ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book

ATHENA/HORSE BOY METHOD – E-BOOK

INTRO PAGE

Welcome to ATHENA (Applied Techniques for Horse-based Educational and Neuroscientific Approaches)/Horse Boy Method’s e-book. Over the following pages we will take you through the basics of the Method from how it started to its current application. Focusing on the six stages of the Method, the 8 Guidelines that ensure the 6 stages are correctly applied and the 5 levels of ATHENA/Horse Boy Method and what they mean.

Please be aware that reading this e-book is simply an introduction and does not qualify or certify anyone to be a ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Practitioner. Use what you feel is relevant and helpful in your practice, but if you do want to advertise yourself as a offering Horse Boy Method/ATHENA we need you to go through a few steps to get started.

Becoming a Practitioner:

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© All rights reserved. Reading this e-book does not qualify any individual as ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Practitioner. Horse Boy LLC not liable for any harm caused by individual applying Methods conveyed in this document.

ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book

A Practitioner is what we call the people that run horse-based program, have taken at least Horse Boy Method 1 and have afterwards gone through an evaluation process to get our stamp of approval.

To become a Practitioner, it is required to take each level of ATHENA/Horse Boy Method as an evaluated course. To get started as a Practitioner with our ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Level 1 course online click here or check here for upcoming live courses.

Get ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Certified Online

Get started here.

If you want to not bother with a certification process but want to take the courses and afterwards just apply what you learned, go for it! We can also list you as Inspired Center which means you offer ATHENA/HBM to the best of your ability but we do not have any knowledge of what exactly that means and therefore you cannot call yourself a Practitioner or advertise Horse Boy Services. But! The more kids we can each by inspiring you with some of our work, the better.

You can find a list of current Practitioners and Inspired Centers here.

A MUST for anybody serious about the work with children on the spectrum:

Also check out our Movement Method kinetic‐learning Program. We strongly recommend that any person working with children with neuro psychiatric conditions should learn Movement Method to make their Equine Therapy sessions as effective as possible.

Get Lesson Plans Now: When working in your program you can make your Equine Therapy sessions much more effective and valuable for the child and family if you work with the family on the academics the child is supposed to master. Here are Lesson Plans, Teaching Strategies and ideas on Teaching Environments for all ages.

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ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book

You need Lesson Plans that hit all great levels and are easy to do, and which most importantly can all be done through movement, which is the key to long term learning. Our Lesson Plans are produced in association with the University of Osnabrück and are cutting edge in making especially math and science both easy and fun as well as active. Your kids will learn without even knowing they are learning: and that is the key to excellence. To access the Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies go here.

Addressing Behaviors: For the children that are working on behavioral issues, social skills, life skills and all the way through self-advocacy, we have nearly 100 lessons totaling approximately 130 pages of written content on the website helping you address behaviors in fun and easy to follow modules. The advice is very practical, and you don’t require any expensive investments. You can get started immediately. We address, among others, speech, potty training, self-advocacy, how to find the right therapist, violence, socially ‘inappropriate’ behaviors and much more. Check out this page for a sample module and join us as Silver member now to get access to all modules.

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ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book

ALSO DOWNLOAD MOVEMENT METHOD – E‐BOOK FREE DOWNLOAD AT

HTTPS://NTLS.CO/IMAGES/NTLS/PDF/MOVEMENTMETHOD-EBOOK.PDF

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ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro page ...... 1

What is ATHENA/Horse Boy Method? ...... 7

How Horse Boy Method Began ...... 8

ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Today ...... 10

THE Science: Why the Method works ...... 13

ATHENA’s/Horse Boy Method’s 6 Stages ...... 15

Environment ...... 15

Sensory Work ...... 16

Back-Riding ...... 17

Rule Based Games, Perspective Taking and Theory of Mind ...... 20

Academics ...... 22

Self Advocacy...... 24

The Guidelines – Creating the right Human Environment ...... 25

Overview ...... 25

Guidelines Group A: Setting yourself up for success ...... 27

Guideline 1: Self-Compassion ...... 27

Guideline 2 – Trust the Experts ...... 29

Guideline 3 – Pick Your Battles ...... 30

Guideline 4 – Follow the Child: ...... 32

Guidelines Group B: Setting the child up for success ...... 34

Guideline 5 – Minimize Attention and Eye Contact ...... 34

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Guideline 6 – Humor ...... 36

Guideline 7 – Allow Time For Innovation and Reflection ...... 38

Guideline 8 – The Right Pressure ...... 40

Some closing thoughts on the Guidelines ...... 42

Conclusion ...... 43

Next Steps ...... 45

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WHAT IS ATHENA/HORSE BOY METHOD?

An effective and simple way of promoting communication, learning, and actual brain building through working with clients and families affected by neuro-psychiatric conditions such as autism, ADD, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety, depression, OCD, eating disorders and anything else that involves information coming from the nervous system to the brain.

