Dyslexia has long been linked to reduced activity in the posterior or rear portion of the brain’s left hemisphere. What has been unclear is whether this reduced brain activity was a result of an individual’s years of reading difficulty or a preexisting, underlying cause of the disorder.

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!

What if a brain scan could tell us if a child has ADHD? New research implies we may be one step closer to making this a reality. Preliminary findings from a new study indicate that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have different and distinct brain patterns when processing visual information. An article from WebMD detailing the information presented in Chicago at the Radiological Society Of North America’s annual meeting states the following:

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!

Kids and parents throughout the country are preparing to head back to school in the near future, which can be a stressful time as as children prepare for new expectations and a new classroom. Add ADHD into the mix, and being prepared for the first day of school can seem overwhelming. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more children than ever are being diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). New information on the CDC website states that from 1998 to 2009, the rate of diagnosis of ADHD has risen from 7% to 9% overall. The following is the summary of the new information from the CDC website:

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!

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have often wondered if their subsequent children are at increased risk for the disorder. To help answer this question, researchers have been conducting a long-term study following 664 infants through the preschool years whose siblings have been diagnosed with ASD. The results of the eight-year study from Autism Speaks and the National Alliance for Autism Research indicate that 1 in 5 younger siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are also affected, which is more than double the previous estimates for sibling risk. For younger siblings that were boys, the rate was 1 in 4. For younger sisters, the rate was 1 in 9.

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!

New research from Carnegie Mellon University reveals a link between poor brain sync and misuse of pronouns in people with Autism. The research, sponsored by Autism Speaks Foundation and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, points to differences in the fMRIs of neuro-typical participants and those with high-functioning autism when using pronouns. An article at EurekaAlert.org explains the research:

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!

A new study in the June 23rd release of the journal Neuron compared the brain images of 72 toddlers between the ages of 1 and 4 in an effort to establish if there were brain differences that may indicate Autism. Thirty of the children were typically developing, 29 were diagnosed with Autism, and 13 were classified as having significant language delay. According to a related article at Health.com, the study showed:

…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!

A study published last October in Cerebral Cortex, conducted by scientists from the University of Utah, Harvard Medical School, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Brigham Young University showed decreased interhemispheric functional connectivity in autism. The study looked at 53 males with high functioning autism and 39 typically developing males from late childhood through early adulthood. The researchers assessed the participants’ handedness, IQ, language, and social function, as well as used MRI neuroimaging analysis to determine interhemispheric correlation. The study concluded that the participants with autism showed decreased interhemispheric connectivity and therefore warrants further study.

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.

This past week, several articles in the news stand out as particularly relevant to the Autism Community.  The first is about a study that looks at Autism and Peer Therapy.  Since many children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have trouble relating to their peers, the study looked at whether Autistic children between the ages of 5 and 10 would benefit from 10 weeks of peer therapy.  According to Dr. Craig Erickson in the Indy Star article, “Child Autism Study Looks at Peer Therapy“:

“Traditionally, social-skills training is conducted by therapists, but we really believe that having peers model behavior is an invaluable development. An adult is never going to be able to exactly replicate a social interaction, the give and take that you have from a peer.”

Read more about the study here.

The other recently reported ASD study looks at the possible discrepancy between academic achievement and intellectual ability in high functioning autistic children.  The study reports in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders:

“These results suggest that the large majority of higher-functioning children with ASD show discrepancies between actual achievement levels and levels predicted by their intellectual ability. In some cases, children are achieving higher than expected, whereas in others, they are achieving lower than expected. Improved social abilities may contribute to academic achievement.”

Read more about the study here.

About Brain Balance
The Brain Balance Program® is an individualized and comprehensive approach to helping children with neurobehavioral and learning difficulties surmount their unique challenges. This proprietary, non-medical program has been successful in helping hundreds of children reach their physical, social/behavioral health and academic potential. We work with children who suffer with ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette’s, Asperger’s and ASD.

Learn The Truth About Autism.

The Guardian article  ”Children with Autism Have Distinctive Patterns of Brain Activity” looks at the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.  The research shows that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has a unique signature on the brain:

Kaiser and Pelphrey placed 62 children aged from four to 17 years old into functional magnetic resonance imaging scanners and monitored their brain activity as they watched a point-light display of biological motion and another of scrambled dots. Twenty-five children had ASD, 20 were the siblings of children with ASD but did not display any symptoms themselves, the remainder were “typically developing” children.

Relative to the other groups there was reduced activity in specific brain regions in children with ASD when they were watching biological motion compared with scrambled motion.

The scientists also found what they called “compensatory activity” in the siblings group — brain regions that were working harder than normal and might be helping the children overcome their increased genetic risk of ASD.

Read more about this study in the full article.