Source

Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Children with psychiatric disorders often demonstrate gross motor problems. This study investigates if the reverse also holds true by assessing psychiatric symptoms present in children with gross motor problems. Emotional, behavioral, and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), as well as psychosocial problems, were assessed in a sample of 40 children with gross motor problems from an elementary school population (aged 7 through 12 years). Sixty-five percent of the sample met the criteria for psychiatric classification. Anxiety disorders were found most often (45%), followed by ASD (25%) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (15%). Internalizing (51%) and social problems (41%) were prominent, as was “stereotyped behavior” (92%) and “resistance to changes” (92%). Self-perceived incompetence was restricted to domains that were indeed impaired (i.e., the athletic and social domains). The results suggest that children with gross motor problems are strongly at risk for psychiatric problems including anxiety, internalization, and ASD.

What does this mean for parents of kids with gross motor issues? Brain Balance has long contended that motor drives function. In other words, improving sensory-motor skills in kids with neuro-behavioral disorders can help reduce or eliminate negative symptoms and behaviors. Clinical research indicates that these disorders share an imbalance of electrical activity in the brain that we refer to as a Functional Disconnection. After completing a comprehensive assessment of your child’s brain and body function, our team integrates physical, sensory-motor, and cognitive exercises to correct the imbalance leading to a reduction or elimination of negative symptoms and behaviors.

Our proprietary, non-medical program has helped thousands of kids reach their physical, social, behavioral, and academic potential. We work with children who have symptoms of ADHD, Dyslexia, OCD, Tourette Syndrome, and Asperger Syndrome. (A child with mild to moderate Autism may also be a candidate for our program.) Brain Balance Achievement Centers offer the Brain Balance Program® in 57 nationwide locations. Contact us today to learn more!

“We know that there is evidence that autism affects the ability of different brain regions to communicate with each other. This study confirms that this atypical brain development begins very early in life,” said study co-author Geri Dawson, the chief science officer at Autism Speaks.

“These findings raise the possibility of developing imaging markers that could detect risk for autism in advance of actual symptoms, and [to] begin treatment before symptoms begin,” she said.

However, whether these brain changes occur in all autistic children isn’t known, Dawson said. It is possible that the developmental problems of autism start even earlier, while in the womb, she said.

“One can imagine a day when you would use these imaging biomarkers to identify a young baby who is at risk and then provide them with early stimulation that could, hopefully, reduce or even prevent the onset of autism,” Dawson said.

The report was published in the Feb. 17 online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The study looked at several MRI brain scans of 92 children who had older siblings with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which put them at high risk. Of these 92 children, 28 developed autism and showed differences in white brain matter when compared to the MRIs of the typically developing children.

At Brain Balance, we have long contended that brain communication issues contribute to all neuro-behavioral disorders. Clinical research indicates that disorders like Autism and ADHD have in common an under-connectivity of electrical activity within and between the hemispheres of the brain. At Brain Balance, we refer to this connectivity issue as Functional Disconnection Syndrome.

If your child is experiencing communication and learning problems, we invite you to consider the Brain Balance Program. After we complete a comprehensive assessment of your child’s brain and body function, our team integrates physical, sensory-motor, and cognitive exercises with simple dietary changes to correct the underlying connection problem and reduce or eliminate negative symptoms and behaviors. Each student’s program is customized to his or her specific needs and is a holistic, non-medical approach to behavioral and learning problems. Contact us today to learn more about how the Brain Balance Program can help your child connect with success.

A study published in the most recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates the latter to be true. After comparing functional MRI results from a group of pre-reading children at high risk for Dyslexia due to family history with a control group of pre-reading children with no increased risk, researchers determined that the high risk group showed the same reduced brain activity as adults with the disorder while the control group didn’t. Researchers hope this information can lead to earlier diagnosis for kids at high risk for Dyslexia, even before reading instruction begins.

What does this new research mean for parents of children with Dyslexia or Developmental Reading Disorder? It means there’s hope! Brain Balance has long contended that Functional Disconnection Syndrome, an imbalance in the connections and function between and within the hemispheres of the brain, is responsible for a host of behavioral, academic, and social difficulties. This newest research supports our approach of strengthening brain communication to improve the underlying cause of learning and behavioral disorders.

To fully understand your child’s difficulties, we first conduct a comprehensive assessment of all areas of brain and body function. Then by integrating physical, sensory-motor, and cognitive exercises with simple dietary changes, we are able to correct the underlying imbalance, improve function, and reduce or eliminate negative symptoms and behaviors.

Dyslexia doesn’t have to be a life-long struggle. At Brain Balance, we believe every child can connect with success. If your child is experiencing learning and/or behavioral problems, consider a Brain Balance assessment to help you better understand your child’s issues. Contact us today to learn more!