Among the many benefits are speech – both from non-verbal to verbal and improving echolalic or other proto-verbal skills; sensory integration, life-skills, academic learning, amelioration of phobias, compulsion, and anti-social behaviors, and vastly improved quality of life not just for the affected person but for their whole family.

Since the first University Study into Horse Boy Method at University of Texas in 2013 concluded that the Method greatly ameliorated neuro-cognitive awareness (i.e. how information goes from the nervous system to the brain), fine and gross motor skills, and family dynamics for affected ASD families struggling to integrate the condition into their daily lives, the Method has also been studied at multiple other universities around the world. For more details read on.

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HOW HORSE BOY METHOD BEGAN

Horse Boy Method began by chance. Autism dad Rupert Isaacson noticed as many autism parents have done, that his son Rowan simply tantrumed less outside. At the time he did not know why this was. However, as a journalist and therefore a trained observer, Rupert intuited that his non-verbal son could only show what he wanted to do by doing it - i.e. kinetically rather than verbally.

A lifelong horseman with a background in jumping and eventing, it did not yet occur to Rupert who had no background in therapeutic riding to put Rowan on a horse.

However, Rowan made his own connection with a mare called Betsy, that belonged to Rupert’s neighbor and his ‘stimming’ (self-stimulatory activity such as rocking, flapping etc.) ceased when lying body to body on the quiet old mares back as she grazed.

When Rupert began riding in a western saddle on Betsy with Rowan held securely in front of him, Rowan’s echolalia became expressive speech. It is worth noting that this was the same week that Rowan’s speech therapist had given up on him. Rupert realized he was onto something and quickly noted that the more he worked in a soft collected rhythm, especially at a very, very collected canter or lope the more speech he got.

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For about 3 years Rowan and Rupert lived in the saddle together for up to 4 hours a day. Rupert took books up there, counted Betsy’s footfalls and started putting them together and began to teach Rowan the literacy and numeracy that his special ed teachers had hitherto found impossible.

Eventually, Rowan and Rupert rode across Mongolia together in an adventure that later became the well-known book and film “The Horse Boy” and through 3 subsequent journeys in Africa, Australia and the Navajo reservation in the American South West that are told in the book “The Long Ride Home”.

Rupert opened a center and began to work with other families in this way systemizing what became Horse Boy Method. Subsequently, we systemized our none horse program Movement Method which is really the basis to Horse Boy Method. It offers guidelines on how to help children escape the vicious negative cycle, calm the nervous system, move, and thus setting up the body and brain for learning and retention of information. If you are serious about your Equine Therapy practice you must also learn Movement Method to learn how to retrain your clients brains and teach everything from basic behaviors to complex math.

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ATHENA/HORSE BOY METHOD TODAY

ATHENA/Horse Boy Method today is the result of more than a decade practical application and research into why our Method is so effective. It’s the only approach for Equine Therapists that really works for the brain and nervous system. Devised by both adult autists themselves and neuro-scientists from in both Europe and the USA. The Method now serves tens of thousands of families in more than 26 countries. It is the cutting edge in the field for not just autism but for ADD, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression, borderline and most other neuro-sensory diagnoses.

Dr. Robert Naviaux, founder of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center (MMDC) - University of California says about ATHENA/Horse Boy Method:

“You’ve hit on a hugely successful way of helping to turn off this danger/stress signal. ... and allay anxiety at a cellular level.”

And Dr. Temple Grandin adds:

“Horse Boy and Movement method provide many new insights into how helping individuals with autism using horses, movement, and immersion in the natural world; novel teaching techniques using play equipment, a car ride, even time on a couch can be done anywhere by anyone and they work!”

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To read the full quotes of Drs. Naviaux and Grandin in relation to Horse Boy's work check out The Science of Learning

Between 2011 and 2013 educational psychologists at the University of Texas found that the Method positively impacted children with autism's sensory processing and cognitive awareness (a child's ability to understand the world around them) which in turn led to decreased anxiety. The method was also found to significantly improve the relationship dynamics of the affected family. Their study was published in 2013 - click here to read it.

Between 2012 and 2014 a neuro-scientist from the Institute Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris (Frances leading brain institute), was resident at the main New Trails Learning Systems Center in Texas and concluded that ATHENA/Horse Boy Method also acted on the cerebellum and pre- frontal cortex, making kids better able to reason and regulate their emotions through enhanced Neuro Trophic Effect. Put simply, the way the children were being moved in the saddle was causing their brains to produce more neurons and to operate more functionally.

Starting in 2015 ATHENA/Horse Boy Method was part of a PhD program on Occupational Therapy at the University of Belmont in Nashville. Also in 2015 the existing University of Texas study is being expanded to include larger data sets, with more studies to be published in 2016 and 2017.

