Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired Outreach Programs www.tsbvi.edu | 512-454-8631 | 1100 W. 45th St.| Austin, TX 78756

2018 Texas Focus: On the Move! NeuroMovement®: Transcending our vision of what is possible for the visually impaired child Friday, March 2, 2018 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Presented by

Anat Baniel, Founder of Anat Baniel Method© and

Author of Kids Beyond Limits

info@anatbanielmethod.com

Developed for

Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired

Outreach Programs

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 1

NeuroMovement®: Transcending Our Vision of What is Possible for the Visually Impaired Child

Anat Baniel, Author of Kids Beyond Limits

and Founder of the Anat Baniel Method

Slide 2:

Slide 3: NeuroMovement®: Transcending Our Vision of What is Possible for the Visually Impaired Child

Slide 4: The Power of Movement and Brain Plasticity to Drive Learning and Change and Open New Possibilities

Slide 5: The first 75 minutes of this presentation will be mostly lecture then, after a 15 minute break, there will be 90 minutes in a workshop format to experience and learn ways to implement the principles presented in the lecture

Slide 6: Some of what we will present you may know and already apply, some of it will be novel; The role of movement, neuroplasticity and the 9 Essentials, and their application is what we are here to offer

Slide 7: What is NeuroMovement®? • NeuroMovement® is a systematic approach to communicating with the brain through its

primordial language – movement– that awakens the remarkable capacity of the brain to create new connections and new possibilities

• Upgrading the QUALITY of the functioning of the brain itself transforms the field of possibilities, going beyond what would otherwise be available

Slide 8: What is NeuroMovement®? • The brain’s initial formation of capabilities, and its initial grasp of cause and effect, come

through processing the sensations and experiences resulting from movement

• NeuroMovement® is implemented in “brain-friendly” ways, i.e., harmonious with conditions that drive positive brain change; and it is applicable throughout the life course

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 2

Slide 9: The Nine Essentials

Figure 1 Image of the brain which rests under the nine essentials listed below.

1. Movement with Attention 2. Slow 3. Variation 4. Subtlety 5. Enthusiasm 6. Flexible Goals 7. The Learning Switch 8. Imagination and Dreams 9. Awareness

Slide 10: We have a brain for one reason and one reason only -- that’s to produce adaptable and complex movements. Movement is the only way we have of affecting the world around us… I believe that to understand movement is to understand the whole brain. And therefore it’s important to remember when you are studying memory, cognition, sensory processing, they’re there for a reason, and that reason is action. Daniel Wolpert, Neuroscientist

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 3

Slide 11:

Figure 2 Photograph of Albert Einstein

Nothing Happens Until Something Moves Albert Einstein

Figure 3 Photograph of Moshe Feldenkrais

Movement is Life, Without Movement Life is Unthinkable

Moshe Feldenkrais

Slide 12: Movement is the language of the brain

Anat Baniel

Slide 13: Let’s experience a NeuroMovement® lesson:

Slide 14: TML #1 Your Toes are not so Far Away

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 4

Slide 15: Do the movements: • Gently – no stretching or forcing

• Slowly

• Go only as far as comfortable and avoid pain

• Pay attention to what you feel as you move

Slide 16: What just happened? Slide 17: The way your brain organizes your movement has changed –

Your brain has changed.

Slide 18: Let’s watch the brain of a child with severe visual impairment brain change through NeuroMovement®

Slide 19: Video of Carter

• 6 years old

• Diagnosis – Cerebral Palsy

• Legally Blind

Slide 20: Video Slide 21: Not all children will become seeing ones, however, those who do see some will probably improve through the NeuroMovement® principles

Slide 22: The brain can change, what is called neuroplasticity, throughout life

Slide 23: Change for what purpose?

Slide 24: To answer that we need to ask; “What is the ‘job’ of the brain?”

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 5

Slide 25: The “job” of the brain is to put order into the disorder, to make sense of the nonsense

Slide 26: The brain is an information system

Slide 27: The mechanical model Video of baby playing with blocks

Versus an information model Video of dancer

Slide 28: What is the source of information?

Slide 29: Stimulation?

