Pyramid of Potential

 

 

Sensory Development and Learning

 

 

 

new logo
March 4, 2015

 

Hey Folks!


 

In the past two months, I reviewed with you 6 primitive reflexes and how they relate to learning. In March and April we will look at an overview of sensory processing (this newsletter) and in the next several newsletters, we will look deeper into some of those specific senses. Read on to learn more about types of learners, the IEP, Sensory Integration, what it is, and how to develop it.

 

The new sale of the month will be our product Primitive Reflexes; Foundations for Learning. Click here to find out more.

 

This is the final month to sign up for our Brain Advancement Coach training. The last day to sign up will be March 27th. If you are interested please head over to our website brainadvancementteam.com for more information. We will be hosting a live webinar with more information and to give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. This webinar will be held on March 19th. In order to attend, follow these instructions;

 

Brain Advancement Coaching Information Webinar
Thu, Mar 19, 7:00 PM EDT

Hope to see you there!

 

Carol Brown of Equipping Minds is having a conference in April that I will be speaking at, along with several others. More information at http://equippingminds.com/events/equipping-minds-conference-april-8-10-danville-ky/.

 

If you have already tried our primitive reflex exercises, I would love to hear your story. Please send me an email with your story and with your consent we will publish them on our testimonial page of our website. If you would like to hear what people have said, take a look at the page yourself. 

www.pyramidofpotential.com/testimonials
 

Thank you so much! Kathy


Sensory Development and Learning

 

The Most Important Senses

If I were to ask you which two senses are the most important for learning in school (or beyond) you would say vision and hearing. Although many of us are kinesthetic learners, teachers use lectures, books, and worksheets more than projects, as they are the most efficient for teaching most of the students. As their job is to teach as much as they can to as many people as they can, they will use the most efficient methods. As they should.

 

The IEP

When a child is in special education, they receive an IEP (Individualized Education Plan or Program) requiring the teachers to help the student learn in a way that is more tailored to their needs, through the addition of any needed services and/or accommodations. It is the hope that with this IEP, the student will be able to be more successful and learn the required information for the grade, allowing the student to move on to the next grade secure with being successful.

 

The IEP should include accommodations so that the student can learn all of the information required to pass that grade, using the methods that work best for the student. For example, if a student has an a diagnosed auditory processing disorder, the teacher needs to provide for more visual aids for teaching this student.

 

I once worked with an 11 year old who had a deficiency in her receptive and expressive language. Added to that, she also had a deficit in her problem solving skills. Put this together, and in plain English it means that she could not understand instructions, whether they were given in writing or out loud. Her best way to learn was by doing - the kinesthetic learning. However, this is very time consuming, and she was about to go into Middle School, where she will not have the convenience of time. She would be left behind.

 

In the next few weeks, I will go into her story more in depth as we explore Auditory Processing. By the way, her story has a great ending so be sure to read all about it!

 

The auditory sense is just one of the senses we need, however, to be successful in school and life. We will explore the visual sense once we are done with auditory, but for now let's review some of the other senses.

 

Sensory Integration Disorder

A person who has a sensory integration disorder may be hypersensitive (overly sensitive) to some senses, and hyposensitive (under-sensitive) to others. Hypersensitive to hearing means that they hear better than others - can hear people talking in the next room and loud noises hurt - whereas hyposensitive to sound means that they can hear, but may not process the differences between sound that are similar - short vowel, m/n, elephant/telephone.

 

Hypersensitive to vision may mean that they have ADD in a visually stimulating room, like a first grade classroom, causing them to be unable to focus on their work. Hyposensitive could be the reason they complete the math problems around the edges of the worksheet yet miss some of the middle ones.

 

Hypersensitive to taste is the picky eater, yet hypo is the one who will eat anything, and really prefers lots of salt or spice.

 

Hypersensitive to smell is the one who smells everything (craving it) like lotions, perfumes, shampoo, markers. The hyposensitive person puts on too much deodorant or perfume, thinking that is smells just right.

 

People who are hypersensitive to touch dislike scratchy tight clothing, seams in the socks, or tags in the shirt. Those who are hyposensitive wind their hair around their fingers, rub or scratch themselves, and love to be touched.

 

There are two other lesser-known senses. The sense of balance is called the vestibular sense, and it develops throughout the first year of life as the baby is progressing through the primitive reflexes. If we do not have a good sense of balance, we need to constantly find our center of gravity, and may fall out of our chair without meaning to. We love swinging and going fast in order to find our balance.

 

The proprioceptive sense is the ability to understand our body in the world through the information we receive through our muscles and joints. If we have a poor proprioceptive sense, we need to get that information, so we feel better by wearing tight clothes and shoes, jumping up and down in our seat, and cracking our knuckles and neck.

 

If many of our senses are off, we feel "off", so we do things that help us feel better. When we feel off, we cannot pay attention in class or in life, until we get our sensory needs taken care of.

 

Where do sensory integration issues come from?

 They never developed. People who have this didn't become like this at age 9. They never had the ability to sense the world in a moderate fashion.