In 2016 Dr. Robert Naviaux, director of the Mitochondrial Institute at the University of California San Diego, and one of the world’s leading neuro-scientists, concluded that ATHENA/Horse Boy Method and Movement Method effectively shut down the cell danger response in the brain and helped brains back to normalized function.

In 2017 two studies - one from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and another from the University of Osnabrück in Germany, assessed the effectiveness of ATHENA/Horse Boy Method and Movement Method respectively and concluded, that both Methods massively enhanced learning in a number of case studies, often from vary "hard to reach" children and adolescents. You can read the abstracts of these studies here. P a g e | 11 Last Updated: 9 May 2019

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Additional studies have been conducted at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and (an ongoing four-year study) at the Open University of the Netherlands. Queens College in New York began an onsite Movement Method program. Our relationship with Osnabrück University continues to provide the academic lesson plans used in the Methods. More studies will follow.

ATHENA/Horse Boy Method is now (May 2019) in 26 countries and rising with upwards of 3,000 people trained. The Deutsche Kuratorium für therapeutisches Reiten (German governing body for therapeutic riding) is in the process of adopting ATHENA/Horse Boy Method as an official autism approach for its therapeutic riding instructors.

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THE SCIENCE: WHY THE METHOD WORKS

To understand ATHENA/Horse Boy Method you need to first understand how two hormones, oxytocin and cortisol, affect a child with autism’s ability to learn. The relationship between these hormones and learning underlies everything that you will read in this e-book.

Cortisol is the stress hormone. It is released by the amygdala and is one of the hormones involved in the flight or fight response. Cortisol is necessary for us to function successfully. It is partly responsible for allowing us to escape from or fight a threat and stay safe. However, it has both a short and long-term effect on our ability to learn. In the short-term cortisol narrows our focus so that all our attention can be directed towards escaping from or fighting the perceived danger. In the long term chronic levels of cortisol have been shown actively corrode learning connections within our brains.

In contrast oxytocin is the feel-good or pleasure hormone. It is an important part of the mammalian care-giving system and has been shown to counteract the corrosive effect of cortisol in the brain. Activities that promote the production of oxytocin include horse riding, hugging, swinging and laughing. Oxytocin allows us to feel safe and when we feel safe we have more attention available to focus on new concepts and learn.

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It is well-established that children with autism have an over-active amygdala which causes increased cortisol production. It is therefore essential to decrease their cortisol production and increase their oxytocin production before we can expect them to learn.

More details on how this effects the nervous system and brain of your child can be found in our Science of Learning Section. This section explains the vicious cycle most children on the spectrum are in, and how the right movement activates not only the production of oxytocin, but also the cerebellum (which helps among others with social skills), activates the production of Purkinje cells which connect all parts of the brain, activates the pre-frontal cortex (reasoning and emotional regulation), the vestibular system (long term learning and attention), and creates BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) increasing IQ effectively.

Make sure to read the Science of Learning and maybe print it also, to make notes. It is the key to understanding why our Methods work.

Click here to read the Science of Learning

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ATHENA’S/HORSE BOY METHOD’S 6 STAGES

THE SIX STAGES OF ATHENA/HORSE BOY METHOD ARE OUTLINED ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES.

ENVIRONMENT

Autists and others with neuro sensory disorders need a natural environment with no bad sensory triggers in order to calm their over-active amygdalas and open up the brain to learning, without the threat of meltdowns. The environment also includes small animals, water, sand, shade, free running space, and involves as many family members as possible.

You need the family members as consultants (you don’t know their child – they do), and they can benefit greatly from the Method too.

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SENSORY WORK

Sensory Work is conducted body to body on a static horse and further calms the over-active nervous system, allowing a relaxed sense of well-being from which the greater work can begin.

We do the sensory work not just with the affected child or adult but also with all family members to reduce the stress suffered by long term living with the challenges of neuro sensory conditions.

Please note that horses need to be specially trained for sensory work and are selected for their pre disposition to the work. Please also note that sensory work is always done with a team of three – one at the horse’s head and two to stabilize the person lying on the horse’s back. It is worth repeating here that the horse is always static, never walking, during sensory work, and that sensory work is always done in a quiet, sheltered place.

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BACK-RIDING

Back Riding or Tandem Riding and Long Lining – NEVER LEADING CHILDREN ON HORSES - in a soft collected rhythm that rocks the pelvis and helps the body to produce the happiness, trust and communication hormone oxytocin which opens the brain for learning. The rider also stabilizes the child with their own body and is a voice in the child’s ear, imparting information without resistance caused by a threatening frontal gaze that the child would have to defend him or herself from.

We can then explore the exterior world, working in nature rather than arenas as much as possible because AUT-ism, means Self-ism (auto is the Greek word for the self) – meaning the child has difficulty relating to the exterior world. The horse can then carry us into the exterior world delightfully, without resistance, filling the body with oxytocin if ridden in soft collected rhythms.

