Designed for home use, this manual is well organized and instructive for parents and teachers. Beginning with the four important steps for starting brain integration therapy, Mrs. Craft provides clear explanations, a glossary of terms, diagnostic checklists, step by step instructions, black and white photo illustrations, case studies, and daily lesson plans for reading, writing, spelling and math in this resource. Additionally, purchasers receive a website link and unique code to a Demonstration and Explanation Video (1 hour), the 18"x 12" Writing Eight Exercise Writing template, and email support (if needed) with Mrs. Craft.
Beginning with a clear introduction to brain integration therapy she walks you through a brief overview on struggling learners, the importance of crawling in development, and understanding the function of the brain with a focus on the role of the left and right brain. She then introduces us to the four learning gates: Visual Processing, Visual/Motor (writing), Auditory Processing, and Attention/Focusing/Behavior. Observable characteristics of the blocked gates are presented with further explanations. For example, a parent might recognize that their child who is struggling to learn to read has a blocked Visual Processing gate if the child needs to underline or point to each word as they read or reverses letters (or words) while reading. While the manual focuses on therapies to improve blocks in the first three gates, Mrs. Craft does offer detailed information on correcting a blocked Attention/Focusing/Behavior gate in her Biology of Behavior CD set with instructional booklet and supplement schedule, which is available separately. The remaining sections in the manual are dedicated to explaining a variety of exercises to improve brain integration. These include detailed explanations and step by step instructions paired with numerous black and white photos for illustration. Families will appreciate the appendices which include the daily lesson plans, informal assessments and checklists, case studies, and helpful FAQs.
The suggested schedule is divided into three areas: Brain Training Sequences designed to be done daily Monday through Thursday (15-20 minutes per day per affected learning gate); the once a week Brain Training Session (20-30 minutes) and daily lesson plans for reading, writing and math. Parents will find time spent in each subject varies but parents should anticipate 30-45 minutes daily on each subject. Depending on child's needs, the brain integration activities and daily lesson plans/strategies may replace your current curriculum. There are additional recommendations to follow the daily lessons and vary based on the child's needs. For example: additional resources from Dianne Craft, Merrill Readers, Vocabulary Cartoons, Winston Grammar and others.
All in all, this is a user-friendly guide for home use. The exercises are well explained and formatted. The background information provides the parent with a deeper understanding of children with learning glitches. Detailed diagnostic checklists, a diagnostic reading grade placement test, case studies and the optional online support from Mrs. Craft provide parents with necessary tools to best meet the needs of their unique learner. One caveat I would make is regarding the time commitment necessary to gain full benefit of the brain training. The program described will be time intensive for the parent, and the author acknowledges that a parent's willingness to devote a consistent and fairly intense effort is vital to success. If you are looking for something more specific in scope, we also offer numerous targeted resources from Mrs. Craft. DVDs and print resources may be used independently as standalone products or in tandem as they complement each other well. There is minor overlap between the Brain Integration Manual and her workshop DVDs, but there is not a great deal of redundancy and using them together provides parents with additional tools. 2020 Edition. Spiral bound with included template. 170 pgs. ~ Deanne