Brain Balance Center of Fox Valley

You know this place is a wonderful alternative for aba. We started going here around when my kiddo was in kindergarten and let my tell you this place is a life saver when you get started. We couldn't get into any ABA therapy places due to her age of being 5 at the time. Covid was still around and the waitlist WERE ridiculous everywhere else there wasnt much help available! It wasn't until we got assigned our CLTS coordinator that we finally got the ball rolling and we learned about Brain Balance. My daughter is Autistic level 2 and ADHD with type 1 diabetes. She is verbal and was struggling alot in school with reading and writing and being comfortable with who she was and this place opened so many doors for us. This place gave us peace of mind because during phase 1 it was 3 times a week hour long sessions and we were able to stay in the waiting area incase she had low bloodsugars. Phase 1 was a challenge but its was necessary. Yes the first few weeks there is a small point of regression to breakdown so they can rebuild and help balance both sides of the brain because with the assessment they do they determine if your child is more left sided or right sided (my child is more right sided) and they give you a box of tools to help you do exercises at home too! They go over Primitive reflexes Sensory motor Body awareness Processing Synchronization Core exercises Eye exercises Auditory processing activities They recommend diet plans to help your child like the gluten-free diet because gut health goes along with the journey. They hold seminars about healthy eating and have books in the lobby you can look through to learn about dyes in food etc They even have recipes for you to try out. Its all pretty much play based exercises my daughter always had a different coach to work with and she had alot of fun there with phase 1! She was able to balance out her eyes because we found out she had double astigmatisms now she doesn't really need glasses much anymore She isn't as afraid of heights . She is starting to read better and speak out more about autism/diabetes and advocates for herself. She is learning that body awareness and noticing things around her. She is remembering things better and maintaining what she learned in phase 1. She graduated to phase 2. Phase 2 : 45 minutes sessions once a month then once every 2 months for check ins because you as the Parent or guardian become the coach at home doing the exercises. Which is kinda harder I can admit because when your child is with a coach at a facility they are definitely more inclined to wanna listen to the coaches directions than thier parents at home. I definitely have some struggles because she just wants to come home from school and do her own things like every child does. I just pick 3 to 5 exercises a day and focus on the ones recommended in the progress reports parents have which is so insightful and nice to touch base with Directors. I dont have many complaints at all because this was the place that helped us so much i couldn't be anymore grateful for everything my daughter has learned on this journey! I highly recommend Brain Balance. It helps out so much especially if you dont know where to start in helping your child with autism /adhd . CLTS is accepted . Thank you Brain Balance for everything for being apart of our journey!

Our son, (who is 16 yo) had obstacles for development straight out of the gate. He was 1 month premature and was delivered with the umbilical cord around his neck, which tore as it was being unwrapped. He needed to be resuscitated because his lungs were not fully developed. They gave him a blood transfusion and sent him to Madison Children’s NICU where he stayed until he was no longer jaundiced and was able to feed so many ounces. He suffered from constant ear infections and asthma up until the age of 4. He barely slept and as he started the school path he struggled with sitting still, paying attention and following directions. His tantrums were horrible. We had him tested for ADHD as a suggestion from his 1st grade teacher. They diagnosed him with ADHD, anxiety and ODD. We did 8 wks of classes learning on how to deal with adhd, they put him on medication and it was a roller coaster of good for two weeks not so good for two weeks. Well, we did IEPs since he was in 1st grade, changed meds, sent him to a therapist, got him into Karate, had his eyes retrained. Once a Freshman, he skipped class, got into fights, didn’t care about anyone’s rules or authority and we felt that we had failed as parents and that he was going to struggle the rest of his life. UNTIL I heard about Brain Balance. His sophomore year of high school we completely took him out of the district. We homeschooled and solely concentrated on brain balance and life skills. Our final hope….We had him assessed and it showed that our 15 yo was trying to go through his day and life at a 7-9 yo level. I was shocked, but after meeting with Ms. Taylor and she explained how everything connects it all made sense. After the first few weeks we started seeing changes and it was more so how he handled certain situations. In three months, he was transforming in a different child. It’s like corn kernels and each week a few would pop and bam!! He started being more aware of helping others, doing his chores without arguing. Fast forward he is now a Junior and has NOT MISSED ONE CLASS, has been doing all of his work, paying attention, advocating for himself, doing his own laundry without being asked, being responsible on his given curfews and boundaries. He gets up every morning without argument, gets ready and takes his bike to school. Everyone that knows him can see a change brain balance has had on his confidence, growth and ability to use his full potential. They really should do these in early childhood. These kiddos would have the best outcomes.

We have seen such amazing results after 7 months of attending Brain Balance! My daughter started this program uncoordinated, struggling in school and emotionally dysregulated. After working with some really amazing coaches for 7 months, she is a completely different child! She has loved gymnastics and after the 2024 Olympics, decided she was going to be a gymnast-except that she wasn’t coordinated enough to do a cartwheel. She can now do cartwheels on a beam as well as one handed cartwheels! Her coordination and muscle control has improved SO much! She has improved significantly with academics and is more confident in school. The most noticeable change has been with her ability to manage and regulate her emotions. She is overall more calm and sleeping better- 2 things I didn’t think possible! I am so grateful for everyone that helped us at Brain Balance!! The environment is positive and encouraging. Everyone that works there is AMAZING!! I highly recommend this program!!

