The cooperative element of Bal-A-Vis-X is what makes it the most fascinating to me. Fostering peer involvement among children who have neurological damage is a critical element of their education, yet the one most often ignored. Your program teaches instinctive harmony, teaching the way teaching was meant to be but all too often is not.

I was at your conference in the Detroit area last June. As an occupational therapist, I have been using Bal-A-vis-X with all my students--from the severely impaired to those with minor neurological impairments--and I’ve been amazed with the results. The improvements in bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, tracking, as well as improvements in handwriting, have been incredible. Of course I also use other therapy modes, but Bal-A-Vis-X has been the most successful.

This short note is to inform you of what has happened since I took your class three weeks ago. This was my second training with you. The first time was last summer and I have to admit I didn’t do much with it last school year. But after this year’s class I got out some old racquetballs I had laying around and kept practicing. Well, for many years I have played golf with some guys. The Thursday Group. All this time I have averaged 83-90 strokes. The day after your class ended I told our high school girls’ basketball coach the story you told us, about the girls coach whose team lost only two games in a season and both times someone forgot to pack the racquetballs they always worked out with before a game. Then I mentioned that since I’d just taken your class for three days, I’d probably have the golf game of my life this Thursday. Amazingly enough I shot a 78, my very best round of golf ever. Wanting to see if there was really something to this, I continued to work with the racquetballs the next week, and on a completely different course I shot another 78. Everybody in my group says they can’t believe I’m playing like this. Once again I continued with the balls to see if the streak would last. I am happy to report that this week’s round produced a 76, only 4 over par, and believe me I have lots of people now believing in Bal-A-Vis-X. I thought you might get a kick out of hearing this sort of thing.

Bill, I attended your workshop on Long Island this past summer and wanted to drop you a note. I’ve been using Bal-A-Vis-X with many of the students on my case load (I’m a k-5 occupational therapist) and have already seen, in just a few short weeks, benefits in a variety of ways. Especially poignant is a 2nd grade girl who had a stroke in utero which significantly impaired her left side. Last year she worked on learning yoga postures, to help elongate muscles, and various balance and bilateral activities. This year, in such a short time, the 2-ball rectangle BAVX exercise has done more for her than any yoga posture. Even better, her 15-yr-old brother now has an activity he can do with her. And she’s his teacher!

A____ is the little red-haired student who did not want to be touched when we came to your Lab last week. She has Asperger’s syndrome. But she has blossomed this year in the BAVX program. More than ever I could have imagined she could. Friday she led our session in a rhythm exercise, using the one-ball triangle (bounce-catch-clap) just as she was taught by one of your Lab students. It was unbelievable to watch her as each student joined her one by one. The rhythm . . . it came . . . growing louder and louder . . . the hair on the back of my neck stood up. A____ and rhythm and the others following . . . it was one of those moments. Every child learns. Even if we fail to see it at the time. She was smiling, Bill, and I was so proud of her. Thanks for that one. And, as always, thank your Lab students for me.

Donaji was picked out by Elsa, school principal, early on when we started doing BAVX at ECA (a public elementary school) in 2004. She was a frightened and very timid little girl with low self-esteem. I vividly remember her in our first session, her eyes glazed, in a kind of stupor, seemingly confused as to what planet she was on. Well, if I could show you Donaji today, Bill. Now she’s a real sparkler! Full of beans, super confident and enthusiastic, and the MOST PASSIONATE girl we have in the whole school for BAVX. It is a total and impressive transformation . . .