A BRIEF LOOK AT HANDLE

 

HANDLE's History

In 1994, The HANDLE Institute was established in Seattle, Washington, as an organization which provides training in the HANDLE approach for educators and other professionals concerned with early childhood and special needs populations. The establishment of The HANDLE Institute also helped to create a means to further develop the comprehensive approach encompassed in the HANDLE materials. Together with other members of The HANDLE Institute, Judith Bluestone, the Clinical and Educational Director, is continually expanding the realm of community information, professional training and clinical services provided by the Institute. In the year 2000, several departments at the University of Washington commenced a pilot research project using brain scans to show the effect of HANDLE programs on the structure and functioning of the brain.

 
Foundations of HANDLE

Judith developed her approach from 11 years of academic study, over 35 years of professional practice, continuing education opportunities, and from a lifetime of personal experimentation through which she overcame her own serious neurodevelopmental differences. HANDLE embraces aspects of many other disciplines and therapies, discards those that appear less effective or discordant with basic HANDLE principles, and provides an integrated structure for guiding and enhancing neurodevelopmental substrata which support social and academic learning. It also incorporates aspects of personal motivation and aspirations, and of empowering individuals and families to heal themselves.

 Some of the theories and applications reflected in HANDLE include:

Judith Bluestone (Rabinovich) initially developed the approach which she later named HANDLE (Holistic Approach to NeuroDevelopment and Learning Efficiency) as an outgrowth of her work with the Educational Psychology Services of the Health Center in Kiryat Shmonah, Israel, in 1982. AGIL--the Hebrew precursor of the PreSchool Learning Foundations Inventory (PLFI)--was first distributed in 1985. Judith published the first experimental edition of her intervention manual, I HANDLE, in December 1992. The PLFI, an expanded version of AGIL, was first published in February 1994. and the first experimental edition of the Learning Foundations Inventory (LFI) in July 1994.

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HANDLE 's Educational Model

Because "to educate" means to draw out, education requires an understanding of the dynamic interaction within human subsystems that provide reservoirs and conduits for learning.

From this basis, HANDLE develops an individualized profile of the individual's emerging neurodevelopmental functions, looking for those areas in which the flow is obstructed, and alleviating the blockage. Sometimes this requires opening new reservoirs or building new conduits, sometimes it just requires connecting or strengthening existing ones.

Educators are realizing that continuing to put information into and demands upon subsystems not equipped to process the dynamic flow yields results that are disappointing at best:

  • either the individual disconnects from the stimuli
  • or the individual becomes overloaded and in short time reacts with an outburst.
    •

    In either case, the positive intended learning does not occur and alienation ensues. True education flows from understanding the interactions of both effectual and irregular interdependent subsystems, and by enhancing the match between those subsystems' functions and the demands of the situation.

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    HANDLE 's Unique Perspectives

    HANDLE differs from most other approaches in combining:

    • the degree to which it truly and functionally engages with the individual's environment--internal and external, physical and social, current and historical. 
    • the adherence to the belief that standardization is a construct and not compatible with reality 
    • the provision of a mapping of interactive subsystem functioning in lieu of labeling syndromes 
    • the reliance on the role of movement to organize mental processing as well as to influence the body's biochemistry 
    • the belief that daily, gentle enhancement of functions strengthens the nervous system without causing overload and the resultant ill-effects produced when nervous systems are stressed. 

    As an outgrowth of these precepts, HANDLE is currently addressing, in a new light, two major focuses of contemporary concern: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder. From the HANDLE perspective, the former is a misnomer for Attentional Priority Disorder (APD), an inflexibility in ordering attentional priorities. The latter is viewed as the extreme state of APD, with earlier onset and more pervasive nature, resulting in severe anxiety and compromised body systems including the immune system and digestive system.

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    Populations Served

    HANDLE has achieved significant results among diverse special-needs populations with varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Individuals whose problems are developmental in nature, and those whose disorders were the result of obvious trauma receive help through individualized HANDLE programs. Because HANDLE deals with the interactive and interdependent systems of the individual's body, mind, and environment in a developmentally sound fashion, it has been proven appropriate for persons of all ages. No one is too old for HANDLE.

