Are you curious about neurofeedback for your child? A doctor or therapist may have recommended it to your family, or you might have seen it mentioned somewhere and are wondering if it could help improve your child’s struggles.
This article will explain what neurofeedback therapy is, how it can help children, and what sessions are like. By the end, you’ll be able to decide if it’s something you’d like to explore.
What is neurofeedback therapy?
Neurofeedback therapy is a type of biofeedback, or an exercise that gives your brain rewards when it is functioning well. It is sometimes called brain wave training, because it teaches your brain to use the right kind of waves to support healthier thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.
When someone’s brain waves are not healthy, they can have problems with:
- Sleeping
- Focusing
- Learning
- Being productive
- Studying or working
- Communicating
- Getting along with others
- Managing emotions
For some children, neurofeedback can help improve these problems. It can be especially helpful if they already have other types of support. This might include medication, environmental supports (like distraction-free zones, visual plans, or sensory tools), as well as counselling, physio, OT, or other types of therapy.
Neurofeedback works best when the child has good support around them because the exercises make their brain more receptive to learning, so they get a bigger benefit from the other therapies.
It is often recommended for children who have ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, brain injury, or a history of trauma.
What does a neurofeedback program look like?
At Rocky Mountain Psychological Services, our neurofeedback programs include five elements:
- Neurofeedback Consultation – a 1-hour session with our clinic director to discuss your child’s challenges and goals, review their existing supports, assess whether neurofeedback might be a good fit, and develop individualised recommendations for their overall care plan.
- Brain Map – a 1.5-hour session where we capture a QEEG or “Brain Map”, which records your child’s brain activity and helps us spot which areas are dysregulated.
- Feedback Session – a 1-hour session where we share the results of the Brain Map with you (along with any other assessments we performed). We’ll explain what the map shows about your child’s brain profile, what types of brain activity we’ll be training, and any other recommendations we have to help them get the most benefit from the program.
- Neurofeedback Training – a series of 1-hour sessions where your child “exercises” their brain using videos and music tracks to train the type of brain activity that will improve their symptoms.
- Progress Reporting – during each training session, we will have you complete questionnaires about your child’s behaviour and wellbeing at home. These will allow us to monitor together how well the neurofeedback program is meeting your family’s goals and make adjustments as needed. After the 20th training session, we will discuss the progress made towards these goals and, if deemed necessary, prompt you to book a follow up Brain Map and another round of neurofeedback training sessions for your child.
How does neurofeedback work?
Neurofeedback therapy has two parts:
- Brain Maps
- Training Sessions
1. Brain Maps
Brain maps use special sensors to take a picture called a QEEG. The brain map shows us where the brain is using healthy brain waves, and where unusual waves might be causing problems.
The brain map helps us decide which training exercises to add to your child’s program.
How do brain maps work?
The brain map is made by taking a brain scan called a QEEG, which measures your child’s brain activity and creates a report. The report shows where the waves are moving too fast or too slow, if any areas are being used too much or too little, and if brain areas are communicating well with each other or not.
What is it like to get a brain map?
When your child has a brain mapping session, they put a cap on their head that looks like a swim cap with lots of sensors with cables coming out of it. The sensors sit on your child’s head and measure their brain waves, while the cables send that information to the computer, which records the electrical activity in the brain and produces the map image.
Does the brain map hurt?
The sensors don’t hurt at all. Some people worry that their child might feel zaps, but the sensors are not putting out energy. It’s just like using a thermometer–you’re not sending energy into their body, just reading the activity inside.
One thing that feels funny for some children is the sensor gel. The technician will put a clear gel on the sensors to help them read the electrical activity in your child’s brain. It feels a little bit cold and will get into your child’s hair. You can wash it off after the session.
We will also put little clips on your child’s earlobes, which help the cap to read signals all over the brain. They should not be wearing earrings for these sessions.
How long does a brain map take?
The brain map takes about 45 minutes to complete. Because children can be squirmy, it can take a few tries to get a good picture of their brain activity. That’s alright. The technicians are very patient and skilled at helping children relax.