The back-rider also gives deep pressure to the child which people on the autism spectrum often crave.

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If the child or adult is too big to share the saddle or if our riders are not quite up to back-riding (yet) we use long lines for the same effect.

The reason we do not lead horses is because leading a horse means pulling it by its head, pulling the center of gravity onto its shoulders and destroying any chance for the soft collected rhythms. Thus not creating the right environment for the ‘magic’ described in the Science of Learning to happen.

The Basic ATHENA/Horse Boy Practitioner back rides or long lines only at the walk or soft trot. Advanced Practitioners of Star Level 3 and 4 (have completed evaluation for at least ATHENA/Horse Boy Method 4) can work at the soft collected canter or lope.

If you choose to not become a Practitioner but to use our Methods for inspiration and be listed on our website as a Horse Boy Inspired Program, it is of course up to you how much or little of our Method you apply. The important thing is that we serve the families to the best of our abilities.

Back riding and long lining (with an experienced rider) is much, much, safer than leading horses, which often leads to accidents because the leader, in addition to not being able to produce the oxytocin producing rhythms, cannot control the horse from swinging its back end.

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New Trails Learning Systems has, at the time of writing, a zero-accident rate. Many regular therapeutic barns have, by contrast suffered accidents because of this lack of control of the horse’s hind end. That does not mean that accidents can’t happen. It means that we put extra emphasis into the training of the horse and therefore are able to keep the kids we work with safe. Put simply, back- or tandem-riding and long lining are safe and more effective than leading horses by the head.

Please be aware that horses are specially trained for back riding and are prepared and maintained through a process of ongoing lunging and in hand work, requiring a much greater commitment to equestrianism on the part of the Practitioner than that demanded by regular therapeutic or adaptive riding methods.

Please also note however that all ATHENA/Horse Boy horses are specially prepared for this work in ATHENA/Horse Boy Levels 2 and 4. ATHENA’s/Horse Boy’s Back Riding and Tandem Riding methods have been developed in association with leading international dressage and horse training specialists the Valenca Family (who train the Classical horses for the European equestrian theatre spectacular Cavalluna – www.valencaequestriantours.com ), Manuel Trigo and Spanish Riding School of Vienna instructor Christian Bachinger. The highest level of training and thought has gone into how to prepare the Back and Tandem riding horse.

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RULE BASED GAMES, PERSPECTIVE TAKING AND THEORY OF MIND

Once the child is comfortable with back riding (and this can take minutes, hours, days or months – it is always the child who dictates if he or she rides, NEVER the practitioner because communication is what we are after) we can build on this with games and treasure hunts set up to first promote basic communication such as speech, pointing and choice taking, moving on to literacy and numeracy and then gradually introducing academic concepts.

This is always done in a play-style, so the child has no idea he or she is having ;therapy’ or learning, but is simply playing – it is up to us the trained Practitioners to devise the games along the lines of the child’s obsessive interests so that he or she is intrinsically motivated to join in. As many family members as possible are included in the games.

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Horses and small animals are also trick trained so that if a child gives a cue, the animals do something fun, encouraging the child to engage in cause and effect.

The great advantage of using a horse for the games, is that the horse carries the child through the game with a commentary on how the game is organized from the back rider and other participants. After usually 12-24 weeks the child starts to take control of the game, indicating that he or she has taken the information in and that the brain is starting to train itself appropriately.

Please note that all children train their brains through rule based games and perspective exercises but that children on the spectrum frequently lag behind at this. The horse provides the perfect vehicle for them to learn effortlessly.

Please also note however that all ATHENA/Horse Boy horses are specially prepared for this work in ATHENA/Horse Boy Levels 2 and 4.

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ACADEMICS

Once the brain has been prepared with the basic games such as tag and hide and seek, and basic treasure hunts promoting literacy and numeracy, we begin to introduce the national curriculum, teaching kinetically both on and off the horse and always following the child’s choices and obsessive or passionate interests.

Even the upper levels of high school math can be taught this way, including concepts such as median, mean and mode (statistics), long division, advanced geometry and more. To develop these techniques New Trails Learning Systems has teamed up with leading kinetic learning consultants such as the physicist and mathematician Dr. Alfred Ziegler from the University of Osnabrück in Germany, OT PhD students from University of Belmont, and neuro-scientists from the institute Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris and educational psychologists from the University of Texas. Our kinetic learning program is constantly developing and is one of the most exciting parts of New Trails Learning Systems’ programs. In ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Level 1 (as well as our Movement Method courses) we introduce this concept but develop it much further in ATHENA/Horse Boy Level 3.

Also keep in mind here that we have Lesson Plans available on our website and ready to use. Some are designed for one on one sessions and adapted for classrooms, others are designed or the classroom and adapted to the one on one setting. These Lesson Plans and Teaching

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Strategies cover academical subjects from very basic ideas for spelling and counting all through complex math concepts like calculating the area of a circle.

