Global Developmental Delays
Although all learning ultimately takes place in the brain, it is often forgotten that it is through the body that the brain receives sensory information from the environment and reveals its experience of the environment.
Successful academic learning relies upon adequate mastery of motor skills: reading, for example, involves development and control of smooth eye movements to send an orderly flow of sequential information to the brain; eye movements are a motor skill. In order to write, a child needs to have developed hand–eye coordination, which is also a motor skill. Sitting still and paying attention require postural control, balance, and orientation, in addition to the involvement of cortical centers implicated in the maintenance of attention; aspects of mathematics require spatial skills and communication between the two sides of the cerebral cortex (left and right hemispheres) to cooperate in solving problems in a sequential fashion. Many of these “higher” cognitive processes are rooted neurophysiologically in systems involved in postural control, and the reflexes play a crucial part in supporting and facilitating stability and flexibility in postural control.
Developmental testing of motor skills is carried out regularly in the first year of life, but when responsibility for the young child moves from the domain of medicine (midwife, pediatrician, and health visitor) to education at the time of school admission, a child’s developmental readi ness in terms of physical development is not assessed as a matter of routine. The demands of the environment then begin to outstrip the individual’s ability to cope and the more they are coached, bribed or bullied into achieving, the greater the problem or emotional stress become.
The first ABC a child learns is the ABC of the body—
the foundation on which cognitive learning is built and the mode through which it is expressed:
A = Attention
B = Balance
C = Coordinations
= Developmental readiness for educational achievement.
How can Therapy Help?
Neuro Organisational Technique (NOT) is a therapy that addresses the conditions necessary for proper development of the nervous system. In order to develop, your brain needs the cranial bones to move with your breath (cerebral spinal fluid and oxygen) to be nourished and grow.
In the majority of people with Global Developmental Delay (GDD) or learning disability/delay these mechanisms have shut down, they are in ‘fight or flight’ – survival mode. They are unable to move into their limbic brain and it becomes impossible to relate to their environment. The cortex, as you can see in the diagram, is the next step again to evolve and learn. You cannot skip straight to learning, there is an order and a sequence that need to be connected first. It takes around 6 weeks of therapy for you to have significant gains in the following areas:
Attention and concentration
Poor visual and auditory coding and memory
Presentation of work
The emotional regulation is then usually kicked off by a 13 day course in Tomatis Sound Integration Therapy. Once the proper neurological and structural corrections are made, they are now able to learn what they were not able to learn before. Therefore ‘catch up’ is the name of the game, and learning is now exciting and rewarding for them!
Key Learnings for Global Developmental Delay
Get in touch
Centre of Movement
Ground Floor, Suite 3
328 Scottsdale Drive
Robina, QLD 4226
MON-FRI 9:00am – 5:00pm