Using EFT with Children: Dyslexia and ADHD

[Guest guest]

Mar 2nd, 2001

Hi, everybody!

In my Kalos Wholistic Health Facilitation practice (applied kinesiology), I

muscle test for corrections required in the cases of children who have

dyslexia and learning disabilities, so it was very interesting to see how

this is addressed with EFT. In the future, I intend to combine the use of

both therapies and see how it works! ine, perhaps this will be of

interest to you.

With good wishes,

Dayu

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Using EFT with Children: 2 cases from 's website, www.emofree.com:

1. Dyslexia and learning disabilities

http://www.emofree.com/children/dyslexia.htm

2. An ADHD case

http://www.emofree.com/children/adhd.htm

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Using EFT with Children

From the EFT email support list

Dyslexia and learning disabilities

By Steve Wells

,

I have done heaps of work with " dyslexia " over the past 12 years. I feel it

is important to realize that whilst the tapping therapy will enable the

person to be in the right state for learning, clear away any blocks, maybe

even allow them to tap into the right areas of their brain and to take the

information in better, they still most often require appropriate instruction

on how our language system works - I have used EFT recently with a couple of

kids in conjunction with appropriate instruction with great success.

The primary cause of " dyslexia " in my country (Australia) and yours is, I

believe, the result of our children not being taught how to decode words.

More research has probably been done on this than any other area in

education and yet our educators continue to use inferior methods hoisted on

them by powerful vested interests.

Teach kids that words have parts, and instruct them fully in the sounds and

sound combinations together with how to combine these, and NO MORE DYSLEXIA.

I have proved this hundreds of times with kids designated unteachable.

However, the task is always harder with older kids because they have such

negative emotions associated with reading. Here is where EFT can help in a

big way. EFT, combined with appropriate instruction in the rules of our

language system - there's the correct combination!

Regards,

Steve Wells

More from Steve Wells....

Hi ,

Further to my last post, I'd like to tell you about my experience a couple

of days ago with a 10 year old boy. I had worked with him successfully to

improve his reading by having his mother and a tutor teach him phonics over

4 months. In this time, his reading comprehension improved 23 months on a

standardized reading test, and his word attack skills improved by 15 months.

I should point out that results like these are not unusual once children are

taught using a phonics approach.

The problem however, was that although this boy was performing better and

everyone had noticed it, he still didn't feel real good about reading. What

these kids often say is that they find reading " boring " . Having learned EFT

since I first worked with him, I decided to use a little in our last

session. We tapped on the " boring feeling " and he noticeably relaxed, but

the best thing was that he slowed down and read the words much more

accurately. See, the frustrating thing before this was that he tended to

read much too quickly, thus blending together inaccurately words which we

knew he was capable of reading as he knew all the sound combinations within

them. Seeing the bigger words tended to bring up his old anxiety feelings

about reading, and when in this state he tended to rush things and thus read

inaccurately. His new relaxed state was very noticeable, and I have now

encouraged his mother to have him tap before each of their home reading

sessions.

Here is where I think EFT will excel in education - by removing the

emotional impediments to learning. There are stacks and stacks of kids out

there whose emotional states are getting in the way of their learning - I

know, I spent 5 years working with the most disturbed of them when working

within the education system. What a boon EFT would have been then.

Let me say again, though, that EFT will not fully make up for poor

instruction. It might help to make it more bearable however, and save the

child from the emotional harm, and damage to their self image which can

often accompany this.

Steve Wells

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Using EFT with Children

From the EFT email support list

An ADHD case

Hi Everyone,

Amelia Conrad responds to the recent case posted by " Carl " regarding an

adolescent boy's behavior problem. In Amelia's case, the young man is ADHD

with substantial emotional possibilities as causes of the behavior. She

describes her procedures and her results in the message below. I think

you'll find the ending quite interesting.

Also, please note two possible avenues to approach ADD & ADHD. One has to do

with unresolved emotional issues (like the ones Amelia addresses) and the

other has to do with allergic reactions to substances like sugar, caffeine,

wheat, pesticides, etc. that may be literally causing the problem. See the

book " Is This Your Child? " by Doris Rapp, MD for impressive evidence of this

latter cause.

