From birth to 5 years, your child should reach milestones in how he plays, learns, speaks, acts, and moves. Track your child’s development and act early if you see a concern.
Sathish Chandra Segar, MSc, OT — Clinical Director, QISH, Doha provides answers to commonly asked questions...
What is the traditional way of treating your child with behaviour, learning, and sensory challenges?
When your child is struggling and you seek professional help, the traditional model is to go to specific therapies for specific problems or medication in some cases. But the biggest mistake made is they all overlook the root cause of the child’s struggle and don’t realize the “gaps” in the foundation of their nervous system creating a disconnection between their brain growth and body growth
What are the foundations for behaviour and learning?
The foundation skills can be split into four tires: -Inhibition of baby reflexes and maturation of postural reflexes
-Adequate sensory processing of all seven senses of the body
-Language and motor skills
-Auditory and visual skills
What are the common signs of your child’s neurological foundation has gaps?
As long as the neurological foundation remains with gaps, your child will never reach their optimal functioning through traditional medical models. The disconnection between the brain and body needs to be corrected in order to have optimal functioning.
These are the common signs of disconnection between the brain and body:
In behaviour:
- Frequent tantrums/ meltdowns
- Hyperactivity / hypo-activity
- Poor attention and focus
- Picky eaters
In academics:
- Dyslexia; Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia
- Unable to sit still during class
- Visual tracking difficulty, poor handwriting, speech delay
In motor skills:
- Unable to ride a bike, catch a ball, jump with two feet
- Difficulty with fine motor skills beyond typical age
- Poor balance and coordination
- Bumps into people, objects, falls easily
In sensory aspects:
- Hyper-sensitive to touch, sound, smell, movements
- Hypo-sensitive to pain, temperature
- Craves movements, deep pressure; constantly moving; crashing into things; fight or flight; irrational fears; overly emotional
What are the possible reasons for a disconnection between the brain and body?
There are many factors that can cause a disconnection between the brain and the body.
Many children have a combination of factors contributing to their disconnection, for example,
- Lack of movement
- Trauma
- Toxins
- Chemicals
- Food sensitivities
- Stress
(If you have any queries, you can send it to [email protected])
