Thursday, May 20, 2010

ABM

I knew I shouldn't have put that into writing. The seizures are back - she's had 3 so far today and its only 9:30am. I'm home with Meredith for the morning and Greg will be home with her in the afternoon while I go to work for a few hours. She's doing ok, but pretty groggy and sleepy. The only thing that was different this time is about 30 seconds prior to the seizure, she screamed out of the blue. It was literally like she had seen a ghost. Very strange. I have read about people having what they call an "aura" before they have a seizure. Its like the bodies way of telling you you are going to have a seizure. Some people hear a certain sound (like ringing in the ears), or have muscle contractions, or smell a certain smell, heart racing - all kinds of strange things. I wondered if that's what she experienced? Meanwhile, we have been researching some new things. I stumbled across the work of a woman named Anat Baniel that I'm blown away by. She developed a rogue method of physical therapy called, not surprisingly, The Anat Baniel Method (ABM). It's her own take on an approach called Feldenkrais. For most children, the brain signals the body to move and lots of this developmental progress happens spontaneously. For many special needs children, this is not the case. ABM explores how special needs children need to be taught differently. The jist of ABM is you use the body to teach the brain instead of the other way around. The therapy involves lots of movement, quick movements, that help the brain form new "connections." There are lots of videos online and I'm intrigued. There are not many practicioners in MA that teach it, but I found a few and have placed a few calls just to get info. Now how to convince Greg that we need more therapy in our lives, haha : )

3 comments:

  1. No such thing as too much therapy if there is any chance it could help Meredith! (Spoken like the grandmother I am.)

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  2. Thinking of you and Meredith! And, I'm anxious to hear how ABM therapy is for you -- I've also read about it, but haven't found a practitioner! (Sammie B's mommy!)

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  3. (((hugs))) on the seizures, thinking of you and Meredith. Ryan has done ABM and i feel it helps get him over the plateaus he experiences with regular therapy. Give it some time though.

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