    Some of those diagnosed syndromes that respond well to HANDLE intervention include:

    Additionally, HANDLE is becoming a leader in understanding and treating disorders and syndromes such as Cerebral Palsy, CHARGE syndrome, Cerebellar Ataxia, Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum, and numerous other central nervous system and autonomic nervous system problems.

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    Types of Activities in a HANDLE Program

    Intervention techniques are practiced in the home or daycare/school setting, in almost all cases. In this way, we encourage that small, measured doses of specific activities are incorporated into daily activities and that organizational patterns strengthened become functional for the individual in his/her environment. We also suggest environmental accommodations, when necessary.

    The recommended activities are simple to perform, and require virtually no special equipment. Each exercise program is specially designed to meet the individual client's specific needs. Some of the more frequently suggested activities involve:

    • drinking from a crazy straw
    • playing follow-the-leader with a flashlight
    • rhythmic ball bouncing
    • copying designs by feel alone
    • catching a suspended ball
    • stepping through a hula hoop "maze"

    Therapy time typically requires approximately a half hour, preferably interspersed throughout the day.

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    Number of Persons Treated

    Judith has personally treated over 4000 individuals and families using HANDLE techniques. Additional thousands of individuals have been treated across the globe by persons trained in her approach. Professionals who have received beginning training in HANDLE observational assessment and intervention techniques are helping children and adults increase their learning efficiency, in all areas of the US, but primarily on the West Coast and the Midwest. In its first 5 years alone, The HANDLE Institute provided clinical services to over 700 individuals. Numerous others periodically contact us to inform us of the benefits they received through the services of one of the thousands of persons who have attended HANDLE presentations.

    From a survey taken during the Institute's first two years of operation, success rate (measured primarily by self-reporting and by reports received from the initial referral source -- e.g., educators, physicians, professionals in neurological rehabilitation) was approximately 90 percent, with most clients noticing significant improvement within the first 6 - 10 weeks of treatment.

    The survey indicated that the major reasons some clients did not experience the expected outcomes were:

    • non-performance of the program because they felt the suggestions were too simplistic
    • extremely sporadic performance of the program, usually because their daily schedule was too busy, as other things were given priority
    • overdoing the program--that is, performing the exercises either more than the recommended number of repetitions or with a sense of stress that "this has to work"
    • inability to continue with the program due to problems in adjusting to dynamic shifts in formerly familiar roles, once initial progress was seen

    As The HANDLE Institute answers growing demands for collaborative projects with schools and throughout the health care community, the number of HANDLE clients will increase tremendously. Using the data generated by these projects, we expect to have published outcome studies available in the near future.

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    Training in HANDLE

    Since 1983, Judith Bluestone and other Certified HANDLE Trainers have provided training to more than 10,000 professionals (special educators, psychologists, early childhood educators, occupational and physical therapists, family counselors, etc.), in countless seminars and workshops in which parents also participated. Hundreds of additional early childhood educators were trained in Israel by others, to whom Judith delegated responsibility for continuing the national projects emanating from her prize-winning programs.

    HANDLE continues to certify instructors to help with the growing world-wide demand for training.  (Click here for a list of Certified HANDLE Trainers.)  Courses are now being offered all across the United States, as well as in Europe and South Africa.

     
    Acknowledgment

    Judith has been a frequent presenter at local, regional, national and international conferences on issues of neurodevelopment, emerging therapies for special-needs populations, and early childhood education. She has been invited to participate on three international tours as a consultant on early childhood special education. Judith's pilot project, employing HANDLE techniques in preschool screening and intervention programs in Israel, won the 1989 National Educational Award. In 2002, Judith received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Case Western Reserve University in recognition of her "extraordinary achievements in her professional career." In 2004, Judith was awarded the prestigious Washington State Jefferson Award, as well as the national 2004 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award, honoring her volunteer activities associated with HANDLE.

    We are most proud, however, of the acknowledgment HANDLE receives from clients and their caregivers who are empowered to dream, and to realize, new dreams of functional "normal" life.

    Copyright © 2003 The HANDLE Institute 

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