Therapy cases | sensomoottori

This page has compiled typical therapy cases.

Reading disorder, dyslexia

There is still a strong belief in Finland that you learn to read by reading. Or that reading difficulties cannot be rehabilitated, that they are somehow a permanent condition. Another belief is that by practicing hard and listening to sounds of words, for example, you learn to read fluently. The only problem with this is that if you don't hear clearly, you won't be able to understand the sounds and words you hear. In addition, if the lines jump in your eyes or you simply don't visualize the connection between sounds and letters (phonological coding), reading is laborious and slow, and the text you read is not remembered. With hard practice, you usually learn to read little by little, but reading is slow and laborious. It is not fluent, memorable reading.

Neurophys. Rehabilitation addresses the root causes of this problem, i.e. the lines no longer jump in the eyes, the client codes the word character accurately (auditory rehabilitation) and the memory improves as reading speeds up. This method is superior in treating dyslexia.

The reading process involves several senses and their seamless cooperation. Therefore effective rehabilitation that gives the best results targets all senses involved in the reading process, i.e.

the sense of sight
the sense of hearing
the sense of balance
neural integration

A reading disability is often associated with other learning, motor skills, behavioral control and concentration challenges, the root causes of which we study and rehabilitate.

We have been rehabilitating learning, concentration and behavioral control challenges for over 25 years.

Difficulty concentrating, ADD, ADHD

Doctors classify this under different names depending on the number of challenges, i.e. ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) means attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity, or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) also includes symptoms of hyperactivity.

The ability to concentrate is said to be the first basic requirement for learning. After all, it is logical that learning new things becomes more difficult if attention is constantly lost in a teaching situation.

We have studied and treated children and adults with ADD and ADHD for over 25 years, and in our experience, the causes of concentration problems are almost always related to early development time. By following possible cause-and-effect chains, the root causes of the problem are usually found with help of assessment, after which effective rehabilitation is aimed at these root causes.

Common root causes can include:

oxygen deprivation caused by birth complications
prematurity and the resulting motor and neurological development deficiencies and delays
illness during infancy, which slows down and impairs, for example, early motor and nervous system development
sensory sensitivities
hearing and understanding challenges
motor challenges
hyperactive nature
behavioral control challenges

Traditional treatment options for ADD and ADHD include various therapeutic methods and medication.

Medication can sometimes activate a poorly structured neural network, which then calms the mind and improves attention, but at the same time it is also a signal that the neural network is poorly integrated. Weak neural integration maintains and activates an oversensitive danger-seeking process in the brain, where it is typical that the senses become sensitized, attention becomes sensitized, and the sense of touch, hearing and visual senses constantly monitor potential danger signals. Typical sensory sensitivities (sight, light sensitivity, hearing sensitivity, tactile sensitivity) usually result from this fight-or-flight state and are in a way typical but detrimental states of stress. In other words, we are now in a situation where it is difficult to focus on anything essential and then get that diagnosis.

Therapeutic treatment

Effective rehabilitation is based on neurophysiological therapy that targets the root causes. It examines the senses (hearing, vision, touch, balance) in detail and plans effective rehabilitation for all detected deficiencies. Another important therapy is to examine and activate weak or deficient neural integration that has occurred since childhood, i.e. the extensive integrating neural network of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which for some reason has been weakly activated during early childhood.

We have been rehabilitating challenges in learning, concentration and behavioral control for over 25 years.

Speech development challenges, dysphasia, language development disorder

If a child does not learn to speak according to the normal developmental pattern, speech is unclear, the child pronounces words "in their own way", sounds are missing from words, the child speaks "their" language which is difficult to understand, the child does not speak to strangers or does not speak in a coherent manner.

A doctor or speech therapist can diagnose the situation, for example, with developmental language disorder or dysphasia, which is defined as a developmental language disorder or language development disorder that widely affects functional ability, participation and interaction. It is therefore a disorder in which the child's language functioning does not develop in accordance with age and other cognitive development.

Language difficulty often manifests itself in both language production and difficulty understanding the speech of others.

