Right or left?

Sam has his first Brain Balance appointment later today. His sessions are scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5-6pm.  It's a huge commitment; both of time and money so we have decided to take a break from all other services - OT, his social skills group and language therapy. He will continue receiving the in school support guaranteed by his IEP. He's a little freaked out about having to go so often but is beyond psyched to get a break from the rest.

I was nervous about his therapist's reactions - would they feel threatened or be mad? Will they make space for Sam when he's ready to come back? To my relief, they seemed excited and are looking forward to hearing about his experience.  And I guess we'll cross the bridge of whether or not they'll make space for Sam's return when we get there. Who knows, maybe he won't need to go back...oops, there I go again saying out loud what should stay in my head!

Going over Sam's evaluation with Betsy last week was fascinating. She started off by pointing to a chart hanging on the conference room wall in front of us. On it are the traits of kids whose right or left hemispheres are under-active. Tom and I saw bits of Sam on both sides. She explained that that's common and that they used the results of his testing, combined with the information we provided, to determine that it’s his right side that’s under-activated.  Based on this learning, they created a plan which should strengthen his body and brain where it is weak.

 Because I'm sure you want to know where your son falls too, here's the list: 

Right Hemispheric Underactivation

Poor gross motor skills (clumsy) – Sam!

Distractibility (poor attention) – Sam!

Impulsivity

Hyperactivity

Poor spatial orientation – Sam!

Lack of self-awareness – Sam!

Poor nonverbal communication (very literal, poor eye contact)

Delayed speech – Sam!

Inappropriate social behavior – Sam!

Emotionally reactivity (unable to control emotions)

Anxiety – Sam!

Miss big picture – Sam!

Perseverative behavior and movements (OCD, stimming)

Poor reading comprehension and pragmatic skills

Poor math reasoning

Over active immune response (autoimmunity, allergies)

Left Hemispheric Underactivation

Fine motor problems (handwriting, manipulation) – Sam!

Poor Reading (decoding)

Delayed speech or articulation issues – Sam!

Poor auditory processing

Poor object identification (visual/tactile)

Poor verbal communication skills

Poor spelling skills

Poor memory

Poor math operations

Task avoidance (especially with academics)

Decreased immune response (gets sick often)

Poor motivation

Miss small details – Sam!

Poor self esteem – Sam!

Depression – Sam!