Anat Baniel Method

Melanie finished a 5-day intensive week of Anat Baniel Method (ABM) on February 18th.  The week started on Valentine's Day, and we traveled roughly 25 minutes north to Glendale each day for two 40-minute lessons with Pati (pronounced Patty), an ABM pracitioner.  We had about an hour and a half between lessons to rest. We went to the Brown Deer library for story time, or to a coffee shop to eat and hang out during our break. Melanie was tired at the end of each day because it was nap time, but she did not show signs of fatigue! But one hour-and-a-half morning at school wipes her out. This is pretty significant.

This body work is hard to describe, but this website should explain it better than I could. http://www.anatbanielmethod.com/  Essentially, this method recognizes the incredible plasticity of the brain and the ability to "teach" it to learn through movement. This won't teach her brain or body things it doesn't know, but it will help her access what is already there, as well as help her brain to learn more effectively. Pati discovered on the first day that there is a large portion of Melanie's back that is very rigid. Somewhere along the way, as Melanie was developing and learning to move, with the ataxia she suffers from Dravet and from the meds, her brain decided "I wobble and fall down a lot when I move like that, so I'll stiffen my back to stay upright." But that stiffness gets in the way of all her movements. It hinders her body-brain communication, and she's not really "feeling" her legs, feet, etc.  Pati is helping her to feel her body more, and we have already seen some small improvements. By the way, this should- and already has done- benefit her speech and mood. It's like a release of her abilities. Below are the posts I put up in our Dravet support group:

Anat Baniel Method is WORKING! Melanie is moving with more purpose and fewer wobbles and tremors. Wednesday was the big "learning switch" for her. I saw it in the bathtub last night. Organized, precise movements-- with BOTH hands. Other people might not notice, but I about fell off my stool when I saw how she was playing in the tub. And her legs are moving more softly. I saw her walking today- even in her shoes- with a bit of a roll step, instead of stomps. After just 4 days....

Here are the basic/main concepts we've gleaned from it: Instead of traditional therapies, which impose goals onto the kid and push them perhaps beyond what they're ready for, this starts from within the kid and what they/their body can do. I remember our teacher saying, "If I try to move her leg over here, but she doesn't like that, I don't push. I move it over here and work back to that place. Those slow movements create new pathways to get to that new place." (Something like that.) Basically, this involves lots of gentle touching and slow movements: teaching the brain to function and learn through movement. She keeps talking about the "learning switch," which I have actually *seen* happen in these lessons. When Melanie quiets down and you can actually see her listen to her body and maybe move in a new way.

 She is using her left hand more-- very often her LH sits in her lap while her RH works b/c she needs stability and it's what's comfortable. Today, coming home from her last lesson, she stepped down a step with her left foot: she never does that. Stepping down is very precarious for her and she almost always goes right first. She's already saying and attempting more words. I've seen her back and neck curl in a way I've never seen before. I see a small roll step most of the time when she walks now. These are all still small changes- probably too small for friends to really notice- but they're there.