13. The Nine Essentials

Working with children with special needs is not about making them normal. When you respond to the child and see them as perfect and whole – as they are – only then will you have the opportunity to access change, because you are working with the child, and you are aligning with their innate capacity to grow.

Anat Baniel has nine essential steps that she uses when approaching brain plasticity, and they are very effective. They sometimes go a little against the ‘scientific’ understanding of brain plasticity, but they actually command a greater awareness of how the brain and the body interact. She works on the basis that the brain is a quantum system and that it delights in doing its job organizing the body, so she finds the best pathway through this with each child she works with.

Her success rate with all sorts of childhood challenges is extraordinary. This is a brief look at her work. For a more comprehensive understanding of the approach see Kids Beyond Limits (Baniel 2012).

Now, we all naturally know how to do these things. We do them with hobbies, with things that we love to do. Implicitly we employ these techniques; we just don’t necessarily always think to employ them with children with autism.

Here are her nine steps in a nutshell.

1. Movement with attention

When we bring attention to what we feel as we move, the brain immediately starts building billions of new neurological connections that usher in changes, learning and transformation.

Anat Baniel

Autists can be quite random with their attention, so we need to learn to direct their attention to themselves and, in particular, direct their awareness to their body and their feeling self. We are bringing them back into their body. To do this we can pay attention to all sorts of movements. Autists are noticeably unaware of themselves physically, so all sorts of occasions can be a way of awakening and making connections.

Anat Baniel says that bringing awareness to everyday activities, bringing awareness to the body, makes all sorts of new connections that were not there before. By noticing, commenting on and making reference to things as they are done, you are strengthening the communication highways in the brain. You are helping the autist to start making distinctions, perceiving differences and learning to feel. You are helping them to locate in the body.

Get the autist to notice the feeling of the hot water as it is coming out of the tap, or notice the shape their hand makes while it is holding something. Which foot do you put in your trousers first? Can you do it differently? Putting your feet on different surfaces – which ones do you like? Why? Picking up marbles with your toes and putting them in a cup; drawing letters on your arm or your back.

All of these things bring awareness and allow the brain to forge a greater body connection and to develop a more complete internal image. The autist can then begin to comfortably allow the flow of information to take place, in all sorts of occasions, effortlessly.

Do not be surprised

if all manner of things change for the better

when your autist begins to awaken.

2. The learning switch

Attention has to be ‘on’ for learning to take place. The person has to want to learn, and they have to be in the right space for it – it has to be meaningful for them. Otherwise no matter what you do, they will not truly take it into themselves. The child has to want to learn, they have to be open. An open mind is a plastic one, it is ready for change. We cannot force the brain to make new connections, it has to want to, otherwise it will just make strong connections with ‘No!’

In the science of neuroplasticity, they say that you need repetition to learn a new skill. But this doesn’t always work. Anat Baniel says that repetition can be like brushing the tongue hard with a toothbrush. It’s too much, it puts you off and it actually puts you out of a learning state. She says that repetition, especially with a sensitive person, is death to new learning. Repetition works to groove in what is already there, but to learn something new you have to do something different from what you already know.

Learning is tricky. Unless the skill is already in place, unless the underlying mechanism is in place, repetition can become too harsh and the child can switch off. For example, you can motion a baby’s arms and legs to teach them to crawl, but until the brain has worked out how to move the arms and legs just so, the baby cannot really do this efficiently. When the brain has wired itself correctly, crawling becomes effortless. The baby just knows what to do.

Forced learning inhibits the learning brain. It takes some time and some space for the brain to recognize something new. When it does, then it can begin to organize movement. Once this movement is in motion, then repetition can become a part of the process of learning.

As the brain is able to organize action more effectively and with greater ease, the child experiences comfort, anxiety diminishes and the world begins to make sense. The child is able to initiate effective action without prompting or repetitive drilling.

Anat Baniel

Repetition is generally mechanistic, boring and heavy-handed. The brain gets turned off and it does not learn. We are playing with a gentle symphony here, not big drums, horns and symbols. We can work up to the big stuff once the little stuff is nicely integrated. Then the big stuff is easy. Familiarity is the way. With familiarity, almost by osmosis, information gets integrated.