Slide 30: Stimulation is a necessary but not sufficient condition

Slide 31: Information = the perception of a difference (signal to noise ratio)

Slide 32: This is where enormous opportunity lies for the child with visual impairment

Slide 33: Information = the perception of a difference (signal to noise ratio)

Slide 34: If a difference is not perceived it does not exist - there is no new information

Slide 35: Perception of differences leads to differentiation, ie, creation of new connections which open the opportunity for integration of new patterns

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 6

Slide 36: The Underlying Process of Learning • Discrimination

• Differentiation

• Integration

Slide 37:

Figure 4 A large, blue, rectangle with a very small rectangle on top and centered. A medium size rectangle touches the top left corners of both the large and small rectangle forming a white triangle between the three shapes.

Slide 38:

Figure 5 Six blue rectangles of various sizes are scattered randomly.

Slide 39:

Figure 6 Many random blue shapes of varying small sizes are scattered with no discernable pattern.

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 7

Slide 40:

Figure 7 A number of small blue squares and rectangles of different sizes form an abstract image something like a bird.

Slide 41:

Figure 8 More small blue squares and rectangles form an abstract image of a duck.

Slide 42:

Figure 9 A less abstract image of a duck made from the blue squares and rectangles.

Slide 43:

Figure 10 A blue solid shape of a duck.

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 8

Slide 44: Let’s look at this process again Slide 45: Discrimination

Figure 11 A large, blue, rectangle with a very small rectangle on top and centered. A medium size rectangle touches the top left corners of both the large and small rectangle forming a white triangle between the three shapes.

Slide 46: Initial Differentiation

Figure 12 Six blue rectangles of various sizes are scattered randomly.

Slide 47: More Differentiation

Figure 13 Many random blue shapes of varying small sizes are scattered with no discernable pattern.

Slide 48: Even More Differentiation

Figure 14 A number of small blue squares and rectangles of different sizes form an abstract image something like a bird.

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 9

Slide 49: Beginnings of Spontaneous Integration

Figure 15 More small blue squares and rectangles form an abstract image of a duck.

Slide 50: Further Integration of Increasing Differentiation

Figure 16 A less abstract image of a duck made from the blue squares and rectangles.

Slide 51: Grooving in of New Skill

Figure 17 A blue solid shape of a duck.

Slide 52: Same Elements (Neural Networks) Can be Used for Another Skill

Figure 18 A number of blue squares forming an abstract image of a cat.

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 10

Slide 53: Reshowing of Video of Carter • 6 years old

• Diagnosis – Cerebral Palsy

• Legally Blind

Slide 54: Video Slide 55: Discrimination and Differentiation seem to be the “orphans” of the process in many of the clinical and theoretical frame works

Slide 56: The focus is frequently on the final desired outcome, which is the integration phase

Slide 57: The question is: The integration of what?

Slide 58: We can only integrate elements into new neural networks (skills) with the current achieved level of differentiation

Slide 59: Before there can be differentiation there needs to be perception of differences

Slide 60: Demonstration of the power of perception of differences

Slide 61: Video of Spencer 5 years old on the Autism Spectrum, still wearing diapers as wets his pants

Slide 62: Video

Slide 63: Spencer was fully potty trained from this time on

Slide 64: Each of the 9 Essentials wakes up the brain and potentiates it to perceive differences better and faster

Slide 65: In other words the Essentials are powerful drivers for positive brain change and learning

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 11

Slide 66: The brain of the child with visual impairment works the same way that any other brain works

Slide 67: The Essentials can be used to help the brain of the child with visual impairment overcome the real challenges that their condition creates in the motor, cognitive and interpersonal levels

Slide 68: The Nine Essentials

Figure 19 Image of the brain.

1. Movement with Attention 2. Slow 3. Variation 4. Subtlety 5. Enthusiasm 6. Flexible Goals 7. The Learning Switch 8. Imagination and Dreams 9. Awareness

Slide 69: Over many years of working with adults and children with transformational outcomes that were not supposed to happen, I kept asking myself:

“What is happening in the brain?”

“What about what I do works?”

The 9 essentials are the eventual answer

They now are validated by brain plasticity research.

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 12

Slide 70: “Scientists have defined the “rules” governing brain plasticity. Anat Baniel, working in parallel along a completely different path, has defined almost exactly the same rules and interprets them in practical and understandable human terms as the Nine Essentials that should contribute richly to clinical intervention.” Michael Merzenich, PhD, Neuroscientist, Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Winner of 2016 Kavli Prize

Side 71: Movement with Attention

Figure 20 Photograph of a adults doing floor exercises on mats.

