Overall I was very skeptical when beginning brain balance. Our 9 year old daughter was struggling every day in school. Crying on the way, refusing to do homework. Major aversion to learning. I did a TON of research, spoke with pediatricians (4), spoke with two principals, our school, her teachers, and had her tested at brain balance (I think it was $195) and also paid over $3000 dollars to have a two session testing done by Psychiatrist who is the person who does the testing for the Poway school district when kids fall two years behind in school. Because my daughter wasn't two years behind I had to pay (insurance doesn't cover it).
Obviously the 3k test was very comprehensive and took two weekends to complete. The diagnosis was visual processing disorder and ADD. She was given the recommendation to go to therapy and get on meds.
Visual processing disorder basically means: She can't read instructions and turn them into action, couple that with ADD and learning was a hot mess for her.
The brain balance assessment does not diagnose, but it did indicate that among other weaknesses her main deficit was visual processing. That gave me confidence that aT least their testing was accurate.
Then comes the huge sales pitch. The program was expensive, relatively new, etc etc.
After much delay, thought, education and doctors opinions and therapists appointments we signed up for half the sessions they recommended in case it was not working. I have to admit I was still very speculative but there was no harm in it, and the worst possible case was that I lost money.
I am happy to say she loved going. She's finishing her sessions next week and her scores in everything started under her age. She's now over her age group in everything except visual processing. Her grades have improved dramatically, her resistance to homework has improved dramatically and her confidence in learning has improved dramatically. We have zero crying and she never said asks to skip school anymore.
She still has a ways to go visually but we now have the exercises to strengthen them and we know to get her vision checked and use her glasses constantly.
Overall, we put our heart and soul into figuring out what was wrong and then helping her. So it's difficult to say which of the one million things we did helped us work it out, but I do think brain balance was an integral part of it, to my surprise.
And I'm happy that we found a solution for the moment that allows her to feel confident and enjoy her day more, but we didn't have to medicate her. We are keeping medication options open and watching close, but so far this is working for her and I'll hold off on meds until I feel i have no other option. read more