Update their responce is a lie the simple fact they lie says it all they told me my child needed 2 people to work with them and that they were short staffed so the second they got enough staff they would call so all these phone calls they say they are make aren't even real......They don't care about your kids I've been waiting over a year now for them to get my kid in already did the assessment and then they basically dropped off the face of the planet and I can guarantee they have taken other new clients since then and it's really sad on their part but that's OK I went elsewhere to get my child the help they need *update their communication is still a joke...I posted this what 10 months or so ago told them that I was no longer interested in them or their services back the . So what do they do call me today to see if I'm still interested in their services....what a joke....

My granddaughter has been going to Brain Balance and I am very impressed with her progress she has made !! She is so much happier and her behavior has improved 95% of what it was when she started.

We found Brain Balance through a meeting with our CLTS case manager. My son has had many different struggles at school. He hated to write anything by hand and didn’t enjoy coloring pictures, struggled with reading at grade level or reading a page with too many words on it, inability to focus on the classroom teacher and what was being taught, constantly moving his body in some form, extreme emotional outbursts and struggling with math. Outside of school it was difficult to take him to church without making some sort of scene. He also reacted explosively when someone in the family teased him about something. My son didn’t like change or surprises and would only eat a limited menu of food items. We didn’t venture out often as a family to reduce the stress on my son as well as on the rest of my family. I was afraid to hope that this program would help my son as much as the director expressed it would do. When I left that meeting, I was energized to research more about this program and couldn’t wait for my son to start. We were put on the waitlist initially in January, right after our assessment was completed. My son started the program 10 months later in October. In all honesty, I feel that Brain Balance could have done a better job of communicating with me regarding our spot on the waitlist. I had to reach out to get updates, and it typically took about a week to hear back. While we were on the waitlist, I didn’t want to wait to start working on something. I bought the book “Disconnected Kids” by Robert Melillo. I read this book every night to learn how to start on the primitive reflex exercises. I also watched videos online to get a clearer picture on how to do the exercises correctly. I appreciated the kick-off meeting because it allowed my son to show what he had been working on for 6 months (at that point) and get tips from the coaches on how to improve what he was doing. We noticed some changes in my son’s behavior over time working on the exercises. He started to have better coordination over his body – he was able to progress in swimming lessons to higher levels when he could work his legs and arms at the same time. I also feel like he made some progress with his emotional outbursts – that they didn’t last as long. This is a huge commitment for our family. We drive 40 minutes each way to the Brain Balance Center. I had to make the decision to take my son out of school early 3 days a week – so he missed a lot at school. My son would fight about doing the home exercises every day. Initially it started out as a 2-hour time commitment to get all the exercises done because of all the arguing and procrastinating done by my son. He can now independently do most of the exercises and we track them all on a checklist. He will still complain about having to do them at times, but nothing like how it was in the beginning. Some of the encouraging breakthroughs we noticed were that he was more affectionate with his father, he was able to button a shirt all by himself, he performed in a Christmas concert at school, had a positive parent/teacher conference for the first time, tried new foods, participated in the school musical, started remembering names of kids at school, added extra exercises in at home, and started advocating for when he needs a break. Some of the challenging breakthroughs we noticed were that he starting to push back on us more and argued more with Mom, he fixated on Pokémon to an extreme, started sucking his thumb for comfort, issues with impulse control and immaturity, and being embarrassed by seeing Mom at school. These changes have improved his ability to make friends at school. Teachers are happy to have him in class and enjoy his contribution to class discussions and projects. His confidence in his body and strength has improved, so he has an easier time in gym class keeping up with his peers.

Our daughter at age 4 1/2 had major behavior issues, couldn’t sit still and was severely delayed in speech. Within 3 months of starting the program she could sit still for a decent amount of time, she had better self regulation skills and could say 3-4 word sentences. We were blown away from her progress. She was in the active program for 11 months and is doing amazing. I see her listen better than peers, she is close to Graduating from speech therapy, reading above grade level and focused with activities and homework. Overall she has made such amazing strides in the time we have spent at brain balance.

My 12 year old son is currently enrolled in the Brain Balance program. My son was diagnosed with ADHD at age 6 and on 4 different medications to try and help him as he got older. Nothing worked and made some behaviors worse. We then worked with our School District and Calumet County to help us get into the Brain Balance program and learn how they might be able to help him. We had him evaluated and they helped identify what the real cause of his behavior issues were. He had several primitive reflexes that he had not grown out of and it was holding back his behavior development. The left side of his brain was more dominant he needed the right side strengthened. We had a 10 year old boy with 3-6 year old developmental behaviors. Once your child is evaluated, they can show you where your child is on the behavior pyramid and what kinds of behavior issues they would be showing versus their real age. My son is now only on one medication and is making visible strides to catch up at school. His behavior at school is less physical and much safer for other kids. He is also communicating and learning better. We need to keep working daily on in-home exercises and going to the Brain Balance coaching sessions to get the right side of his brain working/communicating at the same level as his left. It takes a lot of effort from the parents and the child, but seeing your child rapidly progress and develop older behaviors closer to their real age is amazing. I highly recommend having your child evaluated by Brain Balance staff to learn if your child has similar issues. Medications won't fix my sons behavioral problems. Doing the Brain Balance exercises is working and I can't wait to have him complete the program.