Understanding Child Brain Development Family Hope Center ~ Review

Until I had the opportunity to review the Understanding Child Brain Development seminar by the Family Hope Center, I had not heard of this organization.

Since I’ve been very interested in learning styles and learning challenges these past few years, it sounded like a seminar I would be very interested in!

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.

The Family Hope Center was created by Matthew and Carol Newell and the Understanding Child Brain Development is an introduction seminar to their program.

Their foundation focuses on what the child’s abilities are not just focusing on what their inabilities are. Their goal is to encourage parents that we are the best ones to work with and help our children, and teach us methods that work.

In this seminar, they share what areas of the brain control specific functions such as memory, smell, sight, etc. One thing that really surprised me was learning how so many functions and abilities go through the same core area of the brain.

They help to teach you how to identify what area of the brain your child’s inabilities are coming from and then give you some ideas on how to start helping them to develop this area.

I really can’t even begin to retell everything I’ve learned from this seminar, it is so packed full of information.

One thing that really surprised me was how the act of a child creeping and crawling when little is so important for stimulating and developing the areas of the brain that control later learning areas.

They talk about how so many children today go from a bouncer to a walker, to a swing and don’t have much opportunity to crawl.

Like so many other areas of a young child’s life as a culture, we are encouraging walkers earlier and not letting them to develop on a slower normal path.

I found myself wondering if my oldest who started to walk at 7 months old and never crawled was negatively impacted by this.

As a baby, she had lots of tummy time, but was a determined little one! When she finally figured out crawling she did that for one afternoon then figured out how to walk. A week later she was running.

I should correct myself, The Family Hope Center defines crawling as a child moving on their tummy.  Creeping is on their hands and knees.

It is by their definition creeping that our oldest skipped. She also has the strongest dyslexia and dysgraphia symptoms of all our children. I don’t know if this is one of the reasons for it, or perhaps an early symptom of it instead, as this does run in the family.

But I have found some really great ideas to help her develop these areas of her brain and one we are going to work on is her short-term memory, using their idea of rotating smells.

Some other things covered are the effects of microwaves on water. Really I had no idea that water set beside a TV for a few days would change so much! When your brain is largely made up of water, one can only wonder at the impact sitting near a TV or other screen for a long time can do to you.

Foods to eat and avoid and how to develop healthy sleeping patterns are all very interesting topics as well.

This seminar is not just for parents who have children with challenges.  It is a wonderful resource for ALL parents who would like to know how a child’s brain develops and works.