(Even with her hand "fixed" in her mouth:
the difference between hand and elbow,
and between elbow not bearing weight vs elbow bearing weight
is HUGE in this moment for Harper)
Here's the Normal Doidge quote again, bold and all:
"Following in the footsteps of the revolutionary scientist-clinician Moshe Feldenkrais,
the greatest thinker about how to improve movement in the twentieth century,
[Anat] Baniel show why our mainstream approach to these children is often wrong, and at times damaging,
because they train the children
to 'ape' developmental milestone they are not developmentally ready to meet.
The approach here,
far wiser, far more subtle,
truly holistic, far more ingenious,
far more in accord with how brain development occurs,
show ways to access the child's OWN brain plasticity,
and yields far greater results, so that the children can spontaneous grow from within."
I broke it down into pieces,
and maybe it's easier to read that way.
If so, that itself begins to illustrate the genius of the Anat Baniel Method and the Feldenkrais method:
it's about discovering the pieces to learning, not trying to
get the child to do what the child can't do.
I'll say that last part again, because I've seen PT and OT and good meaning body workers
over and over do this,
with children,
with injured adults,
with themselves.
If something doesn't work, the main goal
of the "fixers" is to
get the thing that Doesn't Work
to Work.
(Like when someone tells you: Say something funny,
and you aren't in a good mood.)
Now, with an adult, whose shoulder "used" to work,
whirling away "trying" to improve "range of motion,"
though painful and ineffective, is not necessarily harmful.
Well, actually it is harmful, but not in the massive way
this approach is to a child.
Think about it:
A child can't sit.
The developmental milestone of their age is to sit.
So someone shoves, pushes, helps, prods, pads the child into sitting.
Since the child doesn't have the pieces and the learning of pelvis and ribs and head
and back and shoulders to sit, what does it learn?
Failure.
It learns that people are trying to get it to do something
and it is going to fail over and over and over.
What is missing is not the "how to sit" program, but the brain's awareness
of all sort of small differences that make up sitting.
As Anat clarifies it in her book:
(Kids Beyond Limits)
the brain needs to/ loves to/ wants to/ is designed to
DISCOVER that
Thing One
is
different than
Thing Two.
I just finished a section in the book, describing her work with an autistic boy
who could barely speak,
and could hold toys only for brief periods
and seemed unable to finish any sentences.
She helped him distinguish Thing One
and Thing Two
of back and shoulder
and
back and head
and one finger from another
and one hand from another
his speech and his drooling and his thinking
all rapidly improved
no work on speech or drooling or thinking
but
he could and wanted to live at a more complex level.
Why:
his brain had become more clued in and excited
to be doing what a brain is meant to do:
distinguish differences.
Or better said:
Learning is distinguishing differences
that make a difference.
"Following in the footsteps of the revolutionary scientist-clinician Moshe Feldenkrais,
the greatest thinker about how to improve movement in the twentieth century,
[Anat] Baniel show why our mainstream approach to these children is often wrong, and at times damaging,
because they train the children
to 'ape' developmental milestone they are not developmentally ready to meet.
The approach here,
far wiser, far more subtle,
truly holistic, far more ingenious,
far more in accord with how brain development occurs,
show ways to access the child's OWN brain plasticity,
and yields far greater results, so that the children can spontaneous grow from within."
I broke it down into pieces,
and maybe it's easier to read that way.
If so, that itself begins to illustrate the genius of the Anat Baniel Method and the Feldenkrais method:
it's about discovering the pieces to learning, not trying to
get the child to do what the child can't do.
I'll say that last part again, because I've seen PT and OT and good meaning body workers
over and over do this,
with children,
with injured adults,
with themselves.
If something doesn't work, the main goal
of the "fixers" is to
get the thing that Doesn't Work
to Work.
(Like when someone tells you: Say something funny,
and you aren't in a good mood.)
Now, with an adult, whose shoulder "used" to work,
whirling away "trying" to improve "range of motion,"
though painful and ineffective, is not necessarily harmful.
Well, actually it is harmful, but not in the massive way
this approach is to a child.
Think about it:
A child can't sit.
The developmental milestone of their age is to sit.
So someone shoves, pushes, helps, prods, pads the child into sitting.
Since the child doesn't have the pieces and the learning of pelvis and ribs and head
and back and shoulders to sit, what does it learn?
Failure.
It learns that people are trying to get it to do something
and it is going to fail over and over and over.
What is missing is not the "how to sit" program, but the brain's awareness
of all sort of small differences that make up sitting.
As Anat clarifies it in her book:
(Kids Beyond Limits)
the brain needs to/ loves to/ wants to/ is designed to
DISCOVER that
Thing One
is
different than
Thing Two.
I just finished a section in the book, describing her work with an autistic boy
who could barely speak,
and could hold toys only for brief periods
and seemed unable to finish any sentences.
She helped him distinguish Thing One
and Thing Two
of back and shoulder
and
back and head
and one finger from another
and one hand from another
his speech and his drooling and his thinking
all rapidly improved
no work on speech or drooling or thinking
but
he could and wanted to live at a more complex level.
Why:
his brain had become more clued in and excited
to be doing what a brain is meant to do:
distinguish differences.
Or better said:
Learning is distinguishing differences
that make a difference.
( If you are married, try this for a difference that makes a difference:
Thinking and saying: "Why don't you stop doing....." when there is unwanted behavior.
Vs
wondering and asking: "Is something bothering you?")
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