75 Vision and Learning with Trent McEntire

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Disclaimer: The information in this Podcast is for educational purposes only. Vaishnavi Sarathy, Ph.D. is an educator, not a doctor, specifically not your child’s doctor. Please consult your physician before implementing any supplement or diet recommendations.

Audio Transcription: 

Vaish:

What does vision have to do with learning labels?

Hi, I’m Vaish chemist and functional nutrition consultant, and science educator, as a mom to a poet with down syndrome and autism who happens to be nonspeaking. It was just a few years ago that I felt helpless at what appeared to be sits extreme dysregulation, lack of communication, low energy, and basically disinterested in anything that I offered. Since then Sara and I have traveled through 1000s of lessons learned about the gut, and the brain. And the real importance of assuming intelligence said now lives a mostly regulated and motivated life filled with what he calls gory ambition. And it is my mission to make sure that this regulation is accessible to everyone.

I present this podcast functional nutrition and learning for kids in order to bring you the lessons that have changed my life. If hacking learning for your child is your thing, if that’s of interest to you, you might want to check out my free eBook at functionalnutritionforkids.com/learning. Again, that’s functionalnutritionforkids.com/learning. It has six learning hacks that you may not have encountered before. I’m really excited to have Trent McEntire here today as my guest. For more than two decades, Trent has been helping people gain back their mobility, which is a story he knows well.

He was born with a mild form of cerebral palsy and experienced pain and stiffness every day from the time he was a child. The methods that chant is discovered to repair his own body also became the foundation of what would be his life’s work. Trent has a background in dance, he has a degree in dance that required in-depth movement, science, and training, including to my delight fell in Christ, which is a modality that I am very, kind of taken with actually, and other forms of movement analysis, kinesiology, and anatomy.

After graduation, Trent has actually pursued a career as a professional dancer. And throughout his career, he’s continued to leverage his methods to repair his own movement limitations, and also help other professionals overcome their injuries. For more than 20 years, his methods have changed 1000s of lives for movement professionals and clients. And specifically what we’re interested in is children who study with focus, but also since seniors have lost their balance and mobility, individuals experiencing neurological conditions, and athletes who have suffered concussions and injuries.

His methods and tools are now used across the board. Right now his mission is to deliver his methods and tools to everybody that needs help moving past physical and brain-related limitations, his program is called fire up your brain, and it was created as a fun, engaging, and affordable way to support this mission. Thank you, Trent, for being here. I’m really excited to talk with you about how movement, neurology and I know even vision are all related to each other.

Trent McEntire:

Thank you. It’s great to be right. It’s an honor. Thanks.

Vaish:

Yeah. Can you start off by telling us a little bit about your childhood in your background? How, what are the challenges you experienced, and how you come about movement?

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, and I’ll tell you to sort of best portray that, it’s worth knowing that I didn’t know that I was born with cerebral palsy. I didn’t know until I was 19. And so what had happened is, I was in college, I was dancing and at a very high level for many hours a day. I was also doing training outside of dance. So I was that was really fit and taking care of my body. And then I woke up and I couldn’t walk in the morning like I could barely like hobble to the shower. And all of a sudden, yeah, like just I woke up and I was like, Whoa, in my from my knees down. I just had burning pain and inflammation and so much restriction that I thought man this is really bad, but you know, sort of like push through and get warmed up and, and make my body do the things I had to do.

The next morning again, I’d be hobbling to the shower. And it just happened to coincide with being home for the holiday break. And I was just complaining to my mom and I was like, you know, I don’t I don’t really get what’s going on. I’m like really in a lot of pain and I’m doing all these things to take care of myself, but I’m so tight and stiff and have so much pain from the knees down. I don’t get it. And she said well Trent that’s because you were born with cerebral palsy. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, what? And, and she’s like, Yeah, but remember when you were three, they the doctors put casts on your legs from the knees down because you had zero ankle mobility so they had to force your heels to the ground to create some kind of mobility. And then I had this like flash of memories of like I do remember having this cast and I mostly remember my brother torturing me but throwing me in a snowbank but that’s another story.

