Traumatic Brain Injury Centers

“I don’t know what’s happening with my life.” Who hasn’t felt that way? Life moves at breakneck speed and that can lead to stress, anger and heart attacks. Is there a way out without $150 per hour therapy and $25 per pill medications? Here are some free techniques to help you de-stress and feel good at any age.

A client was having trouble getting her son to his appointment.

“My mother broke her arm and is living with me. I don’t know what’s happening with my life.” Those of us in the sandwich generation get pushed at both ends, and we have our own issues. “I need my reading glasses, but I can’t remember where I put them.” We’re having increased responsibilities to others while at the same time our physical and mental abilities are declining.

Now it doesn’t have to be as bad as it sounds. Life does not have to be a xanax moment. Some things are inherently on our side and there is more we can do to stack the deck.

Journey of the Wild Divine is one of the cutting-edge tools we use at Sparks of Genius to help our students learn to manage stress, regulate their body rhythms and heighten attention. You can try it at home for free, and train with it too if you are out of area.

The Benefits of Age

Aging is more than high cholesterol and cellulite. We can also gain wisdom and calmness from life experience. Instead of breaking all my crystal when I am angry, I can just imagine smashing it and avoid the cleanup. If I am really desperate, I can throw some ice. I can recognize my feelings and think about how to use them productively. My mind tells me the consequences of my actions because I have been at this juncture before.

When I was younger I was tossed about by my emotions. Now I have my lifelines. I remember the ring of Solomon which states, “This too will pass.” I ask myself if this will really matter in 1000 years. I go for a walk, call a friend or ask the audience. I have an arsenal of techniques keep me sane. This doesn’t mean that I’m always in control. When I get to be an enlightened being I’ll let you know. But things that would have set me off in the past have lost of their potency and I have gained some of mine.

Better Living through Technology

At Sparks of Genius we use some technological innovation to help with stress.

HeartMath® technology teaches you how to shift from a negative emotion to a positive one. When you do this, your heart rhythms automatically shift to a state of coherence, releasing a cascade of positive neural, hormonal and biochemical events.

When they are using the Harmony Sparking Station in our electronic playground, HeartMath® computer, we teach our clients learn the Quick Coherence Technique, so that they can see the changes in their heart rhythms in real time. If you want to get ahead of the game, you can practice this technique on your own.

Step 1 – Heart Focus

Focus your attention on the area around your heart.

Step 2 – Heart Breathing

Pretend you are breathing through your heart area. Breathe slowly to a count of 5 or 6.

Step 3 – Heart Feeling

Continue to breathe through your heart and find a positive feeling. You could remember an appreciation for someone, a fun activity or a time in your life when you felt at peace. Think about one of the many things that you could be grateful for. Once you have found the positive feeling, sustain it with heart focus, heart breathing and heart feeling.

Do this exercise several times a day. Make it part of yourself. You can even make it a point to practice when you are stopped for a red light. Then it can become a life line.

As soon as you feel angry, practice heart focus, heart breathing and heart feeling. Once you have those positive feelings flowing, ask yourself how you could best handle your situation. Do you need a time out or is there something that you could do or say that will help. Do you need to journal, jog or schedule an appointment with your life coach?

Remember that if we are lucky enough to stay around on this planet, we will all grow older. The gift is being able to grow wiser.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

Hi there everyone!I have spoken much about The Florida Special Needs Color Guard. Now is your opportunity to see them in action. Do not let anyone tell you that individuals with developmental disabilities are not talented, capable, special & so very unique. You will read the write-up from Winter Guard International & see an amazing video of this this fabulous color guard team. They are performing here in front of 23,000 at Winter Guard International World Championships in Dayton, Ohio at the University of Dayton Arena. This took place just 6 weeks ago, April, 2007. Here is what thousands of hours of practice, determination, perseverance and guts can produce!

Just click on:

http://wgi.org/news_detail.php?id=1013%20class

ENJOY THIS TRUE “LESSON IN HUMANITY”.

WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS.

ALL THE BEST, ELLEN

Hey there everyone!

It’s Ellen again. As I muddle through my full, often exciting and stressful days, I think of  various subjects to write about that would have a positive impact on the lives of others. These subjects are usually ones which I personally have dealt with and I feel would be of significant value to discuss with all of you.

