There are many different conditions and diagnoses that can create special challenges and every child is different. One thing is common to all children, and that is their need for their brains to differentiate, integrate, and form well-organized patterns of movement, thought, feeling, and emotion.

ABM® focuses on the child’s brain and its remarkable abilities to change and learn. Rather than focusing on the developmental milestones that they are not ready to do yet – which only grooves in their limitations – ABM® lessons meet the child where they are at in their development, and help them build skills from there.

The greatest potential for transformation, is not in trying to make children do what they can’t, but in finding ways to help each child’s brain differentiate and spontaneously discover how to go beyond his or her limitations.
It is of utmost importance to understand that the neuro-physiological processes in the brain of the typically developing child which lead to successful learning and growth are the exact same neuro-physiological processes that need to occur, and can occur, in the brain of the child with special needs.

How Do We Work?

We use very gentle movements, making sure the child is comfortable and paying attention to what she or he feels. Such movements with attention, along with the other eight Essentials, flood the brain with new information it needs in order to create solutions that transcend the child’s current limitations.

Every child’s future depends on learning. The brain shapes and structures itself constantly in response to its experiences. We want these experiences to provide the child ‘s brain with lots of new information that is positive and useful.

Rather than drilling the child in a repetitious way, the Nine Essentials provide the brain with information it requires to organize new skills. Once the child has mastered a new skill, he or she will practice it spontaneously, just as all children do.

Anat Baniel Method® Practitioners work with children of all ages, from a few days old to teenagers. The brain is built to be plastic; that is, changeable, at all ages. At the same time, the younger the child, or the sooner the intervention after a trauma, the better.