You know, but the reality is like I had these memories come back and I was like wow and what? Being a class one like a low form of cerebral palsy. You wouldn’t know by looking at me that I had limitations or restrictions and people often don’t realize that. cerebral palsy is basically a brain injury. At birth, so, you know, I’ve healed from the brain injury. But while your brain is trying to heal from the injury, you have to learn other ways to move your body because of the damage that’s been done from the injury.

While I’m recovered, and it’s not something that progresses, those limitations on my body caught up with me when I was dancing. And so I learned to compensate really well on my body until my body couldn’t handle the compensations anymore. And it was at that point that I really decided to, to problem solve for my own injury. And that was where, you know, for years, it was just for me, I rehab my own injury, I was able to go on and dance professionally because of that problem solver that I just decided to pursue. So yeah, it’s it’s pretty wild to have that kind of merge in my life.

Vaish:

Yeah, and you, and I was reading your story and your talk about this one. I think it was a conference where you were passing by the vision therapy booth. Is that accurate?

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, yeah. So that’s the other thread of this whole thing is that reading has always been very hard for me. And so I’ll work my way to that conference. Because it’s a really, it was an aha moment for me in my life and my career. But when I was in third grade, they, my teachers like, yeah, by the way, he really struggles with reading. And the way we’re going to help him with his struggles is to give him more reading.

The other thing that’s really hard for him, is let’s make them double it up. And let’s have him do work at home and answer questions. And so but that’s what was done that was sort of like the go-to thing. It’s like, oh, but it wasn’t that I had the inability to read-write. So more practice might help me have the ability to read it read for her because she didn’t have the assessment tools to know that it was something else. But it actually was my eyes. So my eyes literally just didn’t function together, they didn’t see the same word at the same time. So because they weren’t working together, it really messes with the brain. And it basically overloads energy-wise, it just makes the brain have to work so much harder. If your eyes are looking at the same thing at the same time.

Vaish:

And I can I don’t ask you if it would be an oversimplification to call this like a motor or a muscle issue more than it would be and I’m guessing in your case, it was identified as a cognitive issue like he doesn’t know how to read,

Trent McEntire:

Right? It was identified as cognitive for sure. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But it was

Vaish:

More just the muscles of the eye or was it is the brain involved also in this,

Trent McEntire:

So it’s both. So first, it’s the muscles of the eyes, literally, my muscles weren’t strong enough to make my eyes coordinate, my eyes didn’t have coordination, they weren’t strong enough. And they didn’t have coordination. Just like we think about the rest of our body wanting to have strength and coordination.

My eyes didn’t have that. And then so the result of that is that it made my brain overwhelmed. And so what would happen for me is, I would be one or two sentences in reading and my eyes would be so strained muscularly that I would fall asleep, my brain would just shut down.

Vaish:

But you wouldn’t know that necessarily as a third grader that Oh, I didn’t know that’s

Trent McEntire:

What was going on I know now, because I’ve done so much experience in studying to realize what had happened. But at the moment, I didn’t know I just hated reading. It was terrible. It felt terrible. I didn’t enjoy it. I enjoy stories, I enjoy learning. But the physical act of making eyes work together was just too much. And, and so I problem solved that I was like, well, I’ll just listen to audiobooks. That’s that’ll be how I get information, you know, and it was a beautiful solution.

In college, I couldn’t do audiobooks for all my classes. So I would get up early in the morning and stand reading my books, so they wouldn’t fall asleep to force myself to get through the content. And, and that worked, I was able to graduate and read all my textbooks. But it was when I was at a conference, I was at a conference and there just happened to be a vision therapist that was there. And I stopped by and I’m like, this is kind of cool, what are you doing. And he did just a couple of exercises with my eyes. And that was like, the light just went off. In my mind. I was like, this is what’s been missing from at that point.