Once your child is all ready, with the cap on and each sensor filled with gel, the brain map begins. Your child will sit very still. There will be two parts. For one, they will close your eyes and relax. For the other, they will keep their eyes open, look at something straight ahead, and stay nice and still. The technician will keep a close eye on them and offer comforts like a weighted blanket or a break to get the wiggles out if needed.
What if my child is anxious or restless?
We will gather lots of information about your child before the brain map session to make sure we understand how we can help them feel safe during the session.
This can include having you complete questionnaires and perhaps having your child do some measures of attention or other assessments that are appropriate based on your child’s individual needs and presenting issues.
Once the brain map is done, your child can take off the cap and clean up their hair.
What happens after the brain map?
The rest of the 1.5-hour session will include completing any other assessments that need to be done, or the technician reviewing and writing up your child’s assessments results.
We will share the data with you at the feedback meeting. We’ll show you the brain map and explain what it and the other data we have gathered shows about your child’s unique brain activity patterns. Based on the problems that are most important to you, we will explain which brain patterns we will focus on changing for their neurofeedback training.
2. Neurofeedback Training
Neurofeedback training is the exercise part of the therapy. Based on the symptoms we want to improve for your child, we will set up the neurofeedback system to work on the areas and types of brain wave patterns that are known to help.
How does neurofeedback training work?
Neurofeedback training changes the way a person’s brain works by rewarding it whenever it does the desired type of brain activity.
What are neurofeedback training sessions like?
Neurofeedback training is an excellent modality for children because it’s easy and doesn’t require them to implement strategies.
Instead of being asked to follow a lot of hard instructions, the child simply wears sensors on their head and ears and engages in an activity such as watching a video of their choice.
While watching the video or listening to music, the child’s brain receives feedback in the form of subtle changes in the video or sound. When the child’s brain is making the desired type of brain waves, they might hear special beeps or see the video become more clear and focused.
When the child’s brain is not making the targeted pattern of brainwaves, the audio and visual feedback fade. Our brains love clear sensory input, so those subtle changes in the video and sound are quite rewarding.
Just like learning to ride a bike, the brain figures out what it needs to do to get the rewarding feedback (i.e., hearing the audio, seeing the video clearly).
This is a very direct and gentle way to teach the brain to do the new activity. This type of teaching is different than applying a strategy. Strategies are good and useful, but they sometimes can’t help if the brain is dysregulated.
Neurofeedback helps the brain get better at regulating, so the child can finally make use of their strategies and supports. It helps make their thoughts, emotions, and behaviour more manageable and productive.
Neurofeedback FAQs
What if my child fails at the training task?
The cool thing is that the training is set for success. The technician will set a threshold so that your child’s brain is rewarded when it does something even closely resembling what it is being asked to do.
If you’ve ever played the game “hotter” and “colder” with one person closing their eyes and the other person telling them whether they are getting closer (hotter) or farther away (colder), neurofeedback is set up the same way.
When the child’s brain is getting “closer” to what it is being asked to do, it is rewarded with audio and/or visual feedback. The more the brain practises working in this way, the easier it gets, and the brain can operate in this healthier way more often.
How long does it take to notice improvements from neurofeedback?
Most experts say that you can expect to start seeing changes in roughly 5-10 sessions. Some people notice changes after the first session. If we’re seeing your child twice a week, that would mean roughly 2.5 to 5 weeks.
If we’re not seeing changes after the first 5 sessions, we will talk with you about whether neurofeedback is a good fit for your child’s treatment plan.
A full course of neurofeedback is usually around 20 sessions, but depending on the complexity of the issues, it can take longer.
At our clinic, we check progress every week by checking in on goals we have set with you. This, in addition to what we’re seeing in session, helps us track progress towards the goals and any other benefits you’re noticing.
It’s important to us to monitor your child’s progress so we can quickly identify if there is anything we need to change in their program. We don’t want to waste precious time or resources on an approach that isn’t working.
What if my child has sensory, behavioural, or emotional issues that interfere with neurofeedback sessions?