If you are working with children that are currently focusing on life skills, social skills, behaviors, or self-advocacy, make sure to check out our Mini Course: Addressing Behaviors which give you easy to follow practical advice that you can apply in your session as well as give to parents to help them help their children to master those skills. We have at the time of writing close to 100 modules available covering about 130 pages of written content that cover topics like speech, potty training, meltdowns, food, personal hygiene, finding the right therapist and more.

All Mini Courses are available to Silver Members.

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SELF ADVOCACY

By the time the child becomes a young adult they are usually too big to share the saddle with us and we move to the long lines – or, as in all New Trails Learning System programs - if the client decides not to ride we adapt all our kinetic learning processes to non-horse play equipment environments. At this point our objective is to encourage the client to teach us about what interests them – a series of skills introduced in ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Level 1 and then Developed further in ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Levels 3 and 5.

It takes a high degree of tact and deep, almost journalistic listening and savvy on the part of the practitioner to know how to really research the interests of the client and design session around subjects as diverse as the Crusades, Programming, Metallurgy or Grand Theft Auto and from this point gradually shift the emphasis of the conversation from the Practitioner to the client. By the time we are at this stage the client is often able to come into the program as a volunteer or consultant. For example, many graduates of the New Trails Learning Systems’ programs are now employed as spectrum consultants in their home programs, coaching parents through the early stages of how to deal with a child with autism, explaining autism from the inside, and helping with training the families how to get the best results at home. In fact many older New Trails Learning System Clients have gone on to become ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Practitioners or Movement Method Mentors

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THE GUIDELINES – CREATING THE RIGHT HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

OVERVIEW

The Human environment is the most important factor for the child – perhaps even more important than the correct physical environment outlined in the six stages. Bossy horsy people in ‘normal’ therapeutic riding barns routinely put off and traumatize autistic kids, as many parents will attest. To work with autism, one has to realize that the human environment must be loving and nurturing and reassuring at all times.

Imagine you are working with a very skittish three year old colt. The same rules apply. Go gently, gently, gently… And realize that the buck stops with YOU. Not everyone is cut out to work with young horses or with special needs kids, especially those ruled by anxiety, as most children on the autism spectrum are. So, take an honest look at yourself – do you have the patience, the love, the willingness to abandon your set ideas, that this work will entail? If yes, then let’s go on.

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YOU can make a bad environment good or a good environment bad – remember this. If it has to be your way all the time (and let’s be honest, many horsy people are like this), perhaps autism isn’t the best field of work for you.

To be successful with autism, it’s all about how you apply the six stages already outlined. That’s what these guidelines are here to help you with. It’s all in the application. No matter how great your physical environment or your horses are you won’t get very far if you do not follow the guidelines laid out below.

✓ Be flexible ✓ Be creative ✓ Be loving and sympathetic ✓ It is essential to know the child you are working with really well. ✓ If the child is having a bad day then don’t try and do anything other than help them get through it. You can come back to what you were trying to do later. ✓ Listen to the child. Observe the child. Follow the child.

Creating the right human environment is covered in-depth during our Movement Method Level 1 & 2 online course.

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GUIDELINES GROUP A: SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS

GUIDELINE 1: SELF-COMPASSION

TO GIVE IT TO OTHERS YOU HAVE TO START WITH YOURSELF

Teaching or caring for a child with autism can be tough. Self-compassion helps prevent burn out. Self-compassion involves treating yourself as you would a much loved friend of family member. Self-compassion involves reminding yourself that suffering is part of the shared human experience. This can help protect against the social isolation and loneliness that many autism parents feel. A simple self-compassion exercise involves holding your hand over your heart and giving yourself comfort. This is called the ‘self-compassion break’.

Self-compassion is not self-pity of self-indulgence. A self-compassionate person forgives themselves for their mistakes and helps themselves try to prevent the same thing from happening again. Self-compassion is associated with the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is the feel-good hormone. Self-compassion is associated with reduced risk of stress, anxiety and depression.

Research shows that parental stress level is the most important predictor of child outcome in early intervention treatment programs. Self-compassion is immensely beneficial to the parent/practitioner and the child. Self-compassion is an old Buddhist concept, however there are a few researchers and experts researching the field. In particular check out Paul Gilbert a compassion research from the University of Derby: https://www.amazon.com/Paul-

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Gilbert/e/B001IOHAYG/ and Brene Brown a shame and vulnerability researcher at the University in Houston: https://www.amazon.com/Bren%C3%A9-Brown/e/B001JP45BA/ and https://youtu.be/iCvmsMzlF7o.

