several prescriptions for the medications they thought would help her. This went on for several months during which time we moved her from the charter school right down the street to a public school. This might seem backwards to some but the rigidity of the charter school was difficult for her and she had a hard time with the homework. Not actually the IQ side of homework but getting her to do it and then sending her with it to turn in was problematic. Public school seemed to help. She didn't have as much homework and she got out more frequently throughout the day for recess. After a year and a half or so we would meet with teachers and they all loved her but it did require them to go to extra efforts to help her. We felt like that was unfair to the other students and the teachers too. We began home school. This was very difficult with me working and my wife going to school herself and with a baby there too. She would do some of her work but it was a fight for most of the time. Again, it's not that she couldn't do the work it's just that she would rather be doing more "fun" things.
We didn't know what to do. Her attitude was getting worse and the more she matured the more we got worried about how she handled her body. Things like showering or wiping after using the bathroom were issues. Cleaning up after herself was nonexistent. And she is very large for her age and doesn't know the placement and movement of her body so sometimes she would knock over our other children. Somewhere I had heard about Brain Balance, probably on the radio. We had her assessed and it came back as a right brain underdeveloped diagnostic.
A bit on Brian Balance. The theory behind it is at some point during normal development the brain get's off rhythm. This leads to one side of the brain developing while the other side lags behind. Eventually the strong side started to compensate for the lagging brain. This leads to more and more unbalancing. If the program works it will help the side of the brain that is behind to catch up. This balancing leads to the solution to several of the issues that one might observe like those I've mentioned above.
So we are a month and a half into our 6 month session. I really like some aspects of the program and others leave me very skeptical. I do think some things have improved with our 11 year old. The things that make me skeptical are the at home exercises are the same for left or right brain deficient kids. Diet is another huge change as we've been trying to go to a sugar free, gluten free, lactose free diet.
The skeptic side of me says that any kid will improve when the work out 30 minutes a day with a parent there spending time with them. I've also heard a lot of things about how diet changes can help kids feel better and thus act better.
We will keep to it and hope for things to continue in the right direction. If nothing else it helps us spend time with her and helps her do some basic conditioning. When it warms up we will be doing more outside to help too. I'm not going to promise more reviews but if it comes up maybe I'll post a link or something in case someone actually reads my posts.