I’ve been working for a long time in my work. So I’ve been doing a lot of problem-solving for my clients and mobility work with my clients. But I didn’t, I didn’t realize that the eyes were such a huge, huge part of how I would how I could feel how I could focus how I could function in my life. And after just a few exercises. with him. I went back to my booth and a friend had stopped by and I had missed her. And so she wrote me a note and I picked up the page and I read it as I know like fire as I’ve never read before in my life. And I was like oh, there’s something to my eyes not being strong enough here. And that was the start of me incorporating and researching how important the eyes are when it comes to everything we do in our life.

Vaish:

That is amazing. A lot of lightbulbs are going in my head but I almost want to go into a soapbox of my own, which I won’t but I do want to share this that a lot of times when parents come to me for consultations, they’ll talk about their child having learning disabilities which are diagnosed because their child is in his in reading age appropriately. They’ll say he’s reading but he does In any comprehension, and immediately, that’s a cognitive label Okay, this child isn’t up to par for whatever but reading does is often not a cognitive issue at all. It’s like you said, it’s a visual issue.

It’s what another guest called ocular motor. It could be that, and it completely. Yeah. And, yeah, it could be so much more. But, um, what we often do is because we need them to comprehend their reading, we slow down, I think you were awesome that you actually went to audiobooks. So you could still get complexity and information and you didn’t, what we’re doing is, you know, for lack of a better term, we just ended up dumbing down the input they get, and or forcing them into lower complexity of information coming in for. And most of the time, there’s nothing cognitive going on there. So something that deeply upsets me.

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, to me, too, because, you know, when you look at any individual’s potential, and in they’re told they have a cognitive problem, you’re stupid, okay, I’m stupid. I believe that now they, the people that I trust, told me that I am, so I must be. And society says that people who have these issues, you know, they have these jobs, they don’t, they don’t make this of their life, they don’t achieve these goals, they don’t really have the kind of goals that other people do that have that are smarter, you know, so it really has this profound effect on someone’s life. And I am so thankful, even though it’s bizarre that I didn’t know that I had the diagnosis, I’m so thankful I didn’t have a label.

I’m so thankful I didn’t have that piece of like, Oh, well, you’re different. And you should go into this special class because you don’t have these abilities. And given those labels, but yeah, it’s challenging, it can really, it can create a trajectory for someone’s life that is inaccurate to what’s really going on in their body.

Vaish:

Absolutely. And we have so many ways of diagnosing cognitive delays are in which are all based on stuff that is not necessarily related to cognition at all. So we have so many ways, is he speaking? Is he reading? Is he I don’t know moving correctly. So all of these this is tongue protruding? None of these? Why would that have anything to do with how well you can learn, but we have these boxes? And hopefully, I mean, with more work like yours, we’re slowly getting out of those.

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, I hope so. I think about my memories as a kid when they are when they would test your eyes in school, and, you know, he go to the library, and they do your eye tests, and be like, yep, he can see clearly he doesn’t need glasses. So you so first Sit, sit, really still don’t move, and then see if you can read these letters and numbers and objects clearly. And that’s the extent of vision testing.

There wasn’t, there was no movement, right? So we’re gonna keep you static, and just test acuity, how sharp Can you see an object, and that’s all you’re going to test. If instead, you were looking at movement, and coordination and strength of the eyes, you open worlds for kids, I mean, that’s, that’s where you can have a profound impact. But that’s not really how we have ourselves structured when it comes to measuring the eyes, we go to go static, and we measure acuity, mostly, you know, there are wonderful vision therapists that if you have somebody that’s at a certain level, where they end up going to vision therapist for that high-level care, that’s great, but I think at every level and entry-level is like how strong are your eyes? How coordinated are your eyes? If we’re asking kids to climb a rope in gym, which is what they did when we were kids, we were kids.