OK….here goes! Many of you are the parents of children or young adults that have a disability such as ADD or ADHD. They are really bright and intuitive, yet their disabilities make many tasks so very tough. Many in the general population believe that in order to have “a disability” one needs to have physical or facial attributes of such. We know that is not the case. But, this is what makes their lives so tough.

I know it hurts Wes, as well, he just doesn’t show his emotions–another characteristic of Asperger’s Syndrome.

My son has Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD, as well. He is an extremely handsome, well built 26 year old young man. To look at him walking down the street one would have no notion that his Asperger’s Syndrome & ADHD make life so very difficult for him. Due to this fact, people expect “more” from him. They are not tolerant of the fact that when they drum up a conversation he cannot look you in the eye, does not understand social cues and finds it impossible to carry on a conversation without getting frustrated and ready to move on to something else, losing focus.  They wonder, “how can this be, he looks so normal, I don’t get it”. They cannot believe that he can have a disability because he “doesn’t look it”. They expect more from him and the lack of patience hurts me so very much. I know it hurts Wes, as well, he just doesn’t show his emotions–another characteristic of Asperger’s Syndrome.

A unique characteristic of AS and certain levels of autism on the spectrum, is the amazing ability to focus on one particular subject or art and truly excel in it.

Yet, also a unique characteristic of AS and certain levels of autism on the spectrum, is the amazing ability to focus on one particular subject or art and truly excel in it. Case in point, Wes reads sports statistics books daily. He is knowledgeable about just about every sport, such as, hockey, baseball, football, basketball, just to name a few. He knows information on every player, every team and if you were to carry on a conversation with him you would have no idea he has Asperger’s Syndrome (mild autism). In addition, many of the sports figures who live close by know Wes and respect him for the wonderful, kind person he is and enjoy carrying on conversations with him on his extensive knowledge of sports!

This is why we must educate society. A person can have a disability and not have to “look it”. Likewise, a person can have a disability, have physical and facial attributes of such, and society does not give that person a chance. Their IQ may be “off the charts” fabulous….but due to their “look”, the thought is “how can they achieve anything great if they have special needs.”

It is up to us to give our kids the positive reinforcement they need to continue being the creative, capable people we know they are!

I suppose you have to really get to know these people to experience what I live with on a daily basis. Not only with Wes, but with all the other exciting, phenomenal children and young adults I work with on a daily basis. How amazing, capable, talented, special and unique they are. I suppose the moral of this story would be, “Hey guys, Don’t judge a book by its cover!” Let’s take the time to advocate for our kids and teach society that they are worthwhile productive children and young adults that may very well be our future leaders. Everyone is important, they just need to be reminded of that. And, it is up to us to give our kids the positive reinforcement they need to continue being the creative, capable people we know they are!

Let’s shout it out….Let’s educate those that just don’t know what we know…..

THESE PEOPLE ARE PRODUCTIVE AND RESPECTED MEMBERS OF SOCIETY, THEY NEED TO BE GIVEN A CHANCE…..WHAT WINNERS YOU WILL SEE!

LET THOSE “SPARKS OF GENIUS” CONTINUE TO ENLIGHTEN US AS WE APPRECIATE AND MUDDLE THROUGH OUR BUSY LIVES. EVERYDAY IS A NEW EXPERIENCE, EVERYDAY IS A GIFT FROM “THE MAN UPSTAIRS.”

All the best & G—D Bless,

ELLEN

Parents, teachers and students are often afraid to interact with THEM–you know THEM: the kids with IEPs and 504s. The kid who gets extra time on tests and has to visit the nurse every day to take his meds. The other kids call her EMO and him SPAZ because he won’t sit still.

As a teacher, it can be tricky game of balance to give the challenged student everything he or she needs to be successful in the classroom without turning the student into a complete outsider. Here’s some tips to make life easier. Since you already have way too much to remember, these tips will all be about forgetting.