Language development challenges predict learning challenges later and naturally social interaction is also difficult if speech is not produced and/or understood. Often, as the child grows up, speech output also increases, but the situation may remain difficult and stressful in many ways.

Other developmental challenges, learning and concentration difficulties are often also associated as associated symptoms.

In our experience, the following developmental and physiological factors are usually found in the background of speech output:

auditory discrimination issues, where the child does not hear all sounds accurately and correctly: hears "wrongly" and pronounces words as they hear, i.e. incorrectly
the child tenses the muscles in the mouth area regardless of will. A tense mouth then does not easily repeat words correctly
the child is affected by several involuntary tensions, which are partly mental and partly muscular tensions, causing high stress, a state of tension and muscular tension

Therapy

Traditionally, the therapy has been speech therapy, but the problem with this is that speech therapy does not address the developmental physiological background causes behind speech output. In that case, speech therapy, at least in more severe cases, may be insufficient and speech therapy may continue for years.

Neurophysiological therapy.

We have over 25 years of experience in the rehabilitation of speech production disorders. Especially in the most difficult speech production challenges, the cause is almost always found in these and other physiological aspects of the maturation of the senses and the nervous system. Therefore, speech therapy needs neurophysiological rehabilitation alongside it, which both enhances the effectiveness of speech therapy and significantly speeds up rehabilitation. In a neurophysiological assessment all senses are examined and the deficiencies observed are rehabilitated. Thanks to the therapy, the child now hears the words clearly and correctly and internal tensions usually subside and tensions on the muscles in the mouth no longer hinder speech production. Often, learning and concentration skills improve at the same time, which can have a great impact on the child's future.

Memory difficulties

Memory needs clear sensory perceptions to support it, and therefore poor sensory function naturally also impairs memory function.

If it is not a classic memory disease, e.g. Alzheimer's disease, then memory challenges are caused usually by some sensory function.

The most common sensory problem is a challenge in auditory discrimination, where a person cannot hear word patterns clearly, in which case it is natural that it also impairs memory. In hearing, the problem can be the absence of some sounds (frequencies) from the auditory register, which easily changes the form and content of the word pattern heard. When there are many vague word patterns in the continuum of words heard, the brain works very hard to find out and even guess what the speaker means. This uses up blood sugar, makes you tired and exhausted, and at the same time memory deteriorates.

Challenges in other senses can also affect memory by raising the general stress level, and several studies have indisputably shown that increased stress impairs memory. The brain has to work harder to compensate for the poor functioning of the senses, which in turn increases the level of background stress. We call this additional increase in the level of functioning neural stress. So in terms of memory rehabilitation, rehabilitation of all senses is part of the overall rehabilitation.

We have been rehabilitating memory challenges for over 25 years.

Behavioral control challenges

Behavioral control challenges can be evident at a very young age. The child may be very oppositional, may hit, swear, be restless, resist, or withdraw. Symptoms also include uncontrolled tantrums. The situation is naturally serious and this behavior significantly hinders learning new skills or social development. In school-aged children, it also exposes them to bullying at school, as deviant behavior easily attracts bullies.

The background may include internal challenges:

Weakness in the control of actions, which is often due to early developmental deficiencies
Sensory abnormalities in the areas of hearing, vision, balance, or sensory hypersensitivity
Emotional skills problems
Language difficulties
Interaction skills challenges
Fear states

External challenges:

Crisis in the family
Difficulty in structuring (chaotic environment)
Social interaction with the challenging environment
School bullying

Therapy

Traditionally, rehabilitation of challenging behavior has been more guiding and supportive.

We focus on the root causes of the problem and their rehabilitation, whereby the child's being calms down more than by itself, behavior calms down, tantrums decrease or stop completely. At the same time, learning and concentration usually also improve.

Rehabilitation begins with a broad neurophysiological assessment. For the majority of behavior control clients, the cause of the problem can be found in this assessment. Once the root causes are found, rehabilitation is focused on them.

We have over 25 years of experience in the rehabilitation of difficult behavioral challenges, where the most important part of rehabilitation is finding the root causes of the problem and rehabilitating them.

