NeuroNet Online

NeuroNet Baby Steps Workshop

The Baby Steps workshop focuses on NeuroNet as it relates to early childhood development. Participants review developmental milestones in hearing, balance, and communication, and learn to use the Baby Steps Program to help children reach these milestones. Participants learn to implement methods for improving neurological organization, including exercises in daily living for children ages birth to two, and a structured exercise program for children ages 3-5. All Baby Steps exercises are designed to help children improve attention, memory, and problem-solving, and to prepare them to become independent learners.

Who should attend?

The Baby Steps workshop is for early childhood specialists, audiologists, occupational and physical therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists, and optometrists.

The Baby Steps covers four sections

• Neuroscience of NeuroNet:
• A) how the organization of brain function affects attention, memory and learning
• B) concepts of attention, memory, and learning that help children become independent learners
• C) recent research supporting the NeuroNet model of learning
• Developmental milestones in balance, hearing, and communication
• Strategies for Behavior Management
• NeuroNet Baby Steps Program
• A) NeuroNet exercises for children from birth to 2
• B) NeuroNet exercises for chidren from 3-5

After this workshop you will be able to

• implement the Baby Steps Program
• use the Developmental Milestones checklists to document and measure progress
• help parents use behavior management strategies for helping their children become independent learners

About NeuroNet

The NeuroNet Program is founded on recent advances in neuroscience research. According to Nancy Rowe, founder of NeuroNet, there are three major principles of neuroscience that make the NeuroNet program work: neural synchrony, synaptic strengthening, and temporal binding. Neural synchrony is the basis of attention, and through exercises which coordinate information among different brain centers at the same moment in time, we can improve neural synchrony in the brain. From a behavioral standpoint, the improvement in neural synchrony leads to an improvement in attention. Synaptic strengthening is the neural basis of memory. Repetition of exercises to a beat (rhythmic integration) allows students to "anticipate" listening, speaking and writing tasks. This anticipation leads to synaptic strengthening and improves memory. "Anything you can anticipate, you can remember," says Rowe. Finally, the convergence of improved neural synchrony (attention) and synaptic strengthening (memory) leads to an improvement in temporal binding. Temporal binding describes the strength of the neural networks we use for decision making in life. According to Rowe, "The way we improve how we learn is to speed up how fast we can access what we already know." Today, NeuroNet is helping educators and allied health professionals make learning easier for their students in many parts of the world.

How does NeuroNet relate to performance in school and in life skills?

The reason we do NeuroNet is not to improve in the NeuroNet exercises, but to improve our ability to learn and perform in life. NeuroNet improves the integration of auditory, visual and motor skills that are the neurological foundation for the academic skills that we use everyday of our lives. Reading requires that we decode visual letters into sounds. Taking notes in class requires that we manage auditory processing (listening and remembering the important words the teacher says) and motor skills (jotting down those notes) fast enough so we don't lose track of the overall message the teacher is presenting. Basic reading, writing, and counting skills can affect children's ability to learn harder skills - for better or worse - as they climb the academic ladder. A child who automates handwriting will be able to focus on listening and comprehending; conversely, a child who struggles to form written letters will forget how to spell words and will lose track of what the teacher is saying. For children who do NeuroNet, we expect to see an improvement in their ability to learn new skills (such as taking effective notes in class) that are not directly addressed by the NeuroNet exercises themselves.

The predominant goals of NeuroNet are to:

• apply the advances in neuroscience research to help children improve in attention, memory, and learning
• help children automate low-level perceptual motor skills so they can focus on higher-level language comprehension and problem solving
• improve children's quality of life as a result of making learning easier

Who can benefit from NeuroNet?

Professionals from different backgrounds often come to NeuroNet from different perspectives and with different needs for helping children learn. Teachers will typically be using NeuroNet in their classrooms with younger children who are learning to read, write, and do math. We expect that teachers who are integrating NeuroNet into their curricula will begin the Integrated Rhythms and Tools for Learning Programs in kindergarten and will finish by the end of 3rd grade. Allied health professionals will typically be using NeuroNet with children at a wider range of ages, but who have demonstrated weaknesses in attention, reading, motor skills, or speech and language skills.

Workshop Schedule

NeuroNet workshops are scheduled as demand dictates. Most workshops last for 2 and 1/2 days, beginning Thursday morning and ending Saturday at noon. A typical day begins with coffee and fruit at 8:30AM, workshop sessions begin at 9:00AM and end around 4:30PM. If you are interested in being notified about future workshops please click here and let us know. Additionally, if you are interested in becoming a workshop sponsor, please click here and let us know.

Workshop Fees

The cost of attending a NeuroNet workshop is set by the workshop sponsor, and varies by workshop location and materials included with the workshop. The cost of the NeuroNet Baby Steps workshop is typically $500.00, with a 10% discount for early registration.

Licensing & CEUs

Attending the Baby Steps workshop grants you an individual license to use the NeuroNet Baby Steps Program with your own therapy clients, or in your own classroom. Workshop participants will receive a Certificate of Completion for 1.6 CEUs from the American Academy of Audiology.