Birth, Bonding and Attachment: The Book Part I

I have been grappling with a book on sensory-motor-reflex interactions for years. As with all writing projects, the structure and emphasis is key. So after many false starts, I think I have found the right approach. The direction will center on difficult births and the connection between them and reflex issues that can result in bonding, attachment and other psychological issues. As I teach the Birth, Bonding and Attachment course and work with clients, the more I come to appreciate the foundations set by typical reflex development. Having myself been breech born and delivered by forceps (sorry, Mom), I have a first person experience with many of the subtle and not so subtle effects of traumatic birth. Look forward to snippets as the year goes on and please feel free to comment in any way.

New Year: New Connections

The mission of this blog is to exchange and pass on knowledge about the importance of sensory-motor-reflex interactons in life and learning.

The Bodhi Tree of Sensory-Motor

I spent most of the weekend working on a new interaction chart for sensory-motor interactions. After a few tries I came up with something that reminded me of a banyan tree. After a little more research, I learned that the banyan tree is a direct relative of the Bodhi Tree where Buddha found enlightenment. Accident? I think not.

I hope to add the picture soon. I like the model, because it adds memory types and social and verbal processing to a higher degree than HANDLE®'s Spaghetti chart, as well as the body senses.

Parietal Lobe and Language

In my work in Spatial Cognition and Language, I have used many different developmental timeline of body-space, verbal and nonverbal language and very early reflexive patterns of what I call push energy to study how language develops.

The concept of the need for "push" and "reach" reflexive patterns that are later integrated with voluntary push and reach motion was corroborated by Japanese scientists, Ishbashi Tidetoshi and Iriki Atsushi in the study The role of the parietal lobe in monkey tool-use published in the journal Advances in Neurological Sciences in 2004. In a nutshell, this study showed that when monkeys intentionally used rakes to reach food out of their grasps, the area of the brain used was the same as the area used by humans to speak.

So when you "grasp" an idea, you need to grasp and reach with that rattle first.

Mourning the Passing of Judith Bluestone, Founder of The Handle Institute International

On February 18th, 2009, two days after sharing a plane ride back to the U.S. from HANDLE's World Wide Affiliate Gathering in the U.K., my mentor and friend, Judith Bluestone released her body and merged with the energy that is life. I say this because one of her favorite sayings was, "We are energetic beings in an energetic world." Her healing gift and haliographic mind was a treasure and inspiration to us all. She will be sadly missed.

Big Eight Reflex Patterning Class-Brighton, U.K.

On February 10th, 11th and 12th, I had great joy in sharing the holistic approach to working with the basic Big Eight Primary and Facial Reflex Patterns in England. The class was well attended at Pilgrim Hall near Lewes, Sussex. I also worked with 4 students as clients as well, with many positive results. A manual, Powerpoint DVD and the first GOMO and Handwriting DVD were made available.

After the class was the HANDLE World Wide Affiliate Gathering, with presentations by Judith Bluestone, the founder of The HANDLE Institute International and Ros Blackburn, a 40 year old woman who has lived with Autism Spectrum Disorder her entire life. I got to eat dinner with Ros and was able to ask her questions about her and other's issues with auditory processing. I ask questions about all my hypotheses on Spatial Cognition and Language. All the answers followed my predictions.

As my MN Autism Society presentation draws near, I will be posting more on Spatial Cognition and Language.