1. Forget labels. ADD, ADHD, Asperger’s, LD…they are a bunch of baloney. I’ll give 2-to-1 odds that any given student in your school has been misdiagnosed. Let’s be honest: the professionals in this field are likely to be compassionate, but not exactly rocket scientists. It just doesn’t pay enough!
2. Forget fair. There are two parts to this. First, only the kids who need glasses wear glasses. Nobody complains that it isn’t fair that only some kids get glasses. A learning disability of any kind is no different than needing glasses. The child with a learning disability needs corrective tools that others do not. Teachers: never deny or delay the challenged child’s accommodations because it seems unfair to the other students. It isn’t!The second part is that the teachers are supposed to be in charge of the classroom. When other students complain that they want extra time too and that it isn’t fair it is the teacher’s responsibility to lay down the law, “This is my decision and it is not up for discussion.”
3. Forget different. All students want the same things: they want to learn, and be respected, and feel a sense of accomplishment. They want to be recognized and valued as-is without having to become something worthy of appreciation. They want to have fun, live their lives and make friends.When I say all students, I mean ALL. You have a kid that isn’t interested in learning? Wrong! He IS interested, but something is getting in his way. Maybe his family life is rotten, or the only people who appreciate him are his fellow gang members and he’s dissing school to please them.
4. Forget lazy. If you’re thinking that this kid would do fine if he wasn’t so lazy, you’re on to something alright, but not the fact that he’s lazy! It is up to the professionals in a child’s life to (help him or her) figure out what the underlying causes are (of apparent laziness) and address them. That’s so important, I’m going to say it again and bigger.

It is up to the professionals in a child’s life to (help him or her) figure out what the underlying causes are (of apparent laziness) and address them.

Good luck!

Allen Dobkin

Here is just one more way that the government intentionally creates barriers for regular people.  To me, the classic example is prescription medications.  Without paying a fee of $50-$250 to a Doctor, people are denied required medications which then cost an additional $4 (thank you Wal-Mart) to $400.  To me, that is a problem–an artificial barrier to health care.

Likewise, the government played the two-step shuffle with special needs education: sure, you have the right to an appropriate education, but we will decide what is appropriate, and if you don’t agree, then you must pay thousands of dollars to an attorney to make it change.

Well not anymore!

Families who need to sue their school district for failing to deliver the education their disabled child needs are no longer required to retain an attorney to do so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/washington/22scotus.html

Commence victory dance!

-Allen Dobkin

Updated today!  You can train your brain right now for free online with our GameZone!  Explore some exciting games, most with no downloads or passwords, that will work out your:

• Spatial Intelligence
• Concentration & Focus
• Memory Skills
• Executive Planning
• Pattern Recognition
• Cause & Effect
• Musical IQ

You might learn something…and while you play, see if you can feel your brain growing new connections, also known as Neurogenesis.

Parents: This is a great place to send your kids without worrying that their brains will rot.

The ears of a fetus are fully functional at twenty weeks, but an infant’s brain takes months or years to be fully functional.
Inside the womb the fetus hears sounds like the heartbeat of its mother.

A year after they are born, children recognize and prefer music they were exposed to in the womb.

According to Dr. Livitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music, the process goes something like this:

“You wake up from a deep sleep and open your eyes. The distant regular beating at the periphery of your hearing is still there. You rub your eyes with your hands, but you can’t make out any shapes of forms. Time passes, but how long? Half and hour? One hour?

“Then you hear a different but recognizable sound—an amorphous, moving, wiggly sound with fast beating, a pounding that you can feel in your feet. The sounds start and stop without definition. Gradually building up and dying down, they weave together with no clear beginnings or endings.

“These familiar sounds are comforting, you’ve heard them before. As you listen, you have a vague notion of what will come next, and it does, even as the sounds remain remote and muddled, as though you’re listening underwater.”

A fetus also hears music. A year after they are born, children recognize and prefer music they were exposed to in the womb.

Moreover, young infants seem to prefer fast, upbeat music to slow music.

How do we know this? In one experiment, mothers repeatedly played a certain piece of music (classical, reggae, Top 40 or world beat) during the last 3 months of their pregnancy. After birth, the mothers did not play this particular music for a year. At one year, the infants listened to both the music they heard in the womb and a novel piece of music in two different speakers. They looked longer at the speaker that was playing the music they heard in the womb than the other music.
Moreover, young infants seem to prefer fast, upbeat music to slow music.

Mothers take note: the music you listen to while pregnant does impact your child. So does the music you listen to during years one and two. What happens then?

That’s another story.

Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

Why do we remember songs from our adolescence? Is it simply that our teen years tend to be emotionally charged, or is there something deeper happening in the developing brain? Do infants benefit from music? What about in the womb?

As adults, the music we identify with is the music we heard during those teen years.

I am reading a wonderful book called This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin. The author is a musical neuroscientist who discusses how we experience music and why it plays such an important role in our lives.

