About LNDA
The Levine Neurodynamic Approach is based on current neuroscience research that shows that learning difficulties, communication issues, many behavioral issues, and challenges with organizational skills and attention are result of disrupted neural connections, between different regions of the brain that need to work together. Since the brain can be influenced by activity, it’s possible to combine activities in such a way that they co-activate different regions of the brain and thereby strengthen the connections between them.
The brain is a very complex system, and disruption in one region or between regions affects the whole system. When a child is reading a story, his brain normally processes and integrates information from many different regions of the brain: visual and auditory information, working memory maintenance and manipulation, short- and long-term memory, eye movement coordination, attention, and more. Reading also requires the ability to multitask (to perform more than one task or think about more than one thing at a time). The brain must be able to efficiently coordinate and process information from the regions involved in these functions.
Through individualized sensory-motor, perceptual and cognitive activities we can coactivate different regions of the brain that need to work together in order to strengthen the neural connections between them.
This image of the brain pinpointing different parts of the brain that have to work together as a system for a child to read, and if any of these connections are not strong it affects the whole
This kind of dynamic system comes into play in every activity that we do throughout the day, including organizing morning routines, learning Gemara, playing ball, social interactions, planning tomorrow’s schedule, etc.
About Chaiah Levine
O.T., MSc in Applied Neuroscience
My goal is to help my clients become fully functioning human beings from the time they get out of bed in morning until they go to sleep at night. 30 years ago, I realized that in order to reach that goal, I would have to address the root of their difficulties.
I began my occupational therapy studies in the early 1980s, during which time sensory integration was a central concept in pediatric occupational therapy. Sensory Integration Therapy utilized fine and gross motor activities with enhanced sensory input, in order to strengthen the brain’s ability to process sensory information and improve coordination, attention, and learning.
In 1987 I assisted Harav Yeshaya Weber, in founding Machon Rut, an after-school learning center for the treatment of children with learning disabilities. Aside from Occupational Therapy, our center provided Language Therapy, emotional therapies and remedial reading and math. I developed and supervised the Occupational Therapy program and served as both the case manager including oversight of each child’s team of professionals. I served in this capacity for 30 years. My extensive experience in understanding children’s difficulties across many disciplines gave me a holistic approach to child development, and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders (learning disabilities, attention deficit, behavioral regulation and communication disorders).
The 1990’s saw an increased interest in executive function in neuropsychology and education. I was inspired to find a way to address children’s executive functioning deficits by combining therapeutic interventions for executive function dysfunction with Sensory Integration Therapy.
The results were startling, as children made incredible progress when we combined specific activities. The children’s progress exceeded our expectations both in terms of how much they were able to achieve, and how quickly.
Since that time I began to research and read up on neuroscience in order to be able to understand why this approach was having such a profound effect, and why these particular combinations of activities was so effective. I then understood that the key to improving function is enhancing neural connectivity between brain regions that need to work together for function to happen. I spent years developing and perfecting my method and sought news ways to work on and enhance neural connectivity.
By the year 2010 I was working intensively on developing my method and using it in my private practice and in Machon Rut. I decided to open my own institute in order to train therapists in my LNDA method.
In 2020 I came to the realization that I needed to learn more about neuroscience in order to perfect my method, so I pursued a Master’s Degree in Applied Neuroscience at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. The emphasis in these studies was on how the brain is different when there are learning disabilities, attention, organization, regulation issues, and communication issues as well as mental health challenges.
I continue to develop my method with new protocols in order to continuously achieve better results.
I am currently in the process of carrying out a research study of the efficacy of LNDA as a method in order to objectively and scientifically prove that it transforms children’s lives.