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The following are statements from my own
and other practitioners’ clients who have received EEG or HEG biofeedback
training. This file will be continuously updated as people are moved to share
their experiences (positive and negative) with this approach. We hope this
will help people get involved in the process and make better informed
decisions about how to utilize this technology. Of course, this is only part
of what would constitute an well informed choice and
we strongly suggest people obtain a QEEG and a thorough evaluation along with
reading these anecdotal summaries.
October
27,2007 Dear Dr. Berman,
My husband and I decided to have our 5 year old son
start neurofeedback therapy at Quietmind Foundation when the school district psychologist
determined that he had ADHD and Asperger's. In just a few short months
we have noticed a wonderful improvement.
Our son is calmer now; he has less tantrums. His
whiny spells are less frequent and he will comply with parental requests ( e.g. time to go to bed, etc.) more
quickly and with less complaints. So there are less time-out sessions,
which were becoming ineffective anyway. At school, his teacher has been
sending daily progress notes home stating that he has had all "great
days" and he's doing just fine.
He's more outgoing with children his own age: asking if
he may join in their play and better at taking turns too. We believe that
neurofeedback sessions have made us a much happier family and we are all
learning to have more patience with each other.
Sincerely,
joanna o.
Report on Heidi Conquering Dyslexia with
special emphasis on biofeedback
January 31, 2002
Who Is Heidi?
Heidi was born October 14, 1983 to Robert W (a dentist) and Nancy W
(an RN, pediatric nurse practitioner), in Canada.
She has one brother, born in 1980, who is now a second year college student
with a 3.75 GPA; home educated through grade 12. When did Heidi show trouble
with reading? We didn't get concerned about her problems with reading until
age 10. We were following the research of Dr. Raymond Moore1 which showed
most children reach their integrated maturity level (IML)* between the ages
of 8-10 years old. We had kept her busy developing with a balanced curriculum
of work, study, and service. But when she reached 10 years old, and still had
difficulty I realized we had a big problem. *The IML is the point at which
the developmental variables (affective, psychomotor, perceptual and
cognitive) within the child reach an optimum peak of readiness in maturation
and cooperative functioning for structured school learning experiences.
Heidi's Areas of Difficulties:
We tried numerous reading and phonics courses to no avail. The same
word repeated in a paragraph was always a new word for her. We explored
different reading specialists, for children and adults (at our community
college) but they were doing nothing different than what we were already
trying. She suffered with frequent headaches; word reversals when reading,
saying "on" instead of "no"; and letter and number mix
ups when writing them down. When her math program changed from a hands-on and
visual approach to conceptual, she lost her ability to comprehend it. We
started Saxon's Math Book 3 times, without success. The concepts of
multiplication and division would not stick. Here is a list of her
difficulties: recognizing a word when it appears again (Heidi.... "I see
a word, and I know I've seen it before. I have little squinty workmen in my
head, who start frantically searching through the
file drawers in my brain, hunting and hunting for that word.") decoding words recognizing written musical notes, she has
to decode it again......very difficult to sight read, reads slowly. Very
difficult to read and answer questions: she avoids reading labels and
directions as much as possible (speech) difficulty answering a question: slow
or avoids completely to answer a question on a
subject being discussed or read about. (Not slow in answering questions on
personal preferences re food, clothes, etc.). Heidi... "I know the word,
the meaning, and the sound, but I can't get it out of my mouth, or it comes
out wrong. It's like I'm trapped in my own body." Heidi... "In my brain
a little delivery man, with thick, foggy, bottle glasses, takes my words,
which are in a package, and drives them in his truck towards my mouth, but he
always takes the wrong road and gets lost! Then I have road repair men,
wearing helmets, which go searching for him, but he's gone." Her
self-esteem took a beating at times by children who would tease her, or
adults who were ignorant of her disabilities and thought she was being
uncooperative.
Help for Heidi's Eyes
Heidi's vision was treated by Dr.Ludlam2 and his wife Diana. They have
spent their professional careers researching and helping learning problems
with visual help. He gave her much stronger corrective lenses than she was given
here in Canada,
for far-sightedness. (She wears contacts.) And she was guided to do some
visual therapy with different lenses and apparatuses for several years at
home. Benefits: She now sees the letters on the page without straining. Her
eyes don't focus with jerky movements on the page. Both eyes track smoothly
across the page working together now. She can move her eyes first thing in
the morning without pain. Dr. Toomim - Biocomp3 We are grateful to have
discovered Dr. Toomim and biocomp!! Last February
5, 2001, Heidi had a brain SPECT done at UCLA Nuclear Medicine Santa Monica
Hospital. (Dr. Toomim's request) Then we spent
several days discovering and learning with Dr. Toomim. Taking the equipment
back to Canada
with us, we have continued to do biofeedback, HEG, on the following areas;
T5, T3, T4, F7, F8, Fp1, and Fp2. .So after a year
of therapy at home of about 205 trials (not sessions)
Her gains are as follows: She's reading recreationally-for enjoyment!
Shocking! She recognizes words repeatedly. Decodes words more easily. She
reads more fluently. Remembers mathematical concepts much better. She answers
questions and shares ideas with greater ease and confidence. Her words don't
get lost! (Heidi... "I no longer feel trapped. I tumble at times but I'm
not trapped. The words I want come, they don't disappear as before.").
She does her math on her own. She doesn't need a tutor all the time to help
her read instructions. This past summer for the first time she could
coordinate her left hand to let the clutch out smoothly on her brother's
motorcycle. For a year before finding Dr. Toomim, we worked with a reading
program designed by a nurse , Bonnie Wilde4, who had
worked with stroke victims. It's designed to use another part of the brain,
to "build a new road," doing the job that the "broken
road" couldn't do. We learned some very helpful phonics techniques, and
had some improvement, but not like the great strides we've made with biocomp. When I first spoke with Dr. Toomim, he said,
"Oh, we want to fix the part of the brain which isn't doing its
job." We are so thankful!)
Resources
1 William M. Ludlam O. D. Visual Problems as a
Casual Factor in Illiteracy, Professor, Pacific
University, College
of Optometry, Forest
Grove, OR : and has a practice with his wife, Diana Ludlam (Vision Therapist) at Cornell Vision
Center, 1010 NE Cornell Road, Hillsboro, OR 97124, (503) 640-3333
2. Raymond Moore Ed. D. Better Late Than Early by Reader's Digest Press, 1982
and School Can Wait by Raymond Moore Ed. D., Dorothy Moore with Joseph
Willey, Dennis More, D. Kathleen Kordenbrock,
Brigham
Young University Press 1979
3. Dr. Hershel Toomim Biocomp Research Institute 6542 Hayes Drive, Los Angeles CA 90048-5320 (323) 930-8500
4. Bonnie Wilde, Reading Naturally Canada, #3 Cedar Cres., Lacombe Alberta T4L 1P5 (403) 782-0352
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