Fear and anxiety problems

A person can experience many kinds of fear and anxiety:

Fear of social situations
Feelings of worry and restlessness
Fear of being negatively evaluated or observed by other people.
Avoidance and panic-like anxiety.
Tension, shortness of breath, a feeling of tightness in the chest, a lump in the throat, palpitations, dizziness or tremors.
Symptoms and avoidance behavior naturally also impair social functioning.

The old name for this was "social phobia", the new name in the world is "social anxiety disorder".

Panic disorder involves episodes of panic. Panic attacks are accompanied by strong physical reactions that can trigger fearful thoughts, for example, of having an illness, dying or losing control.

Individual fears, or phobias, have a specific target.

Fear of social situations is associated with anxiety caused by various social situations and avoidance of these situations.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves intrusive thoughts that the person tries to control by compulsively repeating various rituals and checks.

In post-traumatic stress disorder, the person may be hypervigilant and react to traumatic memories or stimuli reminiscent of the trauma with intense anxiety.

Anxiety and substances Over the long term, excessive use of substances causes anxiety-like symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms also resemble anxiety symptoms.

Severe performance anxiety is also an anxiety-type symptom

Therapy

Anxiety disorder is traditionally treated with psychotherapy and medication.

Neurophysiological approach and therapy

A new and complementary approach can alleviate anxiety by looking for its root causes. Such can be found, for example:

Poor functioning of the senses, which increases background stress and maintains an elevated level of alertness
Mild sidetracks of early development, which maintain a constant elevated stress. One such is, for example, the fear reflex, the Moron reflex, which strongly strengthens the feeling of fear
Insufficient integration of the brain since infancy, i.e. seamless cooperation between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Effective rehabilitation is based on neurophysical therapy that targets the root causes. It examines the senses (hearing, vision, touch, balance) in detail and plans effective rehabilitation for all detected deficiencies. Another important therapy is to examine and activate weak or deficient neural integration that has occurred since childhood, i.e. the extensive integrating neural network of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which for some reason has been weakly activated during early childhood.

We have been rehabilitating learning, concentration and behavioral control challenges for over 25 years, where anxiety and phobias have very often been involved. Here we have seen how closely sensory development and early developmental challenges are also related to anxiety problems.

Get in touch using the contact form or e-mail sensomoottori@gmail.com and we will see how we can help.

Performance anxiety

It is natural to feel nervous in new situations, such as when performing. In this case, the level of alertness, heart rate and breathing rate increase and stress also seems to increase. If the performance anxiety is so severe that it clearly makes it difficult to perform, harmful high performance anxiety can be suspected, which could also be called performance phobia.

High performance anxiety is one type of anxiety. In this case, a speaker, singer, musician or even an athlete goes into a state of intense tension and anxiety in front of an audience where a usually difficult task, playing an instrument or even a sports performance should be performed. In this situation, it is difficult to get the best performance done, i.e. the situation is problematic.

Therapy and rehabilitation

Traditionally, the problem has been approached with performance practice, performance training. Medications have been tried, for example, beta blockers, which limit the increase in heart rate.

We have treated performance anxiety in musicians and athletes with neuro.phys therapy.

It examines all senses, vision, hearing, touch, balance, autonomic reactions, nervous system integration and rehabilitates the detected deficiencies. The philosophy of rehabilitation is to treat all internal factors that increase stress and strengthen the state of fear. Thanks to therapy, internal tensions usually subside and tensions in the muscles no longer hinder playing, running or other motor skills. Often, learning and concentration skills improve at the same time, which can have a positive impact on the future.

Below are some comments from clients:

A musician described how he felt before and after therapy: "It was like everyone was staring at me. They were really expecting me to fail. I couldn't make any contact with the audience. It felt like I was standing on the top of a pole, alone and naked, being judged by everyone. I could play everything, I had practiced a lot, but I couldn't make contact with the audience. After therapy, everything changed. Now that I'm no longer nervous, I really flirt with the audience, and we all enjoy it, including me. The change is huge."