The brain is clever and it is quantum. It works much more quickly than we give it credit for. What we need to do is to get out of the mechanistic thinking about the brain and into a quantum brain state. The brain is a wonderful complex, self-organizing, dynamic system that can figure things out for itself – given the right conditions.

If we want the child to be receptive to new thoughts and experiences, we have to promote this receptivity. One way is to be genuinely inquisitive yourself. If you are, your child is more likely to be too. Another way is to find things that are of interest to the child and incorporate learning that way. It is about them opening to the new and, ultimately, they have to be comfortable taking it into their body, because all learning is through the body. It has to feel good, and for the autist this is paramount. So many things do not feel comfortable for the autist, though, as with meta-plasticity, the autist can get better and better at noticing being uncomfortable and working with it.

Familiarity is the key. When you become familiar with something, you know it implicitly. We know how to become familiar with something; we get next to it, we explore it, we ‘feel’ it. It is not about taming, or training. It is about engaging the brain’s natural ability to learn. When you engage the learning brain, change can be extremely rapid.

If your child is tired or cranky, it may not be the best time to ask them to be in a learning zone, but you can make distinctions about this. Ask them if they want to stop. Ask them if they have had enough. Let them bring attention to their experience and let them have the power to choose. This enables greater and greater levels of awareness, empowerment and learning. In this way all times are learning times. They are learning to make distinctions. You are learning to make distinctions.

Just don’t overdo it and try too hard – they can see straight through you! You need to be as honestly inquisitive as you want them to be. The more that you can become genuinely inquisitive, the more they will – they learn by osmosis, by familiarity, by being around you.

Learn to unlearn your tendency to impose order.

3. Subtlety

Be delicate. The brain can perceive the tiniest distinctions and does not need to be hammered. The nervous system needs to be able gently to make sense of stimulation – you don’t want to bombard it.

Again, think of your tongue. It can perceive all sorts of distinctions of taste and feel, but if you get a brush to it, there’s not a lot going on in your brain except revulsion; it’s too much. We need subtlety to discern distinctions. This is especially true for autists, as they are easily overstimulated and will shut down.

If we concentrate on the ‘effort’, if we make a big deal of it, we are not letting the brain quietly get to work. Your brain actually works much better by being given a small piece of information and then being left alone to integrate it. All manner of thinking and learning is actually done while we are not trying. The brain generally does a whole lot of thinking and sorting while we are off doing something else.

Autists are notoriously smart – they can perceive what you want to achieve quickly and they can master things quickly (if you are subtle enough that you do not affront their sensitivities). Half an eyebrow raise, or half a sentence, sometimes is enough to disclose a lot of information. Let the brain work the rest out, let the brain search for the answer a bit. Let the brain engage – if it is handed on a plate, or stuffed down the throat, the brain will switch off.

Your nervous system is like a bird –

you can’t force it to sing,

you have to inspire it.

If you bring the right conditions to a person,

they will transform,

re-invent and heal right before your very eyes.

4. Variation

If we did not perceive differences, we would not be able to think or do anything new. The more we can differentiate, get the brain to ‘see’ the pattern, the difference, the more the brain is able to integrate it and absorb the learning.

This is a skill that the autist needs to learn. The autist can have difficulty perceiving distinctions. They work with what they know and this means that they have limited choice when assessing or responding to a situation. Getting them to perceive distinctions can allow the brain to make new connections and they can begin to see and perceive other possibilities. We can teach this at a very quiet level – as a skill. This skill can then be transferred to other areas of learning. In brain plasticity this is called ‘transference’.

Mix things up so the autist gains the ability to perceive differences. Create conditions where there are ample opportunities to perceive differences. If the brain can keep doing this at a higher and higher level, you will see drastic changes. Just make sure that the approach is subtle and gentle. The brain can perceive the most delicate of distinctions, but they need to be clear. The more you learn how to do this, the better you get. The clearer you are with your own distinctions, the easier it will be for your child.

The child needs to feel and perceive the differences themselves, so getting them to learn this through their body is very useful. Thinking up ways to get them to notice distinctions in feeling the difference between things will drive this new ability. Get them to experience the difference between a soft rug and a piece of paper with their feet; try distinguishing between pulling on the big toe versus the little…what does it feel like?

