29 July 2011 - Speech Theraphy vs Brain Gym - Serdang Hospital

It was raining that morning.  We were a bit late to arrived at the hospital.
At last Iman was called in.  The therapist just showed/told us how to do few Brain gym's  (I'll google later for more infor about this) techniques to practice on Iman at home which she claimed had help her other patients speech ability.   That was it... we rushed through the rain and waited at the counter just to see the therapist like a half an hour ? ? Then the next appointment was set in December ... hhmmm ... so much help huh ?

Brain gym therapy also said can reduce autism symptoms.  No harm in trying anyway.

Example of Brain Gym Exercise:
Lazy 8

1. Begin with a piece of paper at least A4 in LANDSCAPE in front of you
2. Begin in the center of the paper, keeping your nose pointed towards the central point
3. Move the pen, pencil or your finger away from you in an upward direction (like writing a `C')
4. Move to the left - circle up and over, down and around, back up - to cross over at the mid point
5. Continue up and over to the right
6. Circle over, down and around and come back up through the mid point again on your way to circling to the left once more
7. Continue to draw 'Lazy 8's or Infinity sign' in this way for 1 minute 

Brain gym drawing Lazy 8

Some of the benefits claimed from doing Lazy 8:

• free up writers block
• think more clearly
• calm yourself down
• improve hand-eye co-ordination
• improve visual tracking
• increase attention span
• increase writing flow and speed
• balance emotions
• improve self-esteem
• improve memory 

Cross Crawl

To improve communication between one side of the body and the other (or one person and another), we can do a midline movement. 

For example, we can do a cross crawl. 

This movement is done standing, sitting or lying down by taking your left arm and crossing over the midline of your body to touch your right knee and vice versa. 

Do this for approximately one minute as slowly as possible because the more slowly we go, the more the brain is able to absorb or use the information. 

When we do this movement the hemispheres of the brain are activated and we are better able to communicate.
After doing these movements and activities, the brain is stimulated and the rest of the body is more relaxed. Through this preparatory experience, we are then able to engage in the learning that is at hand.