Can my child with CVI be helped with Anat BanielMethod® NeuroMovement® sessions?
If you’re like most parents whose child has expected or unexpected challenges you work hard to find the best therapies and ways to support your child.
You want your child to gain skills and achieve developmental milestones - just like every other parent does!
You probably have been offered mainstream early intervention therapies like PT, OT and SLP but maybe you are wondering if there are other, better ways to address your child’s CVI.
Perhaps you have found a community of families who are managing a similar reality to you.
And maybe you research extensively online about alternative therapeutic options.
It can be hard to know what would be best when you don't have all the information you need.
This blog post is intended to help you in your research about Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® (an alternative, brain based, early intervention) for your child with Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI).
In this blog you will find the answers to…
What is CVI?
What is Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement®?
How can ABM®NM® help a child with CVI?
What are possible outcomes from ABM®NM® Lessons for your child with CVI
What is CVI?
CVI refers to both Cortical Visual Impairment and Cerebral Visual Impairment.
Both names describe the same condition. Both Cortical and Cerebral are in reference to the brain.
Cortical refers to the cerebral Cortex and Cerebral refers to the cerebrum of the brain.
The visual impairment in CVI is not caused by a defect in the structure of the eye.
The visual impairment in CVI is caused by the way that visual information is processed in the brain.
The signals from the visual stimulation are not interpreted in the brain in a typical way.
The problem in processing the visual information is caused by an injury or damage to the brain structure.
This damage or injury often happens in utero before your baby is born or it can occur during the birthing process.
How CVI shows up in your child can look very different from another child with CVI.
symptoms- Tendencies you may notice about your child with CVI
They might have difficulty
Recognizing objects and faces
Understanding what they are looking at
Recognizing items in cluttered spaces
Reaching for an item while they are looking at it
Seeing only certain parts of what is in front of them
Your child might prefer to look at things using a certain part of their vision field. Example- their peripheral (to the side) vision.
Parents and caregivers might notice that their child is slow to react to visual cues, and prefers watching images or items in motion,
Other conditions that are often associated with CVI
Because of the nature of brain injuries sustained in utero or in the birthing process kids with CVI often have other disabilities or health problems, including:
Developmental disabilities
Low or high muscle tone
Cerebral palsy (a brain disorder that causes movement problems)
Epilepsy (a brain disorder that causes seizures)
Genetic conditions and/or misspelling of their genes
Hearing loss
What is Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement®?
Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® might look like a medical intervention/therapy but really it is a learning method.
The method is designed to help your child build the brain connections that will lead to function and developmental milestones.
ABM®NM® uses precise, gentle movements in the body that trigger the brain of a child to make new neural connections.
The new neural connections create the path to new skills and developmental milestones.
Movement can be experienced in the physical, and also cognitive and emotional realms.
Primarily ABM®NM® is experienced through the physical realm.
Origins of the Anat Baniel Method®
The ABM®NM® was developed by Anat Baniel and derived from her extensive experience with the Feldenkrais Method, clinical Psychology, statistics and dance. There is a Basic Training and further Mastery trainings specializing in Children with Disabilities, Aging and Vitality, and High Performing Adults (CEO’s, Artists, Athletes etc). Anat Baniel Method® is championed by parents who’s children have thrived with this method.
How does ABM®NM® work?
ABM®NM® uses the brain’s natural tendency to make new neural connections.
At birth the human brain is not pre-formed or fully wired.
We grow and develop our brains with information from our experiences with our senses and our movement.
Everything we do is something we have learned.
An ABM®NM® practitioner uses these natural tendencies to assist a child in growing and developing their neural pathways.
ABM®NM® Practitioners use gentle movement which mimics the way that the brain naturally creates brain connections to target the creation of new neural connections.
Movement can be found in the physical, cognitive and emotional realms.
ABM®NM® is a holistic practice and understands that change to the brain in any of the movement realms affects the whole person.
How ABM® is different from traditional early intervention?
The job of the brain is to understand the sensory and motor information that the body experiences. ABM®NM® helps brains do that job better.
In traditional early intervention therapists are often focused on a child achieving specific outcomes.
An ABM®NM® practitioner is looking to help lay the groundwork in a child’s brain so that they spontaneously reach developmental milestones naturally- without skipping over important micro-developmental stages that may lead to other or more complete skills.
In traditional early intervention therapists sometimes overlook the comfort of the child to achieve goals. Any learning that has discomfort attached to it will always have discomfort attached to it!!
In an ABM®NM® lesson the comfort of the child is one of the most important features and can lead to the brain making exponentially more connections than if the child has any tendency toward fear or protection.
Traditional therapies work on fixing a single (perceived) problem and forget that the human brain and body are entirely connected and must be addressed in an holistic way.
ABM®NM® approaches the child’s brain and nervous system in an holistic way that opens the doors to endless brain connections.
How can ABM®NM® help a child with CVI?
Screenshot of text message from parent of a child with CVI after an ABM®NM® lesson series with ABM®NM® Practitioner Phoebe MacRae
Because CVI is caused by a brain injury (in utero or during the birth process), there are often other conditions or disabilities that accompany a child’s diagnosis of Cortical Visual Impairment.
The brain of a child who has CVI needs extra support to understand the information that their senses (sight, touch, sound, taste, smell, proprioception) are perceiving.
ABM®NM® lessons help the brain of your child with CVI to better understand the sensory information.
Better understanding of the sensory information leads to more brain connections which lead to skills development and developmental milestones despite the injury that causes CVI.
Because the brain is holistic in nature, upgrading any area of the brain with new neural connections has a positive effect on all the areas of the brain.
The human brain is super complex and all interrelated.
POssible Outcomes from Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® Lessons for your child with CVI
~Positive changes in gross and fine motor capacities
~Positive changes in capacity to use visual information
~Positive changes in strabismus/eye alignment
~Reduction of nystagmus/eye flickering
~Positive changes in communication
~Positive changes in mood.
Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® is an Innovative, brain based, intervention to help your child with CVI to live their life to the fullest!
Are you looking for in-person (Portland, OR area) or virtual help for your child with CVI?
I’m Phoebe MacRae and I’m an Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® Practitioner in Portland Oregon.
I specialize in helping Children with Disabilities or Developmental Delays by using the natural power of brain connections.
If your child likes it, you’ll find me using my other specialty- MUSIC!- in kids’ sessions. Music has a powerful impact on all parts of the brain and it can facilitate miracles!
Do you have further questions?
Please reach out to talk with me!