Slide 72:

Figure 21 Photograph of Albert Einstein

Nothing Happens Until Something Moves Albert Einstein

Figure 22 Photograph of Moshe Feldenkrais

Movement Is Life, Without Movement Life Is Unthinkable

Moshe Feldenkrais

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 13

Slide 73: Movement is the language of the brain

Anat Baniel

Slide 74: Professor Daniel Wolpert

Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience

Cambridge University

Slide 75: Video

Slide 76:

Figure 23 Graphic drawing of the brain

1,800,000 New Connections Per Second

Figure 24 Drawing of a neuron

Slide 77: • Quincey – 2 years old

• Pitt-Hopkins syndrome

• Genetic disorder

• Developmental delays, seizures

• Quincey moves but cannot sit unsupported without falling

Slide 78: Quincey – 2 years old Video

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 14

Slide 79: After this lesson she was more stable, using her back better sitting taller and with better balance

Side 80:

Figure 25 Photograph of a turtle

Slow

Slide 81: Fast we can only do what we already know

Slide 82:

Figure 26 A large soap bubble floats down to an outstretched hand.

Subtlety

Slide 83: Reduction of effort, force, and intensity increases sensitivity and ability to perceive differences

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 15

Slide 85: Variation

Figure 27 Photograph of two men in a market stall that is filled with many different rugs.

Slide 85: • Video of Lucas D

• 4 years old

• Diagnosis – Cerebral Palsy with Cortical Visual Impairment

Slide 86: Video

Slide 87: Enthusiasm

Figure 29 Photograph of Albert Einstein riding a bicycle.

Figure 28 A colorful quilt made up of many faces constructed from different fabrics.

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 16

Slide 88: Flexible Goals

Figure 30 A toddler balances on his side with a leg extended into the air.

Slide 89: The Learning Switch

Figure 31 A photograph of a lightbulb.

Slide 90: Imagination

Figure 32 Drawing of a space shuttle launch.

Slide 91: Awareness

Figure 33 Image of Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 17

Slide 92: Two brains become one

Slide 93: Going with the system

Slide 94: From FIXING to CONNECTING Slide 95:

• Quincey – 2 years old

• Pitt-Hopkins syndrome

• Genetic disorder

• Developmental delays, seizures

• Quincey moves but cannot sit unsupported without falling

Slide 96: Quincey – 2 years old

Slide 97: After this lesson she was more stable, using her back better sitting taller and with better balance

Slide 98: In the workshop section of this presentation we are going to be looking into ways to apply NeuroMovement® and the 9 Essentials to a number of typical challenges for the visually impaired child

Slide 99: What is NeuroMovement®? • NeuroMovement® is a systematic approach to communicating with the brain through its

primordial language – movement– that awakens the remarkable capacity of the brain to create new connections and new possibilities

• Upgrading the QUALITY of the functioning of the brain itself transforms the field of possibilities, going beyond what would otherwise be available

Slide 100: What is NeuroMovement®? • The brain’s initial formation of capabilities, and its initial grasp of cause and effect, come

through processing the sensations and experiences resulting from movement

• NeuroMovement® is implemented in “brain-friendly” ways, i.e., harmonious with conditions that drive positive brain change; and it is applicable throughout the life course

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 18

Slide 101: The Nine Essentials

Figure 34 Image of the brain

1. Movement with Attention 2. Slow 3. Variation 4. Subtlety 5. Enthusiasm 6. Flexible Goals 7. The Learning Switch 8. Imagination and Dreams 9. Awareness

Slide 102:

Figure 35 Photograph of Albert Einstein

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.”

-Albert Einstein

Slide 103: Expect miracles!

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 19

Slide 104: Join us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/anat-baniel-method

LIKE us on Facebook to connect with others & receive special offers:

www.facebook.com/anatbanielmethod

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/anatbaniel

Slide 105: View free videos: www.youtube.com/abmethod

Share your feedback on our blog: www.anatbanielmethod.com/blog

Slide 106:

Figure 36 The cover of Kids Beyond Limits

Slide 107: Move into Life: The Nine Essentials for Lifelong Vitality

Slide 108: www.anatbanielmethod.com

info@anatbanielmethod.com

415 – 472- 6622

2018 Texas Focus – NeuroMovement – Baniel, A. and Sharp, N. Page 20

Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired

Outreach Programs

Figure 37 TSBVI logo

Figure 38 IDEAs that Work logo and US Dept. of Education OSEP disclaimer