Discuss in minute detail the subtleties of one vanilla ice cream versus another, or the difference between one lollipop and another. Get heaps of lollipops, notice which colours are different, look at all the variation in the shapes they make. Make it fun noticing the differences; focus on the feelings and information that the brain is getting. If you can create a space for noticing differences, you can create a new space in the mind.

Autists often have very little awareness of the impact of their actions. It may seem counter-intuitive, but if your autist is being physical and yelling, then instead of matching it, cowering, or doing whatever you normally do, try changing the tone of your voice or reducing the emotional force – they may start listening and behaving, just out of curiosity if nothing else.

Their brain, just like anyone else’s, loves to notice distinctions. Play with it. If they are shouting, name that, without judgement. Tell them it is really loud and that they are ‘doing loud’ really well, and then ask them if they can shout louder. Then ask them if they can make it even louder. Then ask them if they can shout at a ‘normal’ level (less than louder). Just by doing this you are giving them distinctions and making it easy for them to be successful in getting quieter. They then may find it easier to go more softly.

The social engagement system links the face to the heart,

this is why the autist is so hard to read.

If you are having trouble discerning

what your child is feeling, find ways to learn to read them.

Ask them to draw it for you, ask them to tell you,

make a chart with different colours

representing different emotions

and get them to tick which one is them.

Make coloured ‘emotion’ stickers

that they can stick on their shirt.

Make up stuff, get creative.

Get them to help think of things,

get them to turn their awareness to the distinctions of emotions,

inventively.

5. Imagination

In order to grow we have to have a vision of what is possible. So daydreaming, beginning to see possibilities – however small – opens up channels of communication for the brain. Literally, physically, the brain begins to open up to more.

While we are daydreaming, a wide variety of regions in the brain light up – those associated with impulse control, judgment, language, memory, motor function, problem solving, socialization, spontaneity and the processing of sensory information.

Anat Baniel

Daydreaming allows the brain the freedom and flexibility to ‘move around’ what it already knows, to go beyond what it has already acquired and invent new possibilities. The brain comes to life with daydreaming; and play, not repetition or instructive learning, is vital for learning, because it opens this space.

The brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and a dream – so find ways to help the child gently engage with their dreams! What would you love to do…? What is the most beautiful thing you can imagine…? Imagine if you could… Imagine if we went this way…did it this way… Opening up the possibility for change, however small, begins a new train of thought and encourages new neural pathways.

This is not always easy for the autist, so take it slowly. Keep it simple. Don’t jump on it. Curiosity is good. What if…? What do you think would happen if…? Start to talk about the world, the people in it. Start to visualize smiling, interacting gracefully. Listen to self-help ‘I can’ kind of audios, listen to soothing music. Teach the body to relax and the mind to open.

Stay off computers for long intervals –

research is showing that computers and

computer games bring the body to a state of FFI.

We go into switched off and high stress,

whether we perceive it or not.

You cannot learn well in this state,

and it is not conducive to the imagination.

Computers are a fact of modern life,

we don’t need to eradicate them;

we just need to be aware of their limitations.

6. Go slow

Autists need to go slowly to feel safe. Their system seeks survival and safety. Their system will work against change; it is uneasy with new things. So we need to go slowly. We need to learn that change is good. We need to slowly integrate change, so that it is safe to change. We need to make change the habit; we need to encourage the person’s ability to change.

Anat Baniel says that when learning goes from being a conscious action to an unconscious one, it turns into integrated action. Your brain is structured to work as a whole. It likes to work fast and it has to work fast to get everything done without conscious awareness – otherwise everything would take too long.

The brain gains speed when it has incorporated its learning. Without going slowly, it is hard to learn. The brain needs to observe the pieces of the puzzle and then let it make sense. A little bit here, a little bit there, a little more skill in the right direction. Then a little more, a little more, and suddenly it all comes together.

When we think fast, we can only do what we already know. Going slowly gets the brain’s attention and stimulates the formulation of new neural patterns. It also gets us out of automatic mode in our movements, speech, thought and social interactions and allows awareness of where we are at.

If you slow down, you also get the child to differentiate between how they are doing something and the outcome. They can begin to perceive how they might do it better. Also, we all learn by osmosis, so watch how you approach something…and see how you can do it differently – and they will follow.

And remember, it is easy to forget that the things that are easy for you are not easy for the autist. For them, the basic building blocks often are not there. What is effortless for you is not effortless for them – yet.

