Yvette Halpin has been working with children, from newborns to teens, for over 25 years to help them reach their greatest potential. As a Waldorf early childhood educator for 20 years, Yvette learned that readiness for school requires much more than a child simply reaching the chronological age for school entry. It requires that a child reach a number of milestones of sensory-motor integration and neurological maturity, without which a child experiences social, physical, emotional and learning difficulties. A child diagnosed with ADHD, ADD, autism, dyslexia or other neurobehavioral disorders has also missed motor and sensory stages of development.
Despite an increasing body of evidence to support the value of children reaching neuro-developmental milestones at the time of school entry, few schools conduct relevant assessments to determine whether they have. To address this gap, Yvette conducts neuro-developmental assessments for the child entering school as well as for children birth to 5 to detect any early sign of immaturity in the nervous system and for the older child 7 and over who may already be experiencing social, physical, emotional and learning difficulties. Through her individualized Home Movement Program, Yvette then guides children and their families on how to integrate primitive reflexes, build core stability, develop sensory functions and balance their hemispheres, allowing them to achieve milestones which were not met.
As a certified developmental support practitioner who has made child development her life’s mission, Yvette works to re-educate children’s brains to address missed developmental stages through a tailored program of fun sensory and motor activities, which support the maturation of the central nervous system by creating neural circuits from the lower/primitive to the higher/mature cognitive centers of the brain. It is through this BOTTOM UP development that essential functions – such as the capacity to read, write, do math, speak, focus, self-regulate, delay gratification, pick up on social cues, empathizing – are further enabled.
Yvette’s clients often work with osteopaths at Ottawa Family Osteopathy who work to ensure that the body doesn’t carry blocages that hinder its capacity to reproduce with ease the movements prescribed by Yvette. They also work to release cranial tensions that can compress directly the nervous system, brain and often brain stem and hinder function. She also works with the Neuro-Physiotherapist, Amaal Mirani, to help with retraining eye function when this is found to be part of learning disabilities, and also helps to work on balancing the autonomic nervous system. All practitioners work as a coordinated team to achieve an optimal intervention and support system.