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GUIDELINE 2 – TRUST THE EXPERTS

THE EXPERTS ARE NOT THE PROFESSIONALS AND THERAPISTS, THEY ARE THE PARENTS, SIBLINGS AND PRIMARY CARE-GIVERS

Why? Because the parents, siblings and primary care-givers (experts) are the ones who really know the child. You do not know the child as they do and never will. Allow them to guide you. Include them in every stage of the work and defer to their judgement.

Parents and siblings are often made to feel unimportant and ignored at regular therapeutic riding sessions and by autism/OT/ABA professionals in general. This is always a mistake.

School yourself to do the exact opposite. Don’t just include the parents and siblings but actively let them guide you. You will optimize your chances of success if you work with and not against the child’s experts

The child’s experts can act as interpreters – they will tell you what a sound or gesture means and how to act from that point – something you would have to live with the child 24/7 to know. The child’s experts are in the best position to judge when and when not to apply a little bit of pressure. So consult with the experts each and every step of the way. Goals should be created and shaped by the experts not ever enforced on them by the professionals. Be humble, no matter how many kids you’ve worked with. Mothers always know best – and so do siblings.

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GUIDELINE 3 – PICK YOUR BATTLES

Because we let the child guide us and like our structures to be invisible to the child (and therefore not irksome), a common misconception is that in ATHENA/Horse Boy Method there are no boundaries. Nothing could be further from the truth. But our boundaries, like all rational boundaries, are flexible and dictated by the context as much as by obvious rules such as safety. So, in a nutshell, New Trails Learning Systems’ boundaries are flexible and based around physical safety.

For example, when a child is 5 it doesn’t matter whether or not they sit to eat at a restaurant. When a child is 15 it does. Boundaries change as the child gets older and develops and societal expectation become more acute.

We call this ‘picking your battles’. If you do decide that the child has a behavior that might compromise his or her safety, don’t over-react – unless it’s an emergency don’t behave as if it is an emergency as this will spook the child and also communicate that you are prone to hysteria and therefore not to be trusted. If there is no immediate threat, strategize. Don’t change boundaries or introduce new ones suddenly and arbitrarily. Give the child time to get used to a new boundary or new situation.

Explain to the child why you have set a boundary or why a rule is changing. Even if they are non-verbal. Never answer with ‘because I say so’, or ‘because it’s not safe’ – EXPLAIN why it’s

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ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book not safe. Sing songs around it. Make jokes around it. Make the child feel safe and that they haven’t done something wrong.

Now do the hardest, but most effective thing for an adult to do to a child – APOLOGIZE. Apologize that society sets these arbitrary boundaries that you have to follow. Again explain why and that it’s only because you want to keep them safe. This will show the child that you really do see things clearly. If you cannot apologize, please do not work with autistic children.

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GUIDELINE 4 – FOLLOW THE CHILD:

This is one of the hardest guidelines to follow as almost none of us were brought up this way. But if you don’t follow the child with autism, your chances for success are very low. Following the child is essential, both physically AND mentally.

If you follow the child, you do everything around their interests, be it Thomas the Tank Engine, Twilight or Ornithology, and will design all your playdates for that child - accordingly the child will be intrinsically motivated to participate and progress and will not resist the process.

This creates the Holy Grail – the child that says YES to learning and to new situations.

The opposite of this is ‘extrinsic motivation’ – which is reward based learning e.g. you do this and I will give you a sticker, good grade, money. Most regular therapeutic barns, most school systems, ABA and most work environments are based on extrinsic motivation. Typically the results they get with autism are limited at best.

Studies show that extrinsic motivation undermines independent learning and leads to superficial learning that does not generalize across different contexts and does not ‘stick’ in the brain. Remember how you crammed for that math and physics exam at college to get a grade? Remember any of it now? Exactly. P a g e | 32 Last Updated: 9 May 2019

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By contrast, intrinsic motivation refers to WANTING to learn and understand for learning’s own sake because you are interested in the topic at hand. Research shows that intrinsic motivation leads to long term retention of information. So ALWAYS use the child’s interests to communicate with and teach them. Do not use the child’s interests as a reward but as the environment and context you set up to teach him or her everything.

So find out from the parents and siblings what the child loves and do everything around that. OBSERVE, OBSERVE, OBSERVE – what does the child like to do? Do that with him. If it’s a stim, observe and join in the stim. Stims can be turned into skills. Ask any adult autist.

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GUIDELINES GROUP B: SETTING THE CHILD UP FOR SUCCESS

GUIDELINE 5 – MINIMIZE ATTENTION AND EYE CONTACT

Never demand either eye contact or attention. Rather set up an environment of intrinsic motivation and trust in which the child offers it willingly. And learn to discern when the child is taking in information without looking at you, as you do when listening to the radio while driving or doing chores. Remember never to ask for much – the average adult attention span is only 10 minutes. Children need to be taught in much, much smaller increments.

