Available from all Certified HANDLE Screeners and most Certified HANDLE Practitioners
The HANDLE Screening is intended for individuals 5 years old and older, with mild learning and behavioral challenges. The goal of the screening is to discover which sensory systems may be contributing to academic, work and behavioral difficulties or which may impede future learning.
A Certified HANDLE Screener introduces a series of tasks the client performs that are designed to help the HANDLE Screener observe the client's processing ability. Some of the areas observed include: auditory sequential memory, eye teaming and tracking, differentiation, balance, muscle tone, and sensory integration. A screening typically takes about a half hour.
From the observations made and information from an intake questionnaire the Screener creates a neurodevelopmental profile and designs a short program of deceptively simple HANDLE movement activities that help to strengthen and integrate weak, disorganized or immature systems. The movements help the brain to organize and process information more efficiently, which typically leads to improvements such as better attention and focus, increased ability to follow instructions or to sit still, enhanced visual ability for tracking and for changing focus from near to far; strengthened impulse control and better handwriting.
The Screener explains the findings, teaches the activities, provides written instructions and any materials needed to go home and do the activities. The Screener may also offer nutritional recommendations to enhance the brain’s functioning, along with suggestions for compensatory measures that the client may wish to employ to reduce stress while working on his or her program.
If the results of the screening show that the scope of the client’s needs are outside of the parameters of a screening program, the Certified Screener may recommend a full HANDLE evaluation and treatment program.