The Brain Develops in a Sequence: Discover Your Child’s Roadmap to Success

Podcast Introduction and Brain Development Overview 0:00

Everything is connected and I'm here to tell you how. I am Dr. Laura Hanson with Connect My Brain. This podcast is for moms who are concerned about their child's development. The brain impacts our mind, body, and overall health. I explain how your brain is wired, what happens when it's out of balance, and how early childhood development not only impacts your child, but can affect you as an adult years later. Want to know how to improve your life? Join me and learn about your amazing brain and what it can do for you.

Hi everybody, it's Dr. Laura with Connect My Child's Brain.

Sequencing and Bottom-Up Brain Development 0:52

Okay, so today what we're gonna do is we are gonna talk about the development of sequencing, meaning step by step. So the brain builds bottom up, not all at once. Development follows a predictable order from survival and regulation emotional to processing to higher thinking. And you just cannot skip ahead and get to that top level without a stable foundation. Let me give you an example of handwriting. So lots of times people come in and say, man, my child's handwriting is just atrocious. And I will do that in an assessment and actually look at their posture, how they hold their pencil, and then what does it look like on the piece of paper.

So first of all, babies come into the world and they're in little fists. And it isn't about until three to four months that those hands innately begin to open up. And then they have to be driven to explore. Now, when I say driven, that isn' something you're meant to do.

Handwriting, Reflexes, and Early Motor Foundations 2:12

It's meant be that as they're exploring the world, they want to touch it. They see something and they wanna go after it, so they are going to exploring. Then they begin to pull everything in like a rake. So they're actually using the lateral part of the hand. And it isn't until about 9 to 12 months that they actually go into what we call pincer grip or be able to use that index and thumb together. So for any reason, if your child did not necessarily follow that sequence of events or for, any, reason can also be holding on to that palmar reflex, that's what it's called, then they're not going to have the foundation to be able to actually put a pencil in their hand and write.

And it's always not just a single thing. It's also about that posture. Remember, I look at that posture. If a child has a retained asymmetrical tonic neck reflex, lots of times they lay down on the table in order to be able to write, because as soon as that hand goes out, the head wants to turn and the arm wants And then it's also, how are the eyes navigating that piece of paper? So that's one of the things that I look at when I'm doing an assessment. So here at Connect My Child's Brain, we are looking back in order to help your child move forward.

Because these things, that we call behavior, attention, emotional issues, often reflect a missed or underdeveloped earlier stage.

Behavior, Attention, and Neuroplasticity 4:10

It's not a lack of effort or discipline. When you see these things, try not to automatically think defiance or lack motivation. Its really about how their nervous system got wired up. When you come into the world, you are fully formed, but you're not fully functioning. You must go through those steps in order to wire up the brain. Now the great part is you can revisit rewiring and rebuilding at any phase of life. Think for a minute about an adult who had a heart attack or stroke. I've spoke of my mom often.

She did have a stroke many, many years ago, and I remember working on her body. And when I got to that left hand especially, because her stroke was on the right side of her brain, literally when my hand crossed over, she went into such a grip, I thought she was gonna break my fingers. When an adult goes back to these reflexes, they're often referred to as pathological reflex, but they are really the same because primitive reflex are actually the rudimentary of all learning. So her brain was going back the brain stem in order to get whatever information she needed from that while she's doing her therapies and then be able to move on.

This is what we call neuroplasticity, and this can help the brain restore many of its challenges. If you truly find out how far back do you need to go, start there, then the mind absolutely knows how to move forward. The brain doesn't skip a step, it's never too late to build them in the right order. So thanks for tuning in today. Let me tell you a couple of highlights of what's going on here at Connect My Child's Brain. So in June, we are offering two free little in-office seminars. Go to our website connectmybrain.com and click on the Resource tab and then click On Upcoming Events.

Upcoming Events and Ways to Connect 6:30

The first one is for parents to get some insight about primitive reflexes. We're only going to meet for an hour. I'm going hit some highlights to you and help you begin to understand why it is so important to look at this part of development and what can you do to move your child forward. The second event the last weekend in June, again one hour at the office, is the Babysitting Club. I want to start helping young people who like to do childcare learn how to work with kids with special needs, with struggling, whatever the case may be, so that those parents can get a night out.

So if you have any questions, always go to the Contact Us tab and schedule a time to chat with me, and I will help you see if Connect My Child's Brain and you are a great fit. And as always, be blessed. Thanks for listening. I hope today's lesson will help you or someone you love. Do you have a question or just really want to talk to somebody about brains? Connect with me over on Facebook or Instagram at Connect My Brain. Looking to understand and optimize your particular brain? Check out connectmybrain.com for course information and resources.

See you next class. you