People on the Autism spectrum or with other neuropsychiatric conditions often experiencing distress on a daily bases. This distress comes down to two main issues.

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The first issue is an oversensitive nervous system.

This nervous system is over-responsive to sensory input and can shut people down. The sensory inputs that leads to distress are called bad sensory triggers and are usually man made like fluorescent strip lights, the smell of cleaning solutions like bleach or the humming of a fridge.

The second issue is an overactive Amygdala.

The Amygdala is the fight, flight and freeze part of the brain. It tells the adrenal glands to produce the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol makes you act and narrows your focus to save your life in a threating situation. It cuts the connection between your reptilian brain (cerebellum) responsible for motor coordination and your prefrontal cortex, responsible for logical thinking, planning and emotional regulation. In this state you’re unable to learn or retain information. 

Too much cortisol makes you sick because you are in constant stress. This puts the person in a vicious cycle and results in disruptive behaviour and suffering for the child physically, mentally and emotionally. 

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Our brain is very plastic, that means the brain can change and adapt. 

The solution is not in the brain but in the part that make you move: the hips. Everything that rocks your hips in rhythm makes your body produce the antidote hormone to cortisol called oxytocin. Oxytocin is the happy hormone, produced when we feel good, and it’s the communication hormone.

Through movement we achieve stress reduction and happiness, which enables the brain for learning. Oxytocin gets produced and tells the amygdala to shut down and prefrontal cortex (logic, reason, emotional regulation) becomes accessible. 

We want kids to move as much as possible (yoga balls, trampoline, hanging chairs, alternating sitting spots) because when we move and problem solve we grow brain cells (neuroplasticity) and so brain functions normalise and adapt. 

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