Emotional Overreactions
Over-reactivity can cause problems with “giving up too easily,” can have a negative impact of family and friend relationships, and eventually become a source of self-esteem issues. Sensory and motivation issues can also co-occur with reactivity problems. Many individuals feel like they are too reactive to frustration and stress, which can also be associated with anxiety or lack of joy.
Learning Disorders
Learning disabilities affect as many as 15% of otherwise able schoolchildren. While all children struggle with certain subjects, those who chronically have difficulty with academic and cognitive tasks could have a learning disability. This can manifest as difficulty mastering new concepts, communicating verbally/in writing, difficulty concentrating, or resistance/hostility towards academic activities.
Types of learning disabilities include dyslexia (difficulty with reading), dyscalculia (difficulty with math), dysgraphia (difficulty with writing), and auditory processing disorder (difficulty identifying speech sounds) among others. Without treatment, children with learning disabilities can quickly fall behind in school, which can have long-term impacts on academic and career success and self-esteem.
While causes are not well understood, research has shown abnormalities in brain regions associated with learning, memory, and sensory integration. Learning disabilities and their many symptoms are treatable, especially with early intervention. With the proper academic, social, and therapeutic support, learning disabled children can continue to succeed in all aspects of their lives.
We offer neurofeedback, which has been shown to be a significant tool for treating learning disabilities by retraining the brain to have better attention span and memory. Other benefits of neurofeedback include reducing anxiety, which a child could feel as a result of their learning disability. We also offer individual or family psychotherapy which focuses on techniques to improve communication, mood, and self-esteem.
Motivation and Problems with Executive Functioning
Motivation and self-starting are very much brain related functions. There are specific areas in our brain that allow us, when properly activated, to put forth effort to cognitive tasks (e.g., homework, tedious work, etc.) without it feeling like a lot of effort. When brain networks responsible for self-starting are too sluggish, the person will find that they cannot motivate themselves to do non-preferable tasks. Obviously, this can lead to academic struggles, family conflicts, and diminished self-esteem over time.
Sensory Processing and Social Disorders
Sensory disorders can lead to a significant problem in regulation, particularly as it pertains to comfortably “absorbing” information from the environment and being able to “filter out” that which is less important to the brain. Children with sensory issues can have emotional overreactions to stress, problems with socialization, cognitive inflexibility and difficulties with attention. Neurofeedback aimed at reducing fast frequency in the sensory processing areas can be helpful in improving sensory dysregulation.