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Integrating Thinking
Integrating Thinking
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ENHANCING
LEARNING AND POTENTIAL
slide1
ENHANCING
LEARNING AND POTENTIAL

Welcome to Integrating Thinking

At Integrating Thinking, we look for underlying reasons why our clients experience functional and learning difficulties.  We also teach others how to look for these issues.

Integrating Thinking is a Neuro-Developmental Education organisation driven by a desire to help families, children and adults who experience difficulties in learning, work and social situations.  We know that if the body doesn’t help and support learning, it can interfere with learning.

At Integrating Thinking we use, promote, and teach non-invasive techniques (including the INPP method) to assess and address developmental immaturity that can limit the learning process and cause difficulties in sport & social situations. Often this immaturity of our body systems presents as part of more complex diagnoses and difficulties. 

We help by assessing and addressing underlying developmental neuro-motor & sensory maturity and often, the results help our clients read more easily, learn more effectively and function more efficiently. 

What does Neuro-Motor and Sensory Immaturity look like?

As a parent, you may have noticed your child has difficulty performing tasks that should be quite easy, even though he/she may be quite bright and intelligent.  Their teacher, or group leader, may suggest that: “They could do better.”  “They are not meeting their potential.” He/she may be fidgeting regularly, daydreaming, not paying attention or listening. They may be described as:  “easily distracted”, “Not trying hard enough”, “Can’t sit still.” They may be anxious and reluctant to try anything new.  They may “tick the boxes” to have further behavioural and functional investigations to identify what is causing their challenges and difficulties in school, at home or in social situations.

As an adult, you may have learned to cope and develop strategies to avoid situations requiring reading and writing.  You may have developed other skills to counteract difficulties with inattention, co-ordination and balance. But, at the end of the day, you feel exhausted because you’ve been working so hard at an unconscious level to ‘stay in control’.

As a practitioner or teacher you see your clients and students aren’t quite meeting their potential because there seems to be something missing.  They can’t sustain attention. Learning is excessively hard and even their balance and co-ordination may seem to be affected. You want to help address that challenge.

This video explains a bit about the impact of neuro-motor and sensory immaturity on learning and function:

Neuro-motor immaturity symptoms

Neuro-motor immaturity symptoms include:

  • Attention and concentration problems
  • Co-ordination problems
  • Difficulty in Physical Education, learning to swim or bike riding
  • Difficulty telling the time
  • Inability to sit still or remain silent
  • Mixed laterality
  • Poor eye-hand coordination
  • Maths problems
  • Speech and articulation problems
  • Reading problems
  • Writing problems

Services

Training:

Body to Brain Learning Professional Development Series:

In the Body to Brain Learning Professional Development Series, Dr Christine Payard (PhD) provides professional learning opportunities for teachers, early childhood educators, health and allied health care providers, parents and community groups. 

  • Educators:  Professional Learning connecting the Australian Curriculum to proven school-based movement activities that help develop and consolidate foundations for learning. Aligned to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, these courses can be used for self-identified PD.
  • “How the Body Tells a Learning Story” is a short programme discussing the background of how the body tells us about how our students learn.  Closely aligned to AITSL #1:  “Know your students and how they learn,” (and other standards), this professional learning provides teachers with a lens with which to observe a student’s body language of learning and how the body can impact their learning.  Participants are given a checklist and explanation to support their understanding of the observations they make about how their students learn and how the body supports or interferes with learning.  Q & A sessions provide the opportunity to explore observations from the educators teaching context.  This course is usually offered once a semester.
  • “My Body Learns First @ School” is a professional learning opportunity aligned to AITSL standards and is available in Queensland, NSW and Victoria in mixed-mode (on-line and face to face, with additional mentoring offered on-site). Contact us for more details .
  • Vision Therapists:  Professional Learning for Vision Therapists outlining the role of NMI in Vision Therapy.  How to identify, screen for and work with clients who demonstrate neuro-motor and sensory immaturity.  “Reflexes Learning & Vision Therapy” includes on-line and face-to-face delivery with practical activities and theoretical background on the role of primitive reflexes in learning and behaviour associated with VT work.

Other Body to Brain Learning Professional Development Series presentations and information sessions for schools, parent groups and professional bodies include these topics: 

    • “Learning with the Body in Mind” Tips for parents and caregivers in the early years.
    • Neuro-Motor Immaturity, Sensory Development and Learning.

INPP®: 

Integrating Thinking is the official training organisation for the INPP® method in Australia providing:-

  • Post-graduate training for INPP® practitioners who want to practice the INPP® method.
  • Training for teachers in the INPP® School Programme: assess and enhance neuro-motor readiness for learning.
  • INPP® Training for Health Care Practitioners: Screening for Neuro-Motor Immaturity.  This course is ideal for: Behavioral Optometrists, Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Psychologists, GP’s and others interested in the INPP method.

 

Consultations and Intervention:

Integrating Thinking provides one-to-one consultations and intervention programmes in which we: 

  • identify and address underlying problems of neuro-motor & sensory immaturity using the INPP® method.
  • provide clinical assessments of children and adults using standardised neurological tests and listening audiometry assessments.
  • use drug free and non-invasive programmes to match the individual’s neuro-developmental profile to support learning.
  • recommend and provide access to Listening Programmes to support and help address auditory processing difficulties in children.

Integrating Thinking can help address:

  • Retained primitive reflexes and under-developed postural reflexes
  • Reading and writing difficulties
  • Dyslexia (reading difficulties)
  • Dysgraphia (writing problems)
  • Co-ordination difficulties
  • Concentration problems
  • Auditory processing difficulties
  • Visual Processing difficulties
  • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
  • Educational underachievement (eg. consistently being told “you can do better”)
  • Dyspraxia (clumsiness and awkwardness of movement)

These services are available in Cairns for a limited number of clients.

Information & Presentations:

Dr Christine Payard (PhD), Director and Founder of Integrating Thinking, is available to speak: at conferences, meetings, podcasts, radio or media programmes to discuss the importance of the body to brain connections in learning as well as services provided by INPP in Australia.

Integrating Thinking also provides consultancy services to educational institutions and health care professionals regarding neurophysiological aspects of learning and neuro-motor and sensory maturity.


 

Integrating Thinking