A singer's comment about therapy: "My voice and tone changed so much that my singing teacher wanted to meet the therapist and ask what on earth you've done to change it so much.

A drummer's comment about therapy: After therapy, my playing improved so much that I got invited to another top band.

Get in touch using the contact form or e-mail sensomoottori@gmail.com and we'll see if we can help you

Bedwetting

Bedwetting is a common problem for many families with children. It can be nerve-wracking when you have to wash the sheets every day.

Urinary retention is an autonomic reaction and most 5-6 year olds are already so-called dry at night. If this is not happening, there may be so-called developmental reasons behind this, and these can be cured.

Traditional treatment for bedwetting is based on regularizing lifestyle habits, using a bedwetting alarm or medication. Treatment is usually started when the child is over 5 years old and the bedwetting bothers them. Medication includes a hormone preparation that reduces urine production and lifestyle advice, i.e. reducing drinking in the evening and avoiding, for example, diuretics, i.e. caffeinated drinks (coffee, tea, energy drinks) that increase fluid removal from the body, i.e. urination.

New effective treatment methodology

We have been treating the challenge of bedwetting for over 25 years and have noticed one root cause for this, namely the developmental delay in the early infantile period of 0-12 months of development that causes bedwetting. This is the period when the final development period of the nervous system from the fetus to the mature nervous system takes place. During this period, the brain still undergoes significant maturation after birth. The extensive connection networks between the cerebral hemispheres are activated and the so-called primitive reflexes of the infantile period mature and eventually subside.

However, it is not uncommon for this maturation process to be disrupted and delayed in some way, causing some of those fetal reflexes to have a detrimental effect even after the infantile period of 0-12 months. They disrupt the voluntary use of the muscles, activate and sensitize the senses and maintain a higher stress level in the nervous system.

At night, when the child is sleeping, the sphincter muscle of the bladder can then be subjected to this muscle tension disturbance and interference that weakens the automation of holding, as a result of which the pressure of the urine can let urine seep through, causing the entire bladder to then empty at once. According to our experience, this is also the root cause of bedwetting in many children.

Effective therapy

We approach the problem with neurophysiological research and therapy methods. It examines all the senses, vision, hearing, touch, balance, autonomic reactions, nervous system integration and rehabilitates the detected deficiencies. The examination lasts about 2 hours and the entire meeting about 3-4 hours. The philosophy of rehabilitation is to treat all internal factors that increase stress and examine particularly carefully those possible reflex remnants from the baby's time. Thanks to the therapy, internal tensions usually subside and possible reflex remnants from the fetal period are extinguished and the muscles are disturbed and bedwetting also ends.

Typical treatment case

12-year-old boy. The father said that life is really difficult, especially when the son plays football and the trips to other places increase. The father always had to go with him so that the son could stay with the father in a 2-person room so that the bedwetting would not come to the attention of other children on the team. The assumption was that others would easily start to tease the boy when the news of this bedwetting became public.

Neurophys. assessment found, among other things, several remnants of early development baby reflexes that had not subsided during the so-called normal baby development period. These remnants of reflexes also explained the boy's bedwetting. The parents carefully implemented the therapy program and motor skills and playing improved and, most importantly, the bedwetting stopped and the goal of the treatment was achieved.

We have been treating the challenge of bedwetting for over 25 years and have developed a unique treatment methodology for it.

If bedwetting is plaguing your family, please contact us using the contact form or e-mail sensomoottori@gmail.com and we'll see how we can help.

Stuttering

Stuttering is a speech fluency disorder. Its prevalence in the population is about 5%. Spontaneous recovery is common. Stuttering in children is usually developmental and resolves with treatment or on its own. It remains permanent in about 20-30%.

According to current understanding, there are genetic and neurological causes behind stuttering, but the environment also affects the development of speech fluency. There is strong evidence that stuttering has a genetic basis.

Developmental stuttering begins in childhood, typically between the ages of 2 and 4. It is much rarer for stuttering to begin only in adulthood, when the cause is a neurological disease or injury.