 

How can we develop sensory integration?

By going back to the first year of life and developing our senses as they should have been in the first place. We do this by replicating the stages of development from that year. We integrate our primitive reflexes. It only takes minutes a day doing simple exercises.

 

You can learn much more about this from the Primitive Reflexes: Foundation for Learning DVD. On it is a webinar that spans over 7 hours, giving background, research, testing, integrating, and additional exercises. The videos are added in by video producer, so that they are of high quality. It is on sale for 20% off until March 31, and more information can be found at http://www.pyramidofpotential.com/primitive-reflexes/.

 

Next week I will go more deeply into auditory process and the primitive reflexes. Have a great week!!

 

 

Tell Me Your Story

I am collecting stories about the effectiveness of primitive reflex integration, no matter what the process is or what method was used. Will you help? Please provide the following in your own words and in story form. Please keep it to about 2 paragraphs.

  • Diagnosis or issue
  • Changes found
  • Methodology
  • What reflexes were integrated
  • Other therapies that were used concurrently
  • Minimally their initials and location (state or country)

 

I will be putting these together in a free ebook organized by issue, so that people all over the world will have hope for themselves or loved ones. By sharing this everywhere, more people will get help. This is not to promote Pyramid of Potential, but instead to promote primitive reflexes. I want to collect hundreds!!

 

Thank you so much! Kathy

 

Contact Us
Kathy Johnson, MS Ed

Bob Johnson

Pyramid of Potential
245 Washington St #3369
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
518-260-3937

Take a Look!
Sale of the Month

Get Primitive Reflexes: Foundations for Learning with a huge savings of 20%

This 7 hour webinar course includes history, research, and videos on how to test and integrate 6 primitive reflexes that are truly the foundation for learning, Moro, Palmar, Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex, Spinal Galant, Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex and Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex. If you are interested in obtaining CEUs for taking this course, please contact Kathy Johnson at [email protected].
Offer Expires 3/31/2015. 
The best Moro reflex integration exercise
Kathy Johnson of Pyramid of Potential shows the correct way to do the Starfish exercise and why it works so quickly for 90 % of people.
Kathy Johnson of Pyramid of Potential shows the correct way to do the Starfish exercise and why it works so quickly for 90 % of people.
Upcoming Presentations

March 10, 2015

6:30 to 8:30pm

63 Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Kathy Johnson of Pyramid of Potential

Presents

Improving Memory For All Ages:

Putting the Research into Practice

No matter what caused the memory problem - age, learning disability, ADHD, traumatic brain injury, stroke, or even if you don't know the exact cause, neuroplasticity of the brain means that the brain can change and that memory can improve.

Please come and spend the evening learning how to overcome brain issues. For the past 13 years, Ms. Johnson has been helping people of all ages and issues using the latest in brain research. She will take you through a few examples of how this is done, as well as show you case studies from her own experience and from a school that has implemented these procedures.

 

Coming up:

 

ADHD: Overcoming It Without Drugs 

April 14, 6:30 - 8:45

Presented through the SIMEN network

Saratoga Public Library, Saratoga Springs, NY

 

Stroke and TBI: What to do beyond Insurance-covered Rehab 

May 21, 6:30 - 8:30

63 Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

 

Improving Reading When Reading Methods Don't Work Well Enough 

June 18, 6:30 - 8:30

63 Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

 

Improving Handwriting and Composition Abilities
 

August 20. 6:30 - 8:30

63 Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

 

Improving Math and Word Problems When the Methods Don't Work Well Enough
 

September 17, 6:30 - 8:30

63 Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866


Where's Kathy?

It is now time to set up your professional development at your school - Kathy is available for many dates this Fall! Call now to secure YOUR date!

 

Below are the upcoming workshops that Kathy Johnson is giving. If she is not coming to your area, why not hire her for your next professional development?

 

Kathy Johnson is speaking at the following conferences. More information can be found at https://www.njcd.org/specialedconference/

and 

   

  Kathy Johnson Photo 2010


Monday, March 23, 2015 in SPOKANE, WA 
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99
** Early Registration Prices Available Until 3/3/2015 **

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 in RENTON, WA 
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99
** Early Registration Prices Available Until 3/4/2015 **

Wednesday, March 25, 2015 in LYNNWOOD, WA 
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99
** Early Registration Prices Available Until 3/5/2015 **


WEdnesday, April 22, 2015 in TULSA, OK
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99 

Thursday, April 23, 2015 in OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99 

Friday, April 24, 2015 in DALLAS, TX
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99 

 

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 in FORT LEE, NJ 
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99 

Thursday, May 14, 2015 in PARSIPPANY, NJ
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99 

Friday, May 15, 2015 in SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ 
Speaker: KATHY JOHNSON, MS ED
Early Registration: $189.99 

 

If you aren't near any of these on-site professional development conferences, consider the following:

 

Dyslexia, Dyscalculia & Dysgraphia: An Integrated Approach   Price: $169.99  Author: Kathy Johnson, MS Ed.  Format: DVD