Julya

Hello!

Thank you for sharing the story of my wonderful daughter – Taysya. I think that the time when she can write about her own activities with the Feldenkrais method is a step ahead, which she herself has been waiting for impatiently for months, waiting for each monthly functional integration therapy courses. In October, my daughter Taya will be 14 years old. She is very impatiently waiting for this day. She even marked it in a special calendar where she recently wrote everything she’s been dreaming about: going out with friends and family to the camp, celebrating their birthdays, her favorite activities, among them the first of which is functional integration therapy of Feldenkrais.

When she was two years old, she lost the ability to comprehend voice communication, the ability to point objects with gestures, look into the eyes, and with time she stopped talking completely. In contrast, strong motor stereotypes, behavioral rituals, vocalisation, hyperactivity, anxiety, problems with sleep, eating, communication and playing in general appeared. In the third year in the Taya’s patient card the first record of the main psychiatrist Kiev (Ukraine) appeared mentioning child’s autism.

Ten years of different therapies (traditional and alternative) were applied one after the other, which did not make any specific improvement until two years ago, when Taya went to her first classes of functional integration according to the Feldenkrais method. Slowly she began to change, which I did not expect in any way. Improving the speech, reading, writing, counting, etc. Taja started planning their activity for many days and even months ahead, painting from imagination, playing the piano without notes, and even creating her own compositions.

We are very happy with her successes! Currently, Taya is working on a bilingual (in Ukrainian and English) Arnie’s Adventures book, to which she has personally made illustrations, recordings of texts and music for each party, and although this book does not aspire to a literary work, for all relatives and friends of Taya, this is a fantastic success of our girl! Two years ago we could not even dream of it! It is a shame we have not started practicing Feldenkrais since the first days when Taya had the first symptoms of childhood autism. It was this method that caused Taya to create their own things, based on heir own choices. I am sure that the effectiveness of the method is largely due to its non violent nature. What can not be said about most of the methods with which Taya has worked so far. That is why I am referring to all the readers of my post, and the parents of autistic children in particular, to get involved in the Feldenkrais method as soon as possible. Do not make mistakes with your own special children that I committed. When a child is delayed in development (speech, psychology, mind), they immediately think it needs intensive pharmacological stimulation to accelerate brain activity, and many hours of training correctional habits. I think the intensity of external stimulants is undesirable for our children. Another mistake committed against children with autism on the physical plane is to consider that our children are subject to general compensation. This means that work with the body and physical activity is not considered a priority.

I would love to make the parents of children who need special attention, and specialists working with them pay special attention to the movement awareness and its importance to the child. The best way to find out how effective a method is is to try it out. That is why I joined the initiative of free translations into Ukrainian, recording and publication of ATM lectures of Ewa Paszkowska – Demidowska. I also try to participate Ewa’s workshops and seminars of the Feldenkrais method, with more and more people helping autistic children in Western Ukraine (Ivano-Frankivsk). Do not wait with dreams of you and your children!