Hugs,

Hi ,

This is the first time I write, even though I've been avidly keeping up with

your wonderful postings. It is truly inspiring that the " energy " community

shares so freely and openly!

This is in response to " Carl's " questions about working with a guarded

teenager. I'd like to share an experience with a similar client:

(not his real name), 14, was referred for therapy because of long term

involvement with protective services and ADHD. He was taken from his home

when he was four, bounced around several foster homes, was abused in some of

them, suffered disruptions in attachments and separation from his parents

and siblings. At the time I saw him he had been reunited with his mother and

one older brother, and was in a regular school with accommodations for

special education.

Shortly after I started working with him, 's Ritalin level, which he had

taken for ten years, became toxic. When he was taken off the drug, his

behavior problems became more acute than what the school was prepared to

handle.

Mom was understandably scared of the tics her son had developed and

vehemently refused further medication. The psychiatrist I referred him to

for a second opinion felt that treatment with stimulants was the only

accepted way to treat ADHD, according to the Academy of Pediatrics. The

school team decided that he could not stay unless he was medicated. I argued

that 's symptoms could also stem from his past traumatic experiences,

and that the Ritalin may have contained him enough through the years, but

also may have prevented him from developing more adaptive positive coping

skills. After much debate, all parties agreed to a one month try with

TFT/EFT, with the caveat that he would be medicated at the end of the month

if our efforts failed.

complied, as much as can be expected from any teenager. I was able to

get his attention for brief periods of time, and worked with his goals, as

they related to the rest of the parties'. He did not admit to any past

trauma. So I explained about flashbacks, and asked if he had ever had any

experience that came back vividly to haunt him. He talked about two recent

accidents. He tapped on these. My strategy was to rely on the generalization

(domino effect) that is quite common with energy techniques, and that allows

related traumas to be treated as a group. On the second round after the 9G I

use a variation that I learned from my NLP teacher, Saltzman, and from

my HBLU teacher, Judith Swack, that uses hypnotic language, something like

this:

" Allow your Higher Self/unconscious mind to take you back to the source

event where this whole pattern started...(tap)... you don't have to know

where or when this started, just allow your Higher Self/unconscious mind to

take you there...(tap)...and when you get to the source event, allow your

Higher Self/unconscious mind to transform any negative energy, negative

beliefs, negative feelings... (tap) just let them go, because they don't

serve you or help you in any way... (tap)... and only by transforming them

can you pick-up the learnings... (tap)...and once your Higher

Self/unconscious mind has transformed all the negative energy, the negative

beliefs, negative feelings, allow your unconscious mind to bring you back to

the present only as quickly as it can dissipate any remaining negative

energy, negative beliefs, negative feelings from any subsequent event,

picking up the learnings all the way back to the present... (tap,tap,tap...)

and continue to tap on your pinkie until your Higher Self/unconscious mind

tells you that you are all the way back to the present... "

By the end of the month there had been some progress, but not enough by the

school's standards. Everyone agreed that the main objective was to keep

in school, and Mom agreed to follow thru on our pact and allowed her son to

take a different stimulant. Things continued to improve steadily. We worked

on behavioral modifications in the school plan, other behavioral triggers,

used NLP anchoring to enhance positive resources, and continued to work with

TFT/EFT.

was happy, Mom was happy, the school was happy, and I was glad for the

gains made, but confused as to why TFT/EFT " failed, " and we had to resort to

medicating this child again. graduated, and I met with Mom to discuss

the treatment to date and disposition alternatives. I congratulated her for

her flexibility and the achievements her son was able to make, even though

our alternative treatment had not been as effective as we had hoped, and we

had to also resort to medication. She gave me a long glance, with a raised

eyebrow. " What...?, " I said. She answered: " I wasn't going to tell you...

but I never gave any of the medication. The only dose he got was the

one they gave him at noon at school. " remained stable and thriving at

three and six month follow-ups.

Thank you for the opportunity to share,

Amelia Conrad, LICSW

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