In fact, although adults can learn to extend their attention spans beyond what is natural, many studies have shown that this can lead to stress and anxiety and depression. Why then are children expected to sit still and pay attention for up to 1 hour at a time and labelled a problem if they are unable to do this? An autistic child will completely shut down if you do this, and with good reason – you have overloaded their nervous system and given them no choice.

It’s simple to avoid this mistake - make activities short but don’t stop a child when they are absorbed in an activity. That’s counterproductive. Also understand that a lack of sustained eye contact is one of the key markers of autism. The reason: research shows eye contact activates the amygdala and triggers the released of cortisol, the stress and fight/fight/freeze hormone.

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So train yourself to abandon any preconceived notions that you have about eye contact being essential for attention. Trust that a child who is not making eye contact is still absorbing what you are saying. Take this one step further. Trust that a child was is not only not making eye contact but talking about or doing something else is still paying attention.

Also – and this is a common mistake - don’t talk about ANY child as if they are not there. Remember just because they don’t appear to be paying attention doesn’t mean that they are not taking in what you are saying.

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GUIDELINE 6 – HUMOR

Laughter automatically decreases cortisol production and increases oxytocin production, and oxytocin promotes communication, which is our goal.

Laughter also increases blood flow to the brain and therefore attention.

Laughter reduces stress, anxiety and depression.

So BE FUNNY. If there hasn’t been a laugh for a few moments, create one. Sing, dance, play and if all else fails – FART. Why Fart?

Toilet Humor is your friend. Kids love and respond to anarchy/rebellion. If you introduce concepts this way they will never resist what you are trying to teach them.

Allowing yourself to be silly also promotes trust and communication. The sillier you are the more the child will see you as someone worth communicating with.

Laughter and humor allows for YES. Rather than shutting down an antisocial activity or unsafe behavior, try and turn it into a silly game. If you do this you will find that you dramatically reduce your use of the word ‘no’. This in turn will get you more trust and communication. P a g e | 36 Last Updated: 9 May 2019

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Teach history through toilets, chemistry through farts, and the human body and biology through digestion. Be creative.

Laughter Therapy has been shown to be a more effective form of pain relief than medication.

Remember oxytocin promotes learning.

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GUIDELINE 7 – ALLOW TIME FOR INNOVATION AND REFLECTION

During your playdates, don’t overwhelm the kid with constant activity. When they need to just sit and dream or stim or play for a while quietly – let them. Why? Environmental instability led to the extremely flexible way our brains are wired. This is what allowed us to develop the ability to solve problems through exploration. Part of this requires time to digest information through mental retreat time.

According to world class molecular biologist, John Medina, humans are natural explorers and babies are born with unrelenting curiosity. So much so that some scientists describe curiosity as a ‘drive’.

Our brains retain the ability to learn in this way all our lives, but we can become anesthetized to the joy of discovery – in fact this happened to many of us during our educations. Sadly, children are often forced to learn that education means getting an A and start to acquire knowledge in order to get something rather than because it is interesting in and of itself. The result is that the information doesn’t stick in the brain.

Extensive studies have shown that, contrary to traditional perception, it is children who spend less time in structured activities and more time playing and exploring that have better self- directed executive function and success in later life. P a g e | 38 Last Updated: 9 May 2019

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The world’s most innovative companies, such as Google and Facebook, understand this and give their employee’s the option of spending 20% of their time exploring where their mind wants to go. Children should be given the same freedom if we want to train leaders. So allow time in EVERY playdate to explore with no agenda other than exploration.

Remember, the YES environment – encourages exploration and curiosity.

Exploration = Curiosity = learning that stays in the brain.

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GUIDELINE 8 – THE RIGHT PRESSURE

Children with autism often respond to pressure by shutting down or melting down because pressure causes activation of the amygdala and the release of cortisol. Pressure therefore triggers the flight, fight or freeze response. With autistic people this response is acute.

So be careful not to pressure a child to comply with your agenda. Listen to what they are telling you. If the child is non-verbal they will show you with their bodies what they do and do not want to do. Ignore this at your peril. If they clearly don’t want to do something don’t force them too.

There is a middle ground here: this does not mean you should not have an agenda. Just be ready to abandon it at a moment’s notice and be flexible. Remember you can always come back to it later.

Good strategies for taking the pressure off the child include talking to another adult, animal, or even a toy in their presence about a new topic. Give them a chance to become comfortable with it before asking them to become more involved. Also - ask questions constantly but do not demand a response. Model (give) the response yourself immediately after ‘theoretically’ posing the question. The child will feel safe and be able to take in the information.

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Resist the temptation to then test the child – this will trigger the amygdala and shut the child down. Rather create constant opportunities in which the child can show their knowledge without ever expecting or demanding them to know their knowledge.

Treasure hunts organized around a mix of the child’s passionate interests and the concept you are trying to teach are a good way to do this. The kids will often surprise you with how much they will spontaneously show you they have learned.