7. Flexible goals

Back off from performance outcomes. You need to trust the process. If you overdo it with autists, if you push, if you yank and control the outcome, you will lose them. Like a bird, if you try to control them, they will fly away. If it is too much, they will switch off and no learning will take place. It has to be easy. New things can’t be too hard; all they do then is concentrate on it being hard, then they focus on failure.

Keep the focus open. Autists are very good at knowing what they can’t do and are generally very self-negative; they have learnt not to expect much. The goal, as such, is to diminish the hardwired ‘I can’t’, the ‘No!’, and replace it with ‘Yes!’

This is ‘neuro-pruning’. It is a good gardening term. You can prune neurons as easily as you can build them. You lessen your view on the negative and focus on what is good. In brain plasticity, the motto is ‘what thrives survives’. Make it fun, make it a pleasure – we all grow well with our parasympathetic system in play.

Anat Baniel says, ‘We will know when we get there!’ It is about playing with ideas; it is not about concrete, rational goals. The goals are to awaken and develop, to plant and grow the brain garden. The play aspect is vital, it has to be fun and it is why you have to be ‘just going somewhere’, not anywhere in particular. You are making a new garden, a new, stronger system; you cannot have an outcome curriculum for that. The more organic you make it the better. Any sense of failure, any getting it wrong – for carer or for child – just takes you out of the learning space. So when you find yourself here, be especially kind to yourself and take a break. Rome was not built in a day. No pressure.

With brain plasticity, there are things going on under the surface that for a while you can’t see. We can think that nothing is happening. It is important here to remember to look at distinctions, perceiving tiny distinctions. Watch the change happening, not the end goal. Tiny seeds are being planted and watered and they can seem to go slowly…until one day you look and you have a totally new person standing in front of you!

In a quantum system there are no such things as small changes…once there has been a shift, once the brain starts learning, it can learn exponentially.

Anat Baniel

8. Enthusiasm

Subtle changes on the outside can make huge changes inside, in the brain’s wiring. If we are patient, all of a sudden these imperceptible changes can magically roll together to become real change – so much so that you can almost forget that the child could not do this or that a few months ago. Their new behaviour has become natural to them and to you.

But to start with, you need to take quiet delight in the small changes. The child picks this up and feels reassured and encouraged. Enthusiasm is great! Kids need lots of encouragement and joy, just make it gentle.

We are growing something new, something more intelligent than was there before. When we watch for the green shoots of new growth, they don’t necessarily look big, but it is important to notice them and rejoice, because they do signify big things to come.

Make it about the process not the outcome; keep a lot of it to yourself. An autist is a flighty bird, they do not need boisterous affirmation. They are subtle enough that they will read the quietest ‘yes’. Take profound, quiet pleasure…

A skill is only the byproduct of higher and higher levels of complexity – start where you start and keep noticing the complexity, not the goal.

Anat Baniel

If you need to, write notes.

Take a baseline of things they can do,

small things, things they can’t.

Keep a journal,

it can be astonishing to read back on

and can show you how far you have come.

9. Awareness

Building awareness is our highest function. It is our newest function. When you apply awareness to all your activities you upgrade your brain, because you are encouraging new neural connections. Anat Baniel calls it ‘awaring’, because it is an activity. Awaring is the opposite of automated and compulsive. It is accessing all the subtleties, distinctions and nuances to allow you to be fully alive and present. We can all, always, increase our awareness.

One of the latest neuroplasticity terms is ‘self-directed neuroplasticity’, which refers to understanding the physics of the interface between mind/consciousness and brain. Really, all it means is that we are all in charge of our own brain plasticity, our own awareness. No one can do it for us. It is the work for all human beings to become more aware, autists included. Awareness is our natural birthright as evolving human beings.

Belief

Anat Baniel talks about the power of belief in imagination, and I am going to reiterate it here. All new things require belief. They require vision before they can manifest. You have to ‘see’ it before it can exist. It means that, inside you, there is a small (or large) picture that sees the healing potential in your child.

You have to believe enough, or suspend belief. If you do not think something is going to work, if you are not open, you will not look for distinctions, you will be unsubtle and unenthusiastic.

You cannot do anything without a vision. As a parent, teacher or carer you have to see the possibilities and be open to them… And be open to possibilities that you cannot even imagine!