Is your child neurodevelopmentally mature enough for school?
Is your child neurodevelopmentally mature enough for school? This was the question that Sarah Warley, a neuroscientist and founder of the Key Clinic, posed in a fascinating talk hosted by the Dukes Club. As parents, we spend a lot of time and energy choosing the right school for our children, but do we consider how this choice is being received and processed by the child? Warley, a highly engaging and informed speaker, discussed her own experience of finding the right schools for her children. As a mother of four, she relayed how struck she was by the huge increase in children being recognised with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Determined to discover evidence-based solutions to help children overcome these difficulties, Warley studied childhood development and neuroscience.
Her work now focuses on identifying and eliminating the root causes of learning and behavioural issues to help children achieve their full potential. During the talk, Warley spoke about her theory surrounding ‘primitive reflexes’ in children, the development of a series of specific, repetitive movements which in combination with sensory stimulation prime the brain for learning during the first year of life. If some of these reflexes are ‘retained’ as a child grows, they can create ‘blocks’ in the nervous system, often resulting in common learning and behaviour difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and the misdiagnosis of ADHD.
Warley’s methods of managing such SEN issues is to move away from labels, to prevent, assess and take action to reverse these blocks in both children and adults through simple, drug-free neurodevelopmental exercises programmes. Warley is a highly articulate, persuasive speaker and her talk was a fascinating insight into taking a different approach to a child with neurodiverse issues.
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