Take the pressure off yourself too. And if you slip up forgive yourself, apologize to the child, give them love and try again tomorrow.

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SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS ON THE GUIDELINES

Always ask yourself these questions:

✓ Have I researched the child’s passionate interests and am I designing everything around them? ✓ Am I giving the child opportunities to show their knowledge without ever expecting or demanding them to do so? ✓ Am I flexible and willing let go of my agenda at a moment’s notice? ✓ Do I know the sense of humor of the child I am working with? How can I use their sense of humor in their learning? ✓ Am I being a bossy-pants? If so, should I apologize, back off and change direction/approach? ✓ Am I consulting with the experts – the parents and siblings? ✓ Is there enough laughter and silliness? ✓ Am I too attached to getting the child on a horse when he/she is clearly happy with another activity? ✓ Do I truly understand the dangers of activating the amygdala and do I take seriously the need to produce oxytocin – whether through training my horses in collection so they can physically produce it in the child, promoting laughter and reassurance, or simply listening and following the child in a way that makes them feel continually nurtured and safe?

Also check out our Mini Course: Addressing Behaviors. These lessons are full with good tips and questions to ask yourself or your therapist and teacher for the most common behavioral issues children with autism are dealing with. We cover meltdowns, potty training, violence, speech, socially inappropriate behaviors and much more. You can find the course here. To access all details, join us as Silver Member.

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CONCLUSION

Remember – In Horse Boy Method we have to be horse training obsessives, training our horses to a much higher degree than in the regular therapeutic world. At the same time we have to be ready to abandon work with the horse if the child shows us that is what they need. Flexibility, curiosity and commitment to excellence both on and off the horse are the keys.

Remember we are not here to teach children horsemanship or how to ride – though obviously if that is what they want to do we go with it. Rather, we are at their service with our horses. Imagine yourself as the keeper of the royal stables, and the child is the king or queen. The kid or queen will ride as much or as little as they like for pleasure, a parade, the hunt, or to go visiting. It is up to us to provide them with the most schooled, excellent mount and partner we can whether it’s for two hours or ten seconds. That’s our job. We and the horse are professional partners in service.

Remember to that we call ATHENA/Horse Boy sessions ‘playdates’ for a reason. Yes the child is learning. Yes they are kept within safe but flexible boundaries. But it is up to us to make those boundaries and lessons imperceptible to the child. The better our skill, our tact, the more learning feels like play, the more the child will learn and develop. Kick the work therapy out of P a g e | 43 Last Updated: 9 May 2019

ATHENA/Horse Boy Method – Intro E-Book your vocabulary around the children. Most of the kids who come to you are ‘therapied’ out – literally exhausted by it. We do not want to communicate to a child that they are a problem to fix. Autism is not a problem to be fixed, it’s a perfectly valid personality type – ask any successful adult autist, and there are plenty to ask. Of course there are skills to learn and challenges to overcome in order to survive and thrive. That’s where we come in. But we never make the child feel that they need therapy. Never. How would you like it?

Above all, remember to enjoy.

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NEXT STEPS

If you would like to become a basic ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Practitioner, take the ATHENA/Horse Boy Method Level 1 online course or a live course near you and follow the guidelines for registering as a Practitioner.

To go beyond basic Practitioner status and start gaining star ratings;

• Take ATHENA/Horse Boy Method 3 which covers how to create goals, build a curriculum and create activities based around a child’s interest. • We have trainers around the world. Check out somebody close to you here. • To find a Practitioners to work with your child, check this page.

So, get started NOW! Check out the courses and also take advantage of the Silver and Gold Member Benefits by upgrading today!

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Get Lesson Plans Now: Are you a Home‐Schooler, or a classroom teacher seeking a more creative approach? You need Lesson Plans that hit all great levels and are easy to do, and which most importantly can all be done through movement, which is the key to long term learning.

Our Lesson Plans are produced in association with the University of Osnabrück and are cutting edge in making especially math and science both easy and fun as well as active. Your kids will learn without even knowing they are learning: and that is the key to excellence.

To access the Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies go here.

Start the Mini Course: Addressing Behaviors Now: We have nearly 100 lessons totaling approximately 130 pages of written content on the website helping you address difficulties you are currently facing with your child in easy to follow modules.

The advice is very practical, and you don’t require any expensive investments. You can get started immediately. We address, among others, speech, potty training, self-advocacy, how to find the right therapist, violence, socially ‘inappropriate’ behaviors and much more. Check out this page for a sample module on “Losing the fear of the toilet” and this one for “Meltdowns and how to grow beyond them”, and join us as Silver member now to get access to all modules.

Take Movement Method 1 & 2 Online Certification Course If you want to learn Movement Method and offer it to families or work with your own child, you can choose to learn online or in a live course. To find out more about our online course, read more below, or click here to get started with the course now.

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