For Children with Special Needs
This approach supports the natural developmental process used for learning.
“ For a worldwide listing of certified NeuroMovement® professionals serving Children with Special Needs, please visit: http://www.neuroconnect.world
“As a baby lays in her crib during the first weeks of life, her brain is just beginning to figure out what to do with her sensations and how to organize movements and perceptions … The brain’s ability to perceive the distinct differences in these sensations is the source of information from which the brain performs the extraordinary process of organizing itself, the body, and making sense of the world. It is here that we find the greatest opportunity for helping the child who has special needs by facilitating her brain’s ability to perceive differences.”
Anat Baniel (2012); Kids Beyond Limits, pp. 29-30
Central to all learning is the ability to differentiate.
Anat Baniel, Ph. D. at a Conference on Autism
Anat Baniel, Ph.D talks with Mike Koenig
The Anat Baniel Method® of Neuromovement for Children with Special Needs is a result of Anat Baniels’ 35 plus years changing the lives of thousands of children who have difficulty in some aspect of their development. Her process demonstrates Moshe Feldenkrais’ idea that using movement with attention, while looking for and experiencing functional variations to existing capabilities, helps the brain make connections and supports ongoing learning. It is the key for keeping the wheel of self-development and self-learning moving forward. Some children need more support than others.
“I have observed Baniel’s little patients on multiple visits, and time after time, I have seen children whose parents were told their brain-damaged children would never walk, or talk, or be able to think well or regulate themselves, begin to do just that with this gentle technique.”
Anat Baniel, Ph.D. explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i31timz-xe0
About Brain Plasticity
“Our brain’s are subject to continuous change. Each time we acquire or refine a human ability, we physically rewire- specialize by remodeling – our brain machinery. Every new or improved ability is a direct product of this kind of physical brain change …. The child who struggles so hard just to respond, to initiate action, to understand, to move competently, and to have command in his or her world can especially make great use of their brain’s plasticity on their path to growing and evolving their capabilities in ways that contribute to a better life for them.” Michael Merzenich, PhD, neuroscientist, professor emeritus at UCSF
Bonnie Kissam has a Master’s Degree in Physical Education and Dance, and a second one in Exceptional Student Education. She became a Licensed Massage Therapist in NY State in 1980 and a Feldenkrais® Practitioner in 1983. She was fortunate in studying with Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc., in his last two years of teaching where Anat Baniel was his assistant. She completed Anat’s program for Children with Special Needs.