My daughter went up another level in lateral core (ability to hold a side plank on her forearm), balance beam (walking on beam forward, backward and side to side), fine motor (ability to quickly put pegs in holes) and dichotic listening (hearing a different word in each ear at the same time).

       We had a discussion last night about her new found attitude and she explained it like this:  "I just feel like I'm more aware of everything, so I've become more sensitive to things."  This is true, because when we were in the car and she spoke with frustration, all I said was "tone" and she recognized what she had did and apologized.  Before she wouldn't have recognized immediately why I would think something was wrong with what she said.  Also, her writing has become better without the sloppy mistakes that were being made only two weeks ago.  She feels this is because she has been writing essays at Brain Balance.

      She's happy she got to start on the exercise ball today. She has to hold the following position for 60 seconds.

    Usually when I whine and complain about something I immediately discover that I'm wrong, and so it is the case with Brain Balance this week. I complained that her auditory and visual processing are not improving then I see her write a perfect rough draft essay and pick up on cues not previously recognized. I'm not sure if that means I should not be so impatient and withhold my whining or if I should complain more and see more results.  A parent told me that when she levels up in dichotic listening then she is getting better in auditory processing.  

     I'm flying out west for next week so my husband will be taking her to Brain Balance.  I'll make sure to get the details from him so I can continue to make the posts.

    Thanks for the comments!  It keeps me motivated to continue blogging.

     Today, my daughter went up one age level in supine and prone core, upper body, brachiation and dichotic listening.  For her homework today I noticed she could do thirty sit ups in a row with her feet tucked under the couch.  The age goal is 37 unassisted.

      To be honest, I'm a little tired of her doing better in physical abilities and not improving on her auditory processing and visual processing.  I'm paying $6,000 for her to do better academically and to recognize social cues better, not for her to be able to say, "Look at me!  I can do push-ups!"  I haven't taken her to do the nutrition lab part of it yet because of the money, but it is time for me to suck it up and pay the $500 to have her assessed.  I hear rumor they charge even more for the supplements.  I know it is not right of me to judge a program if I don't do everything they ask.  I just hate those red numbers.

     Friday, my daughter went up an age level in lateral core, fine motor and dichotic listening.  They wouldn't show me the evaluation sheet that is used to measure her due to copyright and protecting their business.  The lady who allowed me to take a picture of it last time was told she was not allowed to do that anymore.  I perfectly understand their reasoning and feel bad for getting the lady in trouble. On the other hand they were more than happy to tell me exactly what is being measured and how she levels up.  

           Lateral core is tested by holding a position while lying on your side.  Once she is able to hold that position for so many seconds three Brain Balance days in a row, she levels up.  Prone core is holding a position while lying on your stomach and supine core is lying on your back.  Fine motor is where they test how fast she can put the pins in the equipment that I showed on March 9th.  Dichotic listening is when she hears two words in both ears and has to give you both.  With this they are more concerned with her being able to get both words at the same time than how many words she is able to give.  Brachiation is her hanging from a bar, which I have discovered is more difficult than going across the monkey bars.  My middle daughter tried holding on to the monkey bar at the park and was having a difficult time, but she was able to go back and forth on the monkey bars with no trouble.
      I expressed my concern that it is difficult as a homeschooling mom to see the results in attention deficit and academics.  Dr. Naumann told me she would give me a test to give her at home and another one the following week so I could see her improvement.  They don't spend a lot of time on academics because they are not there to tutor, but to grow the brain.  They say by not staying on one subject for too long it helps the brain learn to quickly process things.  Dr. Naumann says she is doing fantastic.  The things I have noticed as a parent is her increase in athletic skills and a little bit more self recognition.   She said to me this week she was answering someone's question and realized that she was giving them a longer answer than they wanted.  I don't think she has ever before recognized people checking out when she talks a bit longer than desired.  Dr. Seuss must have been around some ADHD people when he wrote "Good bye Thing you sing too long!"
    We are behind on our nutrition assessment because she had her bottom braces put on her teeth and she has been consuming mostly smoothies for a week.  We should be turning in her 7 days of nutrition diary next week.

Interactive Metronome Demo

  Here are the categories Brain Balance said my daughter had improved by one level this past Wednesday.  

Supine core

Lateral core

Prone core

Upper body

Balance Beam

Interactive metronome

Brachiation

Fine Motor

Dichotic listening

     The first five are core strengthening and balance exercises.  Below is a description of the interactive metronome.  She does not have the headphones, but it is the exact same program as described.

“Brachiation is the ability to swing from rung to rung on an overhead ladder. This activity is extremely easy for a very young child and extremely difficult for an adult. It is a very valuable ability because it helps the child to create a bigger, better chest and as a result he breathes more deeply, regularly and maturely.” – Glenn Doman & Janet Doman, from the book ‘How Smart Is Your Baby’.

Dichotic listening is when she hears a different word in each ear and is able to give them both words.

     She earned this one of Friday.  Improving in Gait/Aerobic and proprioception may be the reason she made two baskets in the church basketball game this morning.  She has never made a basket before in the past two years of playing church basketball.  Their team tends to win about half of the games and they lost this one, so she did not score the baskets because it was an easy opponent.

        Proprioception is "the process by which the body can vary muscle contraction in immediate response to incoming information regarding external forces."