The Brain Developmental Blueprint
There is a specific progression in the development of the brain and nervous system, which is tied to motor and other developmental milestones.
Our Operating System
We are all born with a basic “operating system” in our brain and nervous system, enabling us to walk, talk, think, eat and so on. Though we are born with this basic software, it does not mean anything until we interact with and calibrate our nervous system to the world around us. What initiates this process is movement and active sensing of our world.
However, when a baby is first born, its brain is very immature as most human brain development happens outside of the womb. In other words, our motor cortex is not yet developed and we cannot voluntarily control movement — but we need to move to build our brain.
Understanding Nervous System Regulation: The Master Control System of Health and Development
This complex system can be understood through its key components:
- The Central Nervous System (CNS)
- The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
- The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
When the Nervous System Veers Off Course: Recognizing Dysregulation in Children
Children’s nervous systems are particularly vulnerable to dysregulation because their brains and neural pathways are still developing. Unlike adults with mature regulatory capacities, children often lack the neurological infrastructure to self-correct when their systems become imbalanced. Common signs of nervous system dysregulation in children include:
Emotional and Behavioral Signs:
- Frequent meltdowns or emotional outbursts disproportionate to triggers
- Difficulty with transitions and unexpected changes
- Hyperactivity or excessive lethargy
- Impulsive actions with poor self-control
- Anxiety, excessive worry or fearful reactions
- Aggressive behaviors or extreme shyness
Cognitive and Learning Challenges:
- Poor focus and distractibility
- Difficulty following multi-step instructions
- Problems with working memory and information processing
- Learning delays despite normal intelligence
- Disorganization and poor executive function
Physical and Sensory Symptoms:
- Sensory sensitivities (overreaction to lights, sounds, textures)
- Poor sleep initiation or maintenance
- Frequent headaches or stomach aches
- Digestive issues (constipation, diarrhea, picky eating)
- Low immunity and frequent illnesses
- Poor coordination and motor skills delays
These manifestations aren’t simply behavioral problems or personality traits – they’re neurological distress signals indicating your child’s nervous system is stuck in survival mode and needs targeted support to regain balance.
The “Perfect Storm”: Understanding the Root Causes of Dysregulation
At MaiveBrain, through years of clinical experience and ongoing research, we’ve identified multiple interacting factors that can disrupt nervous system development, creating what we term the “Perfect Storm” of dysregulation:
Prenatal Factors
Birth Trauma and Interventions
Early Childhood Stressors
The Gut-Brain Axis: A Critical Two-Way Communication System
Modern research has revolutionized our understanding of the profound connection between digestive health and brain function. The gut is often called the “second brain” because it contains over 100 million neurons – more than the entire spinal cord – and produces key neurotransmitters including about 90% of the body’s serotonin. The vagus nerve serves as the superhighway connecting these two systems in constant bi-directional communication.
When gut health becomes compromised due to:
- Processed food diets lacking essential nutrients
- Food sensitivities triggering immune responses
- Imbalanced gut microbiome (dysbiosis)
- Digestive issues like leaky gut syndrome
- Chronic inflammation in gastrointestinal tract
It directly and profoundly impacts brain function, contributing to:
- Mood disorders like anxiety and depression
- Attention difficulties and hyperactivity
- Immune dysfunction and autoimmunity
- Behavioral challenges and emotional dysregulation
- Cognitive impairments and learning disabilities
Nervous System Regulation
For parents, there’s nothing more heartbreaking than watching your child struggle with challenges you can’t seem to solve. Maybe it’s frequent meltdowns and tantrums that disrupt daily life that leave you feeling helpless and searching for answers. Or difficulty focusing and keeping up in school despite your best efforts to help them succeed. Perhaps it’s unexplained digestive issues that doctors can’t pinpoint, frequent illnesses that keep them out of school, anxious thoughts that shadow their days, or trouble connecting with peers that leaves them isolated and lonely. You’ve searched tirelessly for answers, read countless books, consulted numerous specialists, but keep coming up short, feeling the frustration grow with each dead end.
If this sounds all too familiar, you’re far from alone in this struggle. The statistics paint a sobering picture of our children’s health crisis. A staggering 37.6% of children now have a diagnosed developmental disability according to the comprehensive Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), representing a dramatic increase from previous generations. Even more alarming, rates of childhood anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges are rising at an unprecedented pace, with up to 1 in 5 kids now affected according to the World Health Organization’s latest reports. In Nigeria specifically, research indicates over 40-50% of children now suffer from at least one chronic illness, with most affected by multiple co-occurring conditions that traditional medicine struggles to address effectively.
Emerging research from leading neuroscientists and developmental experts now points to a common underlying thread connecting these diverse challenges: nervous system dysregulation. When a child’s nervous system becomes chronically imbalanced, it creates cascading effects that manifest differently in each child but share the same root cause. This dysregulation alters everything from basic gut and immune function to complex motor planning and sensory processing capabilities. It profoundly impacts our children’s social skills, emotional stability, behavioral patterns, and cognitive abilities. The nervous system’s role is so fundamental that its dysregulation has been directly linked to developmental delays, speech and language impairments, learning disabilities, and a host of other challenges that frustrate parents and limit children’s potential.
Functional Disconnection
Our team examines and treats the imbalance that affects the two brain hemispheres.
When the development of certain areas is slowed on one side of the brain, it may lead to acceleration in other areas. In most people, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses — but in a developing brain, the weakness may be too great or the strong side of the brain may overpower the weak. This developmental imbalance results in a disability that may be combined with unusual gifts.
Who We Help
What happens in the first six years of life will determine the fate of the adult brain. The brain is still developing until at least our 40s, so new developmental symptoms may not emerge until we are 20, 30, 40 or even older. Through the years, Evasolace has seen many children and adults with a broad spectrum of disorders and conditions, including but not limited to:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorders, including non-verbal
- Dyslexia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Dyscalculia
- Dyspraxia
- Memory Loss
- Some neurodegenerative disorders
- Other mental, attention, behavioral and learning disorders
- Other physical and nutritional issues
Example: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) In ADHD, hyperactivity results from overactive areas in the left hemisphere of the brain, making for too much motor activity, tics or stims.
Attention deficit stems from under activity in the same area on the right hemisphere, which is responsible for the poor sustained attention.
The answer? To inhibit the left side of the brain and activate the right side. To accomplish this, we must also inhibit the primitive reflexes and build balance and stability in the body, starting with the large muscles along the spine. As our bodies develop, initial spinal movements allow us to rollover, crawl and eventually stand upright. Next, we build our inner-ear vestibular balance system, which allows us to walk and maintain balance. Finally, our eye motor system enables us to move our eyes and keep them stable as we walk and move. An imbalance in these systems means there will be an imbalance in the nervous system and brain. Generally, this is known as nerve interference but in the brain, it’s called functional disconnection.
