Child Brain Development: A guide for the Homeschooling Parent

There are three essentials that every brain needs to develop optimally as a child, and continue to perform optimally as an adult.

What are those things?


1) Nourishment
2) Stimulation
3) Recovery

When I  say "essential" I mean that precisely.  As in, if you lack them a little, or have them in poorly balanced proportions there's no way you or your child can be at your best.  And if you lack them a whole lot, it will make you sick, shorten your lifespan or even end your life.

There's a lot at stake here and getting educated can make big difference.  Knowledge (applied) is Power.

I give lectures on this subject matter at my local library;

Child Brain Development
A Guide for the Homeschooling Parent

Check with the library to see the next available talk.

It will be held at the Dekalb County Public Library, the Tucker - Reid Cofer Branch in Tucker, Georgia (click for a map).  This is a free lecture and open to the public.  No RSVP is required.

I hope to see you there.
Dr. Aaron Rossi
_______________

Why child brain development?  

  Because the mission of raising a healthy well developed child today is vastly more complex than ever before and parents need more support.  And a child is far more vulnerable when you get these essentials wrong.
  Also, we have 4 children, ages 11 to 2, and my wife and I are trying hard to raise them well.  It's our current focus, so I thought I could help other parents do better for their kids too.

Why a guide to the homeschooling parent?

  We home school our kids (when I say "we" I actually mean "my heroic wife") and the things that she and I have both learned can be put into a strategy that is a little easier to use as a homeschooling parent.  Home schooling is hard.  A parent willing to take that on needs all the support they can get.

Will there be any use to attending if I'm not a homeschooling parent or don't have kids?

Of course.  If you are interested in learning how to support brain health and performance you will gain a lot from this class.

Dr. Rossi working on a precious little chiropractic patient.

A Flourishing Life

Below is the outline to a recent class I gave in my office.  This class received a lot of notice so I've posted the outline of the class for those of you who are interested.  If you would like to hear the talk, click this link to access the audio file from Google Drive.

A Flourishing Life

by Aaron Rossi DC

December 11th 2013

I. Mindset

   A. Growth (getting better) vs. 

   B. Fixed (being good)

II. Flourishing – P. E. R. M. A.

    A. Positive emotions 

       1.“Happiness comes from within, and happiness comes from without. “

           a. Set Point 50%

           b. circumstances 10%

           c. outlook, choices, behavior 40%

       2. Exercises

           a.“What went well?”  

           b. A Kind Act – most powerful mood enhancer

       3. Practice of Self Esteem

           a. Self acceptance

           b. personal integrity

           c. self assertiveness

    B. Engagement – 

       1. Flow; where challenge and skill meet, Presence of mind

       2. Drive; Autonomy, purpose, Mastery

    C. Relationships

       1. Communicating with Children

           a. Praise Effort not outcome, 

           b. Positive Constructive Style, 

       2. Communicating with Partner

           a. 5 love languages – Time, Gifts, Touch, Words, Service

           b. 5:1 ratio positive to negative interactions – sarcasm the killer

    D. Meaning / Purpose-

       1. Intrinsic - meaningful relationships, personal growth, community contribution 

       2. Extrinsic - wealth, beauty, fame, power

    E. Achievement 

       1. Grit – perseverance and effort

       2. Goals 

           a. Hard to achieve

           b. and Expect them to be

       3. Happy successful effort/work results from:

           a. 25% training and education

          b. 75% positivity, support, perception of stress (challenge or threat) 

III. Your Mind and Your Health 

     A. Positive Emotions and life and death and colds

     B. Your Brain

        1. Relationships

           a. Longevity

           b. Loneliness

        2. Meditation

            a. genetic effect

           b. parasympathetic response

        3. Exercises – 

            a. brain damage insulator: off-hand, cross-crawl, learning cognitive reserve 

            b. Naperville Ill., Texas Public schools

            c. Depressant 

        4. Brain Chemistry changes: received, given, observed

IV. The Weird

    A. Molecules of Emotion

    B. Earth Grounding, Brain Magnetic Sense

    C. Heart Magnetic Field

    D. DNA – selective change and magnetic influence

    E. Placebo Knee surgery

Internet RESOURCES

Heartmath – heart and emotion research   

www.Heartmath.com   http://youtu.be/QdneZ4fIIHE      

John Gottman – Relationship expert     

http://www.gottman.com/

http://www.azgrowth.com/4Horsemen.pdf

Brian Johnson's Philosophers Notes
http://www.entheos.com/philosophersnotes

Success Magazine (They're my curator for good stuff- I love this magazine)
http://www.success.com/

TEDx talks: 

Brene Brown on vulnerability: 

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

Shawn Achor on Happiness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy__kBVq1M

Health newsletter:    

www.Mercola.com             

University of Penn

Signature Strengths Surveys

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Book RESOURCES

Flourish by Martin Seligman PhD

Mindset by Carol Dweck PhD

Succeed by Heidi Grand Halveson PhD

How of Happiness by Sonja Lubimurski PhD

Why we Do What we Do by Edward Deci PhD

Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 

Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

Drive by Daniel Pink

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Super Brain by Depak Chopra MD

Molecules of Emotion by Candice Pert PhD

Spark by John Ratey MD

Relaxation Revolution by Herbert Benson MD

Think Smart by Richard Restak MD

GA public schools could be forced to promote HPV vaccine

The following is a letter I wrote to my state congressman.  The Georgia state House is going to vote on a law to have public schools teach 11yr old kids about the HPV vaccine.  I think it's a bad idea and I told my congressman why.

