All students attending lessons or therapy sessions at Fountain House are screened for developmental blocks to learning. The screening mechanism that we favour is that of The HANDLE® Institute. When faced with a student with a specific learning difficulty we look at the central nervous system to find where the dysfunction may be and this not only provides helpful information to our tutors but also enables us to produce a course of therapy designed to strengthen the particular weaknesses.
At Fountain House we work hand in hand with the neurodevelopmental work, using the strengths as we support the weaknesses.
Some of the specific areas considered are:
- Audition - hearing
- Binocular Functions – the ability of the eye to co-ordinate their activity.
- Differentiation of Movement – the ability to direct one part of the body to move according to plan while all other parts remain still.
- Interhemispheric Integration – the communication between the left and right cerebral hemispheres.
- Kinesthesia – the sense of relative muscle joint and tendon position in specific situations.
- Lateralization – the development of lateral dominance.
- Muscle Tone – the amount of tension or degree of readiness to response in the resting muscle.
- Ocular Mobility – visual tracking.
- Olfaction – the sense of smell.
- Proprioception – the brain’s unconscious sense of body-in-space.
- Tactility – the ability to discern touch in its various nuances.
- Vestibular System – the inner ear. It governs auditory functions, visual tracking, muscle tone, equilibrium and proprioception.
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