I’m a rope-like okay, but what about my eyes the most important sense in my brain wants the most information from my eyes that it prioritizes the eyes You want me to climb a rope but let’s look at the eyes the brain really, really prioritizes that so I feel like we should follow the science and that way you know,

Vaish:

yeah, so you’re saying that we’re just an even now i think don’t think so much has changed unless you actually go to a vision therapist and nobody’s asking you to go to a vision therapist even if your kid has within quotes a learning disability So what you’re saying is we’re just looking at acuity you’re not looking at coordination maybe there’s like an additional thing of visual processing in your brain and we’re not even looking at that so yeah,

Trent McEntire:

Right right. We’re not looking I mean not you could you can go at different levels with what your eyes and how strong they are, you can look at the different kinds of movement you know, there are different kinds of movement, there’s a slow movement, there’s where something not just sitting closer or further away, being able to converge on that and depth perception. There are, you know, still points to be able to track there are all kinds of things and measuring it with movement in that measuring with being static, that’s the biggest thing.

So yeah, and then there’s this whole thing I think, with parents, I mean, I have kids and, and, and my daughter’s ADHD and there’s this whole thing of that I see with other parents, they’re like, well, I don’t if I don’t take my kid division therapist, then there’s a problem or if If I do take them that means that there’s a problem. And I don’t want to have to. I don’t want to have to face that. So then I get to them.

Vaish:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Trent McEntire:

So that value kind of gets pushed into the situation. I’d like to just normalize it like, our eyes are super important. And if you ask anybody, eyes are important, oh, yeah, my eyes are super important. Well, then I think there’s just a, it’s a call to consider. How are they important? What impact do they have on your life? Because what if, what if you’re missing, you’re missing a huge opportunity? That’s what I see.

Vaish:

Yeah, yeah. Well said. I do want to ask you about your training. But I also, before maybe leading up to that question, what is the most significant intervention that you’ve seen when you’re helping kids with focus issues? Well, I want them to lump focus hyperactivity behavior in one, but you’re welcome to separate them and see usually what together?

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, yeah. Well, when you ask me that question, I get goosebumps everywhere. So I’ll tell you one of my favorite stories because it’s just about the ripple effects that it can have. So one of my favorite stories is I had, I was at a conference, someone had purchased a brain speedball from me, took it home, they lived in Chicago, and then they’d given it to somebody. So I got a call from a stranger, telling me that her whole life her whole family has transformed. And I don’t even know who this person is. And I didn’t train them, I didn’t show them how to use it.

She said, so I got this fall, and I brought it home, I said, I’m gonna counter and my 13-year-old daughter found it, and decided to start playing with it on her own, making up her own games. And as I said, I talked to my friend and kind of learned a little bit more about it, and kind of we talked about how to use it. And she used it on her own as a way to focus before homework, and for the first time in her daughter’s life, she could sit and do her homework, wow. And what that did to their family dynamic, the stress that removes from a child not thriving, and not being able to function not be able to do the things that they’re supposed to be able to do.

This is so huge. So certainly for that, that young, that young lady’s life, it opens up possibilities for her, that’s beautiful, but the ripple effects into the family, that you know that that stress point gets relieved and the family gets hope. And that’s, to me what gets me excited is like, this is so much more than just like, Oh, yeah, I should focus for an hour or the day or it’s getting better over time. And wow, it’s amazing. Your focus is so good, and it helps it with your life. Yes. But then who is she touching? And what are those ripple effects that are feeding out from that?

Vaish:

What is the board do in terms of what areas does it address?

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, yeah. So it’s like if you and I were playing a game, a capsule, here it is so. So we have A through Z and one through 12 on the ball. And if you and I are playing a game of catch, it works like this, I’m going to ask you to catch the ball. And then when you catch it, you’re going to tell me what you see on the ball. So catch the ball. See, I’d say it out loud, I throw it to you, you catch it and say E and throw it back to me. And so a few things are happening that are built into this fun game, we’re just playing a game of catch. So that your brains like this is fun.

This is kind of interesting, this is different. But there are a couple of things happening that we’re just tapping into. The first thing is that we’re asking our eyes to track. So I’m asking you to watch the ball come towards you, and come into your hands. And because I’m asking you to look at a letter or a number on the ball, you’re getting really specific with what you’re tracking.

