Christian, 9

Christian was always the one that went to the birthday party and blew out the other child’s birthday candles.

Afterward, he realized that it wasn’t his birthday and that he shouldn’t have done that. He was the kid who loved to swim but would scream when he jumped in the pool. I’m a special education teacher, specializing in early intervention, so this is basically what I do for a living. There are several things that I had noticed just because of my background, and there were several things that I had to fight at first. I had dabbled in the book Disconnected Kids over the years, so I was familiar with it but didn’t apply it.

Christian loved going through the program. He’s one of those kids that enjoys the attention and wants to be an athlete, so he felt good about himself getting stronger physically. I would say, “Wow, I noticed that you threw the ball far enough for Joey to catch it! You know, that’s because you got stronger at Brain Balance.” I’ve seen him being able to control his impulses now, and he’s very aware of his progress. He’ll say things like, “I have anger management issues,” and that’s something that he recognized on his own. The program has definitely helped him. I think we still have work to do, but it’s definitely made a difference for him, both mentally and physically.

It’s something that you have to work on, just like how I’m a runner and I have to keep practicing to improve. I think we’ll always have to be doing a lot of those exercises to keep that side of his brain strong. It’s something that I just think is really important for him and was beneficial for him, physically and mentally.