Researchers used a specialized brain scan called a functional MRI to watch brain activity in 18 children aged 9 to 15 with ADHD and 18 children of the same ages without the disorder…

The test requires the children to pay attention and visualize, remember ,and compare the numbers, says study leader Xiaobo Li, PhD, assistant professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

‘What we found,’ she tells WebMD, ‘is that the pattern of brain activity for processing visual attention information looks a little different in children with ADHD.’

Specifically, the scans of children with ADHD showed less activity in brain regions involved in visual attention and working memory, Li says.

So what does this information mean for children and families dealing with ADHD? While peer review and more research is needed to confirm the findings, the information underscores Dr. Robert Melillo’s theory that brain function and communication are different for children with neuro-behavioral disorders. Based on the theory of functional disconnection, Dr. Melillo created the Brain Balance Program® to address the underlying connectivity issues within the brain that contribute to attention and behavioral issues.

With a relatively new understanding that the brain is changeable and able to create new neural pathways in response to it’s environment, our focus is on improving communication and function within and between the two sides, or hemispheres, of the brain. After a comprehensive assessment, our team creates custom sensory-motor and cognitive activity plans in conjunction with nutritional objectives for each child to establish proper neural connections and improve rhythm and timing. Want to learn more about how we can help your child with ADHD reach his or her full potential? Contact us today!

Summary

From 1998–2000 through 2007–2009, the prevalence of ADHD increased among children aged 5–17 years, from 6.9% to 9.0%. These increases were seen among both boys and girls, among children in most racial and ethnic groups except Mexican children, and among children with family income less than 200% of the poverty level. By geographic region, ADHD was more prevalent in the South and Midwest regions of the United States than in the Northeast and West regions during 2007–2009.

Does your child have attention problems or an ADHD diagnosis? Are you worried about your child’s transition as we approach back to school time? At Brain Balance, we believe that ADHD and other neuro-behavioral disorders are actually manifestations of a single, underlying condition called Functional Disconnection Syndrome. Research indicates that many learning and social disorders have in common a functional imbalance or under-connectivity of electrical (neural) activity within and between the right and left sides of the brain. This results in the brain literally becoming de-synchronized or “out of rhythm”. Just as the musicians in an orchestra can make beautiful music together only when all the musicians play in rhythm, the hemispheres of the brain must also function in rhythm or synchronicity. If the brain is out of rhythm, this Functional Disconnection is responsible for a host of behavioral, academic, and social difficulties including ADHD. Strengthening and improving these rhythm and timing issues is the premise on which the Brain Balance Program® was created!

To read compelling success stories, take a look at our Results section, which features before and after scores for children who have completed a Brain Balance session. Want to know more about the program? After a comprehensive assessment, the Brain Balance team custom designs cognitive, physical, and sensory activity plans to establish proper neural connections and improve rhythm and timing issues for your child. Contact us today for special savings on your child’s comprehensive assessment!

What does this study mean for parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder? Most experts view this new information as a call-to-action for parents of children with ASD to vigilantly look for signs and symptoms in at-risk siblings so early intervention is possible and timely. Have an open dialogue with your child’s pediatrician and caregivers so that as a parent you receive feedback from multiple sources on your child’s development. When in doubt, ask questions! Learn more about the signs and symptoms of ASD in our Truth About Autism section.

At Brain Balance, we contend that many childhood disorders are manifestations of a single, underlying condition called Functional Disconnection. Research indicates that Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, Dyslexia, and other learning disorders have in common a functional imbalance or under-connectivity of electrical (neural) activity within and between the right and left sides of the brain. As a result, the brain literally becomes de-synchronized or “out of rhythm”. Just as the musicians in an orchestra can only make beautiful music when all the musicians play in rhythm, the two sides of the brain must also function in rhythm or synchronicity. When the brain is out of rhythm, this Functional Disconnection is responsible for a host of academic, behavioral, and social difficulties and is the premise on which the Brain Balance Program® was created!

Brain Balance Achievement Centers are after-school learning facilities that help children with learning and behavioral disorders reach their potential. After a comprehensive assessment, the Brain Balance team custom designs cognitive, physical, and sensory activity plans to establish proper neural connections and improve rhythm and timing. Contact us today for special savings on your comprehensive assessment!

For the study, the research team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the brain activation pattern and the synchronization of activation across brain areas in young adults with high-functioning autism with control participants during a language task that required rapid pronoun comprehension.

The results revealed a significantly diminished synchronization in autism between a frontal area (the right anterior insula) and a posterior area (precuneus) during pronoun use in the autism group. The participants with autism also were slower and less accurate in their behavioral processing of the pronouns. In particular, the synchronization was lower in autistic participants’ brains between the right anterior insula and precuneus when answering a question that contained the pronoun “you,” querying something about the participant’s view.

“Shifting from one pronoun to another, depending on who the speaker is, constitutes a challenge not just for children with autism but also for adults with high-functioning autism, particularly when referring to one’s self,” Just said. “The functional collaboration of two brain areas may play a critical role for perspective shifting by supporting an attention shift between oneself and others.