February 26^th 2013

Representative Scott Holcomb

Capital Office                                   District Office

511-E Coverdell                               2306 Briarcliff Commons NE
Atlanta, GA 30334                        Atlanta, GA 30345

Regarding: HB 162: Requiring public schools to provide information
                                        concerning human papilloma virus and the
                                        availability of a vaccine against such virus.

Dear Representative Holcomb,

I am a voting citizen in your district, you are my representative. I am concerned about HB 162. I have found the proposed bill requiring public education about HPV that explicitly leads citizens towards a HPV vaccination to be dangerous. The available research regarding HPV, cervical cancer and the HPV vaccination has convinced me 1) the benefits are too small, 2) the risks of the vaccination are too great, and 3) many more people would suffer as a consequence of public education explicitly leading toward increased utilization of this vaccination.

1) The benefits of the HPV vaccination is too small; it is not clinically proven to be effective.
Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA, Spinosa JP. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines as an Option for Preventing Cervical Malignancies: (How) Effective and Safe? Curr Pharm Des. 2012 Sep 24. [Epub ahead of print]

From the abstract:

the widespread optimism regarding HPV vaccines long-term benefits appears to rest on a number of unproven assumptions (or such which are at odds with factual evidence) and significant misinterpretation of available data.

clinical trials data have not demonstrated to date that the vaccines have actually prevented a single case of cervical cancer (let alone cervical cancer death), nor that the current overly optimistic surrogate marker-based extrapolations are justified.

2) The HPV vaccination risks are too great.
According to research listed below there's actually a 3-6% increased chance of high-risk HPV infections for vaccinated women when compared to unvaccinated women. And according to Merck, the largest HPV vaccine manufacturer, if a woman has been naturally exposed to the HPV strains found in the vaccine she has a 45% increased risk of precancerous lesions if she gets the shot.

Wright TC, Stoler MH, Behrens CM, et al. The ATHENA human papillomavirus study: design, methods, and baseline results. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2012;206:46.e1-11.

FDA.gov Gardasil™ HPV Quadrivalent Vaccine May 18, 2006 VRBPAC Meeting (PDF)

3) People would suffer on a larger scale from widespread use of the vaccine more than the viral infection itself.
As of January 7^th 2013, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has received the following HPV vaccination reactions:

• 130 reports of death

• 904 reports of disability

• 518 life-threatening adverse events

• 10,225 emergency room visits

• 2,809 hospitalizations

According to the CDC's Genital HPV infection 2013 fact sheet: HPV – a sexually transmitted virus – is so common that 50% of sexually active adults have it currently and nearly 100% will have at least one strain of HPV in their life. Yet 99.5% of those people will never develop any outward sign or health complication from it in any way. And if HPV is present, 90% of cases clear up on their own, from the inherent strength of the human immune system.

This is an excerpt from the case of an 11 year old Georgia girl who died 4 days after her first HPV vaccination:

 

March 31st 2009:

First dose of GARDASIL the patient experienced fever and pain in the hip after getting the vaccine. [Parents of] the patient sought medical attention.

April 1st 2009

Patient taken to the ER with Fever, presented with hip pain and muscle tenderness. Thought to be a viral infection. She was prescribed pain killers. Sent home.

April 3rd 2009

Came to ER again with a fever of 102''F, body aches, inability to walk, leg pain, nausea, vomiting, rash and severe muscle aches.

Evening April 3rd - 4th

Not sleeping and acting differently. Transferred to higher level of care.

April 4th 2009

Emergency care; cardiovascular instability. Patient intubated and despite extensive resuscitation efforts patient expired. The patient died on 03-APR-2009.

                 Final diagnosis; Post-vaccination reaction.

An 11yr old little girl died because she received a poorly tested, risky vaccine for a common nonthreatening germ.

Please vote no on HB 162.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Aaron Rossi DC

Who's raising my children?

When I focus on my children, when I intentionally respond to them in a way that's congruent with the kind of father I want to be, everything is good.  Little conflicts.  No elevating of arguments.  Everyone is heard, respected.  Happy kids, happy me. 

The problem is; I don't always give them my intentional, congruent response.  I often will react, or simply let my habits present the example my children are watching.  The scary thing is, I don't even know how often that is.  That's kinda the point.  When I'm unconsciously living - I don't know it.

Excluding the extreme examples...  Anyone can be an outstanding parent - when they're trying, consciously.  But mostly it's our habits that raise our children.

Lets stand for the best within us.  Lets all do a little better tomorrow; One little conscious choice victory at a time.