So it’s it makes the eye the muscles of the eyes actually have to really come into play in a specific way, without telling you to exercise your eyes, I’m just gonna say, Tell me what you see. And your brain will make your eyes try to find that spot on the ball. And so that’s the first level is it gets the eye-tracking and the movement onboard. And the second level is that it taps into how our brains are already processed. So your brain is going to sense what’s going on.

In this case, we’re really focused on the eyes, decide what to do about it, and then act on it. So that sense decide act cycle is already happening in our brain. That’s how we function in our day, we take in information from all of our senses, decide what to do about it in a very short amount of time and then act on it. So because I’m throwing the ball, you’re sensing where it is you’re tracking it, you’re deciding to catch it,

Vaish:

Is there a distance it like the fact that the ball is you’re focusing on something coming moving towards you? Does that mean it Yeah,

Trent McEntire:

Yes, because that’s one of the eye movements is that convergence, it’s, it’s from far to near so not only are we dealing with tracking with eyes moving around wherever the ball is going, but now it’s also dealing with another eye, kind of another movement of the eyes which is coming towards you. So it’s just built into the nature of getting specific with tracking the ball. Because you can catch this ball. Let’s talk like you could catch this ball without tracking it.

You could kind of assume where it’s going and not look at it and probably catch it okay, but Wouldn’t be really tracking the eyes. So you could avoid the hard thing of the eyes having to work to track it by just kind of like, Oh, I saw and then you kind of catch it or, you know, I’ll give you another example, I think of a kid who has a really hard time catching the ball. Well, if you look at their eyes, I’ll bet you that they have weaknesses in their eyes, their muscles, and their eyes are weak. And so they’re not actually seeing the ball, they’re not going to accurately able to assess where the ball is in space.

Vaish:

You’re right, yeah.

Trent McEntire:

So. So the bottom line is, that it’s a fun game also. And when, when you can make it fun, when you it’s about play, your brain is much more willing to participate, and you lower the fear. So when you think about, like kids who are struggling, and the topic is serious, and they have a diagnosis, and everybody knows it in the school, and their teachers and their parents and their friends, they all know that they have this label, what a beautiful thing to go, like, we’re gonna play a game, I don’t really want to talk to you about ADHD, and I’ll talk to you about whatever condition that those other therapists are going to talk to you about.

Right, I want to just play a game with you. And, by playing the game, we can see regulation improve, we can see that mood shift, we can see that things that were hard or not so hard, focus comes online. And not only that, but they have a really easy tool to use, whenever they feel dysregulated, whenever they want to accomplish something to have a tool. So you’re also teaching self-regulation, right? So it gets it really easily becomes like, there are so many pieces. And so, you know, you think about what your goals are what you’re trying to accomplish, and you can make the games, you know, specific to your situation.

Vaish:

So there’s a lot of variation that you can build into this as well.

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, there are easily hundreds of games that I’ve I’ve played, created, and watched other professionals that I’ve trained, create. And it’s one of the biggest things is that we encourage people that have the balls to get creative. And that’s part of the training like we, we give you the foundation and the training. So you know, like, here’s the basics of the game. And here are different games you can play. But then also we give them a give you a worksheet. So you know, like, get creative with it, like, are you standing or kneeling, or you’re sitting using one hand, two hands, is one eye closed, are you playing the ball so you can catch it with one hand, so we want to find as many ways as possible so that it stays fresh, it stays new, and you want to keep doing it.

Vaish:

And I remember that is one of the guiding principles from my son did a lot of an advantage therapy, which derives from a Feldon Christ. And variation is is is one of the key factors that enrich the brain, slow movement variation, I remember that like a mantra. So this is great because this is so simple, but you’re basically using vision and balance as your tools too, to, I wouldn’t say leverage, but to just bring in focus. And you know, it wasn’t something that I thought of as being super related to focus, but I thought of in respect to cognition, but that’s that. So it’s really mind-blowing, actually, I mean, I didn’t think that but these are literally just the two things that you’re you’re leveraging and you’re seeing so much increase in, in other things, probably events, focus increases, and guessing behaviors also change alone,