This and other clinical research indicates that Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and other learning disorders have in common a functional imbalance or under-connectivity of electrical activity within and between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. While different researchers refer to this under-connectivity by different names, Brain Balance has long recognized that many childhood disorders are manifestations of this single, underlying condition. As a result, the brain literally becomes desynchronized or “out of rhythm‟. Just as an orchestra filled with gifted musicians only sounds beautiful if all the musicians play in rhythm, communication within the brain must also function in rhythm or synchronicity. This functional disconnection is responsible for a host of behavioral, academic, and social difficulties, and it is the premise on which the Brain Balance Program® was created! Learn more today!

…that the language areas of the left and right hemispheres of the autistic toddlers’ brains were less “in sync” than the hemispheres of the typical kids and the children with other language delays. The weaker the synchronization, the more severe the autistic child’s communication difficulties.

“No one really knows why synchronization is important, but it’s clearly a robust phenomenon apparent in the brains of animals and humans of all ages,” said lead study author Ilan Dinstein, a neurobiologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and a member of the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego.“The main theory is that it is important for the proper communication between different brain areas,” Dinstein added. “Such communication is thought to be essential for normal brain function and for normal behavior.”

At Brain Balance, we recognize that many childhood disorders are manifestations of a single, underlying condition called Functional Disconnection. Clinical research indicates that Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette’s, and other learning disorders have in common a functional imbalance or under-connectivity of electrical activity within and between the right and left sides or hemispheres of the brain. As a result, the brain literally becomes desynchronized or “out of rhythm‟. Just as an orchestra filled with gifted musicians only sounds beautiful if all the musicians play in rhythm, the two sides of the brain must also function in rhythm or synchronicity. This Functional Disconnection is responsible for a host of behavioral, academic, and social difficulties, and it is the premise on which the Brain Balance Program® was created!

Brain Balance Achievement Centers are after-school learning facilities that help children with learning and behavioral disorders reach their potential. After a comprehensive assessment, the Brain Balance team custom designs physical, sensory, and cognitive activity plans along with dietary guidelines to establish proper neural connections and improve rhythm and timing. Learn more about the Brain Balance Program® today!

This study lends further support to Dr. Robert Melillo’s theory of Functional Disconnection Syndrome as it applies to neurobehavioral disorders in children.  A properly functioning brain communicates between both hemispheres as well as within each hemisphere at lightning speed. Think of these communications like runners in a relay race: They connect, pass on information, and release, repeating this process millions of times a minute. In a poorly functioning brain, these runners are often out of sync, missing each other or passing on only partial information. This miscommunication is called Functional Disconnection and is at the root of all types of neurobehavioral and learning problems. At Brain Balance™, once we understand the uniqueness and severity of your child’s challenges, we then custom design physical and cognitive activity plans and easy-to-follow dietary guidelines to establish proper connections and improve rhythm and timing. This multi-faceted approach helps your child achieve optimum body and brain function.

Contact a center near you to learn more about Functional Disconnection Syndrome and how the Brain Balance Program® can help!

Read the study: Decreased Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Autism

In the following video, Susan Wilczynski, Director of the National Autism Center, interviews several specialists in the field and asks the question: What is Autism?“

At the end of this video, Dr. Susan Bookheimer, professor of cognitive neurosciences at the University of California, states:

In particular I think that we’re getting closer to a model of autism that has to do with connectivity abnormalities in the brain and particularly early in development how connections are formed in the brain and, as Fischbach has pointed out, when they are formed in the brain. And in autism I think that one of the problems is that areas of the brain that are far from each other are not as well connected, whereas areas of the brain that are very close to each other seem to be over-connected. And so I think that it has to do with the developmental trajectory of when and where connections are formed that it appears to be awry.

This idea of “connectivity abnormalities” sounds a lot like Functional Disconnection Syndrome and is in support of the Brain Balance model.

This next video continues the discussion and poses the question, “Is Autism Caused by Genes or the Environment?“

According to Dr. Christopher Walsh, Bullard Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Genetics at Boston Children’s hospital:

“One of the things about again the genetics leads to in terms of the mechanisms is that the sorts of genetic abnormalities that we see with autism involve these synapses and the synapses change in response to the environment. In fact, although we think that there is a large genetic component to the disease it’s by no means all genetics in the sense that the genes that are in play are those regulate the way the brain responds to the environment and so that is good news in the sense that we know that there are ways that the brain can be changed by different sorts of teaching, different sorts of environments, enriched environments. But that also implies that that genetic predisposition is not immutable, that there might be ways it can be modified or improved.”

This continuation of the discussion lends even more support to the scientific principles behind the Brain Balance model. There is extensive research and in depth study of epigenetics that has shown the brain to be remarkably adaptable and able to create new neural pathways in response to stimulus in the environment.   This idea that the brain can change is known as neuroplasticity. Because the brain can change, and because difficulties can be corrected, children suffering from Functional Disconnection can be greatly helped.

Videos provided by BigThink.