If you are an adult, go back in your mind to music you listened to when you were a teen-ager. Do any songs come to mind? Of course they do. As adults, the music we identify with is the music we heard during those years.

By the age of fourteen the wiring of our musical brains is approaching adult-like levels of completion .

Around the age of ten or eleven most children become interested in music, and by the age of fourteen the wiring of our musical brains is approaching adult-like levels of completion. It seems that throughout adolescence our brains are developing and forming new connections at an explosive rate but this process slows down “substantially” after our teenage years.

Why do we remember songs from our adolescence? One reason is because these were years of self-discovery and very emotionally charged. “In general, we tend to remember things that have an emotional component because our amygdala and neurotransmitters act in concert to “tag” the memories as something important.”

While adults can acquire a taste for new kinds of music at any time, most of us have formed ours by the time we are eighteen or twenty.

What kind of music are your children and grandchildren listening to in these critical years between the ages of ten and fourteen? What about all the children in the country? In the entire world?

This Is Your Brain on Music is subtitled “The Science of a Human Obsession.” Because music is such a pervasive and powerful force, current neuroscience research suggests we pay close attention to the music our children are listening to, singing, dancing to and playing.

Next time we’ll discuss “safe” and “dangerous” music as well as music in the womb and the auditory world of infants.

Dr. Rohn Kessler

This article will, hopefully, shed some light on why homework may be necessary and provide you with some tools to motivate your kids to knuckle-down and get the job done. Without threats or bribes. Eventually.

Sometimes kids, especially kids with attentional issues or a learning disability, just won’t do homework.

It’s a national issue here in the U.S. Homework is supposed to facilitate mastery of new information and skills; all too often it becomes a focal point for power struggles at home. Many teachers have given up assigning much or even any homework, secure in the knowledge that fewer than 25% (made up statistic) of their students will actually follow through. Some parents, pressed to find any quality time with their kids, also want homework loads to be reduced or eliminated.

What good is homework, anyway?

After all, if homework isn’t good for anything then we should definitely eliminate it. The good (and bad) news is that when homework is appropriately assigned, it is vital for learning and development. Here are a few benefits of appropriate homework.

1. Skill Mastery. New skills, especially in math and critical thinking, require practice to achieve mastery. There is not normally enough time during the school day for students to obtain all the practice they need. Once they “get it” in the classroom, they need independent practice to cement new learning.
2. Supplementary Skill Development. Some skills that are taught in school are vital for real life, but are not part of the official curriculum. Internet research or practicing a speech (without peer commentary) are valuable skills that aren’t always practical or possible to spend time on during the school day.
3. Self-Discipline. This is a vital skill for all students and especially for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD or ADD) or learning disabilities. Students simply must learn how to manage their time, work on their own, and accomplish lengthy, multi-step projects. Getting their homework done and on time is a great tool to practice this skill set.

Let’s make this perfectly clear: if a child does not obtain the self-discipline to complete homework consistently and on time, that child will struggle in their adult life.

Why don’t kids want to do their homework?

C’mon, are you really asking that? Some people enjoy learning and homework. Most people prefer “fun” activities. There are so many high-stimulation, low-cognitive-cost activities competing for kids’ time that homework is easily brushed aside. Television, internet, MySpace, text messaging, telephone, video games, you name it! Nobody is marketing homework. There is no California industry pushing Algebra; millions are spent pushing American Idol. You can’t expect kids, who are new to the world and susceptible to marketing influences, to make rational, adult decisions. The deck is stacked against them.

How can you get your kids to do their homework without a fight?

We have a well-behaved dog, entirely thanks to my wife. She is a wonderful dog trainer, and I’ve learned a great deal from her. For example, never use the dog’s name in a negative context. If the dog is chasing a squirrel, shout “No!” If you associate the dog’s name with being bad or punishment, then the dog won’t come when you call. Also, you have to catch the dog in the act. It does no good to punish the dog after the fact, because the dog won’t make the connection between chewing on the couch, which happened hours ago while you were at work, with your yelling and screaming now. Finally, you have to train the dog by reinforcing the behaviors you want. You can’t do it by punishing the behaviors you don’t want. So dole out cookies when the dog is laying quietly in bed instead of spankings when the dog jumps on guests. A dog training book can answer further questions.

The research shows that intrinsically motivated behaviors always win out. If your child does her homework because she expects an allowance boost, then the behavior is less lasting than if she is motivated because she feels good and proud when she gets it done.