Trent McEntire:

Right there. It’s all interwoven. Right. And that’s, that’s exciting, right? What I tell the people that I go through the training, you know, these are, these are parents and kids, it’s this is, this is like, really easy to do training. This isn’t like a whole course you have a complex course, right? But it’s like, if, if you can make this about what your main goal is, but then as a parent, watch how it shows up in other parts of their life. Because you don’t know without expectation, but just observe and build some awareness around like, oh, even though we weren’t focused on mood, his moods change, like he’s more regulated and, and dysregulated less frequently, you know, and you can observe these things. And what I’ll do is tell you a story about a young girl that I worked with. So she’s on the Asperger’s autism spectrum.

Her mom was kind of vague about the diagnosis, but that’s kind of how she described her. And she’s like, I really would love for you to work with her and help her. And I said, I totally do that. But we’re not going to make it about her diagnosis.

What’s something that she loves in her life? Like, what does she love to do? And she loves to dance? Perfect. I’ve got a backstory and dance, I can relate to her. I can I can find something about dance. So I was actually at a conference I was in my booth and she brought her by and you know, you know that at this point, she’s she was 14 or 15 I believe. she’d seen all kinds of therapists, all kinds of professionals, you know, and she’s used to very bright and she was ready for me to be another one of those people that was going to talk to her about her condition. And I was like, let’s talk about dance like When you’re in dance class, what is your teacher tell you that she wants to see you improve?

Well, she says, I looked down when I’m doing my leaps, like, okay, let’s just make it about, let’s just make it about your leaps and looking down. So without my instruction, just do the leaps you’d normally do in class. And so she did them across the, the ballroom floor. And, and then we played a game, your brain speedball, and just taught her how to track and play really simple kept the game fun challenged her, you know, not that she dropped the ball once in a while. So that wasn’t perfect. It’s really important just to keep it playful.

I said, try it, try your leaps again. And she did reliefs and she’s like, Oh, my gosh, they’re higher, and my eyes are up, and I feel so great. And just after a few minutes, and it’s like, that’s really awesome. So we played some more, and we tried some different things we just kept playing with before and after the results.

I mean, the measuring, I really like to measure, like what is really happening here. I sort of feel like we’re all doing other research because neurology and neuroscience is like, you know, we got this much information, even though it feels like a lot, it’s there’s just a little bit scratched the surface with that, I think is possible. So I like to get before and after measurements to really assess everything. So that was great. She had a great experience, her mom and she went away. Well, a few days later, I got a big long message from a mom saying I was I just want to tell you the ripple effects this had in my daughter’s life.

She said after we laughed, she felt great. And that evening, there was a party at the event. And she said normally because she comes with me all the time to these parties. we’d stay at the event for maybe half an hour before she’d be so overwhelmed, sensory-wise, that we’d have to go back to the hotel, and she’d have to sit with her eyes closed and just calm down and regulate herself. And she said she stayed for the first time in her life for the whole three hours, loud music crazy lights, totally regulated, not overwhelmed at all. She’s like, That’s never happened.

That’s amazing. And, and she said and also so you know, Trent, the day before we saw you, the conference happened to be in Las Vegas, we had gone out for a walk on the strip. And she had we were crossing the street and she just fell into heat on the ground. Because she was so overwhelmed with everything that was going on in Vegas, she had to like pick her up and like get her safely to the other side of the street. So the transformation in that short period of time was so profound to me like that’s what’s so inspiring is like, you know, they saw it show up where it matters most in their life. Without me saying, Here, let me help you with that thing. That’s so important. You know, that’s wrong with you. You know, it’s like, yeah, you can sneak it in the side door.

Vaish:

Yes, no, that’s, that’s wonderful. As I’m, as you’re talking about dance, and you’re talking about the ball, I want to ask well, I have a couple of questions about the movement. But maybe that can be part of this question that if parents are starting out with, with their child being maybe they have a diagnosis of autism, maybe the child has a diagnosis of ADHD, but generally, they’re struggling with sensory overwhelm, moods, focus issues, maybe, you know, behaviors, and so on. Wherever you have them start, what are the top three things that you would recommend parents do off the bat?