For some children, certain aspects of neurofeedback can be challenging. They may struggle with the feeling of the cap, the skin prep gel, having the electrodes on their head, or the ear clips. Some children have trouble sitting still, and others may feel anxious about doing something new.
Our team members have many years of experience working with children, including those with autism, ADHD, anxiety, brain injury, and a history of trauma. We specialise in connecting at their level and adapting our plans to meet the child where they’re at.
Some of the ways we can help your child feel at ease include:
- Creating a program to help make them gradually comfortable enough to get a full brain map
- Explaining what’s going to happen in language they can understand
- Reassuring them the equipment won’t hurt
- Showing them their brain map
- Using a social story with lots of pictures for children with autism
- Shortening the session for children who are restless
- Pausing the session for a break to get the wiggles out
- Letting small children sit on their parents’ lap
- Using kid-friendly videos and music
- Offering a weighted blanket
- Making sure that children with anxiety or trauma have counselling in place in addition to the neurofeedback
- Monitoring the child during sessions for signs of discomfort and getting updates from parents about any unwanted effects they notice at home
- Skipping the brain map if it’s too uncomfortable and just working on training based on their symptoms and needs
Can my child with autism participate in neurofeedback?
Our team has worked with many children and adults with autism. One of the great things about neurofeedback is that it doesn’t rely heavily on verbal communication or implementing strategies.
We watch the client carefully for their reactions and communicate with them nonverbally as needed. We also get input from the caregivers about the type of things they like and don’t like so we can make the session more comfortable for them.
Are there any children who should not try neurofeedback?
Neurofeedback is generally considered safe, but there are a couple of situations where parents should have caution:
- When a child has a head injury or a history of seizures or stroke, it’s important to consult with the neurologist and make sure they approve of the child trying neurofeedback.
- There are certain medications that can inhibit the brain’s ability to learn from neurofeedback training. Talk to your psychologist/neurofeedback technician about medications your child is taking.
Does neurofeedback have any side effects?
For most people, the side effects of neurofeedback are generally mild and look like signs that your child’s brain has been working very hard. This can include things like:
- Headache
- Feeling very tired or a bit wired
- Feeling cranky or extra emotional
It can be a good idea to plan a calm, easy evening after each neurofeedback session.
These sensations usually pass within a few hours, or rarely may last a day or two. It’s important to let us know what you notice after sessions so we can recognize whether we should continue with the same program or alter it a bit next time.
Does it matter if neurofeedback is done in a Psychology clinic?
Although neurofeedback equipment is available to anyone, there are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to get neurotherapy from a qualified mental health professional:
- Registered mental health professionals are held to high ethical standards by our professional associations. We are required to give you accurate, trustworthy information so you can make informed decisions about your child’s care.
This means we need to explain our treatment plans, tell you about any risks they may have, and be realistic about the potential benefits.
- Experienced mental health professionals are also skilled at noticing when a client is having a psychological reaction during a session (e.g., trauma response).
Sometimes neurofeedback can trigger traumatic memories. Our team is comprised of a Registered Psychologist, Registered Provisional Psychologists and Psychological Assistants who have training and protocols in place to support your child and help them cope with any intense emotions and feel safe again.
- At Rocky Mountain Psychological Services, one of the things that makes us special is that we don’t take it for granted that your child’s treatment plan is working.
We regularly check in with you about the goals that are most important to you, capture your child’s progress in training sessions and parent questionnaires, and share the results with you so we can evaluate the program together.
This high level of accountability sets us apart from many other neurofeedback providers.
Is Neurofeedback Right for Your Child?
Now that you’ve learned what neurofeedback is, how brain maps and training sessions work, and what the experience would be like for your child, you probably have a sense about whether you’d like to explore it further.
Neurofeedback can be a very helpful tool to add to your child’s toolbox for issues like ADHD, autism, brain injury, anxiety, and depression.
To book neurofeedback therapy, please reach out!
We would love to talk with you and answer your questions about your child’s unique needs, your family’s goals, and how we can help design a program to make your child’s life easier.
rmpsychservices.com