This cracks me up because she fails to use those same skills on me. If I leave crumbs on the counter, she yells at me. But I never get a Scooby-Snack when I do remember to clean up. I get chewed out for messing something up even years after it actually happened! Ultimately, and you might want to put down your coffee before you read this, she has posted signs in various places around the house, mostly in the kitchen: Wipe Up Crumbs, Put Away Shoes, Turn Up the A/C, Shut off Lights. It may seem silly, but it works. After a month or two, they sink into the background and have to be changed.

How does this help you with your kids?

Give them a good dose of training. Forget that they “should know” or “should do it because” and just focus on training them that they will be rewarded for proper behavior, and slowly transition them away from external rewards (extrinsict motivation) to internal rewards (intrinsic motivation).

1. Establish written expectations that you negotiate with your child. If they don’t understand what is expected of them, then they are being set up for failure. If they aren’t part of the process, then they feel powerless and are more likely to reject the expectations. Example: 90% of all homework assignments will be completed on time with a C or better grade.
2. Spy On Them. You have to be a little sneaky, but your intention here is to catch them doing something right. Depending on your child, this may take a while. Peek in their room without knocking, email their teachers, install hidden cameras in the fridge, whatever it takes. Find SOMETHING that they did right, catch them RED HANDED, and IMMEDIATELY reward them and state exactly why you are proud of them. “Because you’re doing your homework for once (or for a change)” is not a compliment. Pretending to have a heart attack because your kid did something right may be funny, but it won’t train your kid to be anything more than a smarta**.
3. When they screw up…and they will screw up. We all do. It is a requirement for being human. When they do, do NOT make a big deal out of it. Don’t lecture. Don’t shame or embarrass them. If you react emotionally to them screwing up, then you are reinforcing the behavior. Don’t let it get your goat. Accept that it will take time for new behaviors to become habits. In your Step 1 Written Expectations you must have some clear consequences for “screwing up.” Dispassionately follow those guidelines.
4. Focus on Feelings. This is vital. You’ve got to help them build an internal reward system so that cookies and cell phones and allowances aren’t what motivates them. They have to–eventually–be motivated by the good feelings that “getting the job done” generates. Rewards are important in the beginning, should be less and less frequent as time goes on, and ultimately should be replaced by intrinsic motivators. You help your child create this by saying things like:

• “Doesn’t it feel good to have this out of the way?”
• “Great job getting this finished ahead of time! I’m proud of you and you should feel proud, too.”
• “Remember how stressed out you felt when you left your last report until the last minute? You’ll feel a lot better if you start tonight.”

Pretending to have a heart attack because your kid did something right may be funny, but it won’t train your kid to be anything more than a smarta**.

Of course, if you are a procrastinator who never pays his bills on time, your kids will pick up on that and copy it. Live the way you want your kids to live and they’ll pick up on that instead.

I hope this helps!

Allen Dobkin

It is common to think that attributes like attention, concentration and distractibility are innate properties of a person’s thinking, brain or personality.

WRONG!

To a significant degree, they are skills that can be strengthened like a muscle and improved through coaching and training.

Science shows us that older adults have the benefit of experience to guide cognition . However, a variety of factors can neutralize this hard-earned edge. Research shows us older adults are more prone to distraction (click for article).

Distraction, not focus is the issue (click for article). What you may not know is that attention and concentration are abilities you can train to reduce distraction.

The brain is like a muscle and we need to use it or lose it.

Daily workouts to optimize your brain will help you think more quickly and will improve memory. Many people lose ability because they are anxious that the brain they have is not good enough. At Sparks of Genius we work to find the keys to unlock your potential. Everyone is good at something. There is a genius on the inside of you.

Training your brain with Sparks of Genius programs can rebuild lost connections and increase strength.

Use the 39 point assessment tool to find out how you can be more than your limitations. http://sparksofgenius.com/screens.html

Confidence helps! Confident people are happy people. According to a study in USA today happy people live 19% longer. Say good-bye to confidence crisis and learn how to retool you destiny with specially designed programs to bring the best out in you (click for article). These programs work for people between the ages of three to one hundred.

According to a study in USA today happy people live 19% longer.

Dr Rohn Kessler is a world renowned expert in the field of educational leadership. Sparks Of Genius developed through his leadership has helped countless numbers to reach new levels in their personal lives.