Trent McEntire:

Well, the first thing is, is doing a little bit of research and understanding the importance of the eyes as it relates to regulation, as it relates to just brain performance in general. I really think that’s huge. That this is a paradigm shift that I’m suggesting that when you’re looking at how you’re caring for your kid, you’re not going to get that instruction from every physician and therapist that you meet, they’re not going to be neurologically driven in this way. Lots of fantastic professionals that we need, but there’s this piece that’s often missing from care, like how important the eyes are, to regulation to focus to brain performance. And so first I think before you just go and do something, you go Okay, Can Can Can I see this in science? Can I read about it?

Can I eat there’s just a simple Google search is related to focus is related to regulation? And you can find all kinds of articles on it. And so I think the first thing is the shift is just like, okay, that is a thing. And you can get proof that’s not me telling you you can go find your own proof that that is a thing. And then once you know that, that’s a thing that you incorporate into your daily activities.

Now, here’s the caveat, not as therapy as a fun game that you play like you play a board game like you play a game outside, as you go in the swimming pool, like a game you play it, that’s just a game you play. Yes. And, and you can’t play it wrong. Okay, so this is the thing is like, when, as parents, I know I fall into this category. I’m like, I want my kid to do it right? I won’t like, I want them to get better. So I want them to do this therapy. game right? So when they’re not doing it right No, no no do it like this.

Remember you got to do this so that your eyes work in your brain. No, we’re talking, play a game, get your ball and just let them play, let them play and watch it improve. And in you learn you learn new games to play and you learn how to observe just to see what is because as a parent, you know, learning to see what is in this kind of detailed way is a new skill. So give yourself time and permission also to learn what is when it comes to the eyes because the eyes are the one thing that we can’t look at on our own.

We can’t watch our own eyes move unless we record a video and then watch it we can watch everything else move in a mirror we can watch everything else in our body move we can’t watch your own eyes move because as soon as we move our eyes We can’t see him anymore

Vaish:

that’s such you know that’s true and I never thought about it before Yeah, you’re right and

Trent McEntire:

I think that they’re they naturally become invisible to us. We don’t see our own eyes so they’re invisible So yeah, that’s maybe four parts but you asked for three-

Vaish:

oh no that’s fine How can parents you know find your work or work with you and so on?

Trent McEntire:

Yeah, so I would suggest they go to my website it fires up your brain calm Yeah. And I have a program called Ask Trent and ask Trent is a free program that I do for people who are curious about the programs and the ball people who have the program the ball and also professionals that also have clients and support them and basically what it gives you the opportunity to do is ask questions and then I go live every month and I answer the questions that are coming in from people that are curious or using the ball or want to know how to how to have a better impact with their kids or whatever the situation is

Vaish:

and are you go live on your website

Trent McEntire:

I go live on social media so usually on Facebook but what happens is if you go to the website and you sign up for asking Trent you’ll get notifications for when I’m going live and where that’s going to be and then afterward if you can’t make it live, you get access to the video. So it’s a way to just feel like you’re not alone because so often with this kind of work, it’s like well, I feel really alone and we feel really alone when we have kids that have these conditions anyway just so you know you’re not alone. And then coming from a space of empathy and openness and learning because we’re all trying to learn how to best support the kids that have these needs.

Vaish:

Yes, it’s been great talking to you I’m I resonate with everything that you said and it’s you know, I am so happy that you’re talking about this. Like I said as I went on my mini soapbox the reading comprehension piece is a huge issue with me is because I hear it all the time. Cognitive labels are a huge issue for me.

My own son has been put through so many cosmetic labels, which were all wrong, but I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with you. So thanks for coming on this

Trent McEntire:

live pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Vaish:

I hope you had fun listening to this podcast. If you’ve not grabbed my free ebook on learning hacks, go ahead and check out functional nutrition for kids.com slash learning. I look forward to seeing you again next week with a brand new episode. Bye