There is no single known cause of stuttering. The phenomenon is complex and the sum of many factors. Structural and functional differences have been observed in the brains of people who stutter compared to those who speak fluently. When a child's speech develops into multi-word sentences, speech fluency disorders classified as stuttering may be present. The disorder does not have to be major, but it can still accumulate into a speech difficulty. For example, if there is a small disorder in the motor skills of speech production or even in hearing one's own speech, it can lead to slurred speech.

An international study led by Professor Juho Joutsa succeeded for the first time in localizing the brain areas associated with stuttering. The identified areas are related to fine motor skills (cerebral cortex) and emotional processing (amygdala). However, there were no findings in areas directly related to speech production. This would explain the fact that stuttering does not manifest itself in a wide range of speech production problems, but there is an abnormality in the fine-tuning of speech. (https://www.terveyskirjasto.fi/dlk01411)

Own observations.

As prof. Joutsa states that stuttering is the result of both emotional reactions and the combined effect of many small factors. We have also observed that the child's auditory discrimination challenge is part of this.

Therapy

Stuttering is usually treated with speech therapy. If that is not enough, other approaches are needed.

We have been rehabilitating stuttering for over 25 years with methods where the treatment focuses on the possible underlying causes mentioned by Prof. Joutsa, i.e. auditory discrimination, i.e. the challenge of hearing one's own speech, fine motor skills and factors affecting the processing of emotions. If the core of the problem has been in them, the treatment will help.

If the stuttering is not corrected with speech therapy, please contact us using the contact form or e-mail sensomoottori@gmail.com and we will see how we can help

Motor challenges

Motor challenges refer to difficulties in learning and controlling body movements. They occur as a more serious disability in about 6% of children, but as mild ones in clearly more than this, which is observed, for example, as difficulty sitting still, abnormal pencil grip, motor insecurity, poorer performance in group sports or avoidance of exercise, etc. Motor insecurity can be due to a lack of exercise, but one of the reasons for this is a developmental coordination disorder.

The cause may be an abnormality in the development of the nervous system, hereditary factors or simply a lack of exercise.

Therapy

The client is usually referred to physiotherapy or occupational therapy. In my experience, the background to motor difficulties is quite often the incompleteness of the so-called early primitive development period of 0-12 months, which is usually not treated in physiotherapy or occupational therapy. If you go to physiotherapy or occupational therapy with your child, ask if they treat challenges with unattenuated primitive reflexes.

My own observations over 25 years are that motor challenges are usually accompanied by balance challenges and very often also by undeveloped nerve function during the early development period (0-12 months), where one key factor is unattenuated primitive reflexes. They should subside by about 12 months of age, but it is not uncommon for this not to happen. After that, they interfere with motor skills, concentration, learning ability and maintain the senses in a sensitive state, so they are quite harmful overall.

Rehabilitation is based on a precise series of assessments (balance, vision, hearing, neural integration and early reflexes research.) The rehabilitation program addresses all findings and if the program is done according to instructions, the motor challenges will usually subside.

Typical treatment case:

Boy, 9 years old, has difficulty sitting still, has a firm grip on a pencil, is constantly moving, has challenges in learning, writing, reading fluency and behavior problems as well. He is not interested in sports and according to the father, he does not want to force his son to play sports so that others will not make fun of him because of his weak motor skills.

The therapy examination revealed several remnants of primitive reflexes, a poor sense of balance, challenges in eye alignment and auditory discrimination challenges (which often causes reading difficulties).

The rehabilitation consisted of 5 meetings and a control examination over a 12-month period. As a result, the challenges in motor skills, learning and also behavior control disappeared. Grades and test results at school improved already 3-4 months after the start of rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation improved motor skills and at the same time learning disabilities improved significantly, reading speed and reading comprehension also improved. Self-esteem to also improve. Very often, after motor skills challenges are eliminated, the child himself wants to participate in sports activities, for example.

We have been rehabilitating motor skills, learning, concentration and behavioral control challenges for over 25 years.

If your family has these challenges, please contact us using the contact form or e-mail sensomoottori@gmail.com and we will see how we can help

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Sensomoottori

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