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Feedback
Dear Jill,
I would
like to contribute a letter in support of your Train Your Brain
program.
Would you please add it to your Website so that other parents can
hear first hand,
just
howmuch you have done for us.
Thanks are
not enough,
Regards,
Gayle
Train
Your Brain helped Aurelian
I am constantly
amazed by the difference in my son, Aurelian, over several months
of attending Train Your
Brain with Jill Ansell-Douglas. His behaviour, attitude, academic
ability and personal achievements have sky rocketed.
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In
2007 Aurelian had 49 days off school because he felt sick or had asthma.
He barely ate and looked pale and
thin; never crossing the 30Kg line although he was of average height
for a 10 year old. He wore size 7 trousers
with an extra 4 inches sewn on the bottom.
Aurelian wanted to dance but soon tired with asthma and exhaustion.
His teacher worried that he didn’t eat,
even so far as to mention her concern over anorexia. I tried to impress
upon him the importance of personal
care such as getting up, dressing and eating but he just lazed about
at the XBox or The Sims.
Aurelian was so scared of going to bed that he would be over tired.
This added to an ongoing bed-wetting
problem. He had fears of the dark and of monsters to such a degree
that he wouldn’t so much as go down the
hallway on his own. He needed a parent in his room with the lights
on before he could sleep.
The enuresis clinic offered suggestions to help. He was to drink more
water and they eventually installed a
buzzer to wake him in the night.
Our G.P. suggested that it could be dairy intolerance causing allergy
and sickly gut, but I stressed about getting
anything in to him at all. Aurelian was hooked on chocolate drinks,
coffee and cheese sandwiches as well as the
other junk foods such as chippies and sausages.
As 2007 went on, things got worse. He was getting a sore stomach before
going to school but was better in the
weekends. He said he tasted blood and his back ached when pushed to
do the cross-country run. He became
bored with everything, even the table tennis that he had previously
enjoyed.
Because of the time away from school Aurelian was behind in class
and couldn’t catch up when he returned. He
would try listening for a few minutes but soon turned to gazing out
the window. The constant spinning of his
hands was very annoying to others but also made it impossible to hold
a pen long enough to write. He found the
whole school curriculum boring except for art time.
In the playground Aurelian felt left out, bullied and alone.
Finally, near the end of the year, I decided that for the sake of
his health, I would take Aurelian out of mainstream
school.
At first Aurelian just played about with his pet, on the trampoline,
or the XBox. It was very difficult to engage him
in school work for even 10 minutes. His mind was all over the place.
Then over the summer we met Jill.
Jill Ansell-Douglas explained to us how she could test Aurelian with
a T.O.V.A. test and give exercises and
biofeedback to train him to become more focused, relaxed and attentive
toward tasks.
At first my husband and I had a meeting with her to answer question
sheets about Aurelian, his behaviour and
learning ability. Our questions were: Why does he not learn Maths
and Spelling at school? Is he ADD? Why is
he still bedwetting? We agreed to give Train Your Brain a try.
Aurelian sat a test designed to test his Attention and Focus. He had
to press a button each time a square
appeared on the computer screen for a full 20 minutes. Aurelian had
to really struggle to maintain the
concentration and was physically exhausted afterwards. He scored normally
for a child of normal intelligence,
however; if, as Jill suspected from what we told her, he is actually
very intelligent with a high IQ, then this was a
score bordering ADD.
Jill constructed a program consisting of cross-over brain gym type
exercises to be done 3 times a day and
appointments with her to train Aurelian using biofeedback, 3 times
a week. He wears a simple head set with
conductive pads soaked in salt water, which don’t faze the boy
at all. Aurelian understood the importance of the
program but still has to be reminded every time he is to do his exercises.
I find that doing them with him helps.
By the end of the first month Jill had Aurelian do 5 minutes of the
program and he achieved a best of 24
seconds Focus and Alertness. Then we all did his cross-over exercises
for 3mins followed by deep belly
breathing. Another 5mins of the program gave an amazing result of
a full 60secs focus. It was an incredible
moment. That night Aurelian went to bed at 9:15pm and was asleep by
9:40pm The earliest ever I think! Since
then there have been other huge leaps, such as the jump to 7minutes!
After 5 weeks – 15 sessions- Jill tested Aurelian again with
the T.O.V.A. and he had increased 95% in his
Attention and Focus abilities.
Unexpected things started to change. Aurelian gave up all stimulating
drinks and sugars. He voluntarily had me
hide the XBox controllers, only bringing them out in holidays to play
with other children. He cooks himself a late
breakfast and eats normal dinners. His hands have stopped spinning
and he is really focused on his dancing.
He is sleeping more peacefully; going to bed alone with just a small
night light.
I asked Aurelian how he felt now. His response says it all:
“I have increased immensely. I am now not blinded. I can think.
I feel calmer. It used to feel like boring school.
My mind was annoyed. Everything was agitated, uncalm. Now it’s
just nice and free.
Jill’s machine just feels good. It gets tiring because you have
to use your mind and stuff, but it’s good because
your mind feels clear after.
My maths is better. It makes more sense. You can see it and do it
better because you can concentrate. I’m now
a faster reader. My mind works faster and I see better. And my hearing
has improved ‘cause I used to be quite
blocked in the ears. Someone would talk and I wouldn’t hear
them at all. Also when someone talks to me now I
don’t just shut off. I can hear the whole conversation for about
10 minutes instead of just 3 minutes and then I’m
gone.”
As you can imagine, there have been positive spin-offs for the whole
family. Meal times are more pleasurable,
we have conversations, we can associate with other families and enjoy
having children over to play. Until
recently, my husband and I had never had quiet time together at night.
Now, instead of the string of little battles
that made us all feel weary, frustrated and angry, we have a sense
of achieving and are starting to look toward
the future.
Every part of Aurelian’s life has been improved by the Train
Your Brain program. He will sit at a maths or
English workbook for ½ hour without interruption, recently
competing in the UNSW Schools competition at year
6 level. He worked for days on poetry and drawings for the Studio
2 children’s competition and is at present
working on a written project to accompany his British Theatre and
Dance Association National exam.
I recommend whole-heartedly to all parents to look into Train Your
Brain for their children. The whole family are
grateful to Jill, and her program which is helping Aurelian develop
into a bright, responsive young man, a
pleasure to be around.
Gayle Child-de Brocas |
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