The Brain Development Podcast

He Couldn't Sit Still… Now He Sits and Reads Books! – A little boy’s Brain Development JourneyWhat if your child could finally slow down, feel calmer and begin engaging in activities they previously struggled with? For many parents of children with sensory processing difficulties, developmental delays or challenges with attention and regulation, everyday activities like sitting down to enjoy a...

Better Sleep, More Eye Contact, More Connection – Konstantin's StoryWhat happens when a child who has struggled with sleep, sensory development and engagement begins showing new signs of connection with the world around him? In this moving episode of The Brain Development Podcast, Lara Barnes, founder of Brain Development UK, speaks with mum Ella about the developmental changes she has witness...

What do you do when your child simply cannot cope with school? The morning anxiety starts. Getting dressed becomes a battle. They refuse to leave the house—or manage to hold everything together at school only to completely fall apart when they get home. It can look like defiance, avoidance, rigidity or challenging behaviour. But what if we stopped asking:“Why won't my child just go to school?”...

Understanding Tics and Their Connection to Stress Explore the biology behind tics and how parents can help their children. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Brain Development Podcast newsletter. In our latest episode, Lara and Vicki tackle a pressing issue many parents face: understanding why their children experience tics, especially when stressed or unwell.  The Biological Underpinnings of T...

What happens when you begin to recognize some of your child's struggles in yourself? In this episode of The Brain Development Podcast, Lara Barnes is joined by Vicky Finlayson from The Happy Healthy Unicorn for an open conversation about something that is often overlooked when supporting neurodivergent children: the wellbeing of the parent and the wider family environment. Lara and Vicky explo...

What happens when your child is struggling with severe anxiety, OCD, school refusal, emotional dysregulation or dramatic changes in behaviour — but the conventional mental-health pathway isn't giving your family the answers you need? In this episode of The Brain Development Podcast, Lara Barnes is joined by Vicky Finlayson from Happy Healthy Unicorn for an important conversation about looking...

Walk down any grocery store aisle today and you will notice how bright packaging, cartoon mascots, and convenient snacks have completely redefined childhood nutrition. What was once treated as an occasional birthday treat has quietly transformed into the daily baseline of what our children consume. For many families, navigating mealtime has become an exhausting battle against ultra-processed foods...

Society tends to equate speech with intelligence, mistakenly assuming that if someone cannot verbally speak, they have nothing meaningful to say. For non-speaking and non-verbal neurodivergent individuals, this narrow assumption builds a painful wall of dismissal and misunderstanding. In classrooms, social circles, and healthcare systems, brilliant, perceptive human beings are routinely talked dow...

https://www.thrive-hub.com/ Led by Vicky Finlayson and Lara Barnes, Thrive-Hub is a membership platform supporting parents of neurodiverse children with expert guidance, practical strategies, and a clear path forward for families navigating similar challenges with their children. It offers a safe, supportive space to connect, share understanding, feel truly heard, and move forward together, guided...

Stop Searching, Start Understanding: The Parent Community Helping You Understand Your Child Late at night, when the house is finally quiet, countless parents find themselves staring into the glow of a phone screen, frantically typing questions into search bars. When raising a child navigating developmental hurdles, sensory sensitivities, behavioral hurdles, or neurological differences, modern pare...

Dr. Steve Williams: Pioneering Excellence in Pediatric Chiropractic Care For over thirty years, Dr. Steve Williams has been a leading authority in pediatric chiropractic care, craniopathy, and Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT). As the principal practitioner of a thriving family practice in Southampton, UK, Dr. Williams specializes in gentle, evidence-based care for infants, children, and pregnant mo...

Ever feel like you’re doing all the right therapies, yet your child remains stuck in a persistent state of fight-or-flight? In this eye-opening episode, host Lara sits down with Dr Cedrick Noel, a seasoned clinician with over 25 years of experience in chiropractic neurology and neurodevelopmental rehabilitation. Dr Noel challenges conventional approaches by advocating for a "gravity first" model....

Ever feel like traditional approaches are only addressing your child's surface-level symptoms without ever fixing the root cause? This episode features Dr MaryAnne Shiozawa, a paediatric and pregnancy chiropractor trained in functional neurology and the Melillo Method, who breaks down how a child's nervous system dictates their behaviour, learning, and emotional regulation. We dive into the hidden...

Ever feel like traditional therapies are only scratching the surface of your child's developmental challenges? In this enlightening conversation, host Lara sits down with Dr Renee O'Conor, a family chiropractor and functional neurology practitioner, to explore how the brain grows from the bottom up. Using a powerful tree metaphor, Dr Renee explains how the brainstem acts as the root system for all...

Every week I meet parents who walk into my clinic feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and unsure where to turn next. Today, I wanted to step back and let you hear directly from them. These are real mums and dads sharing what life was like before they began their brain development journey, what they experienced during the programme, and the changes they've seen in their children. My hope is that if you'...

In this heartwarming episode of The Brain Development Podcast, Lara sits down with Rachel, mum to twin boys Jack and Andrew, who both have Down syndrome. After years of speech therapy, sensory support and traditional interventions, Rachel felt there was still something deeper holding Jack back. As he became increasingly dysregulated, developed self-injurious behaviours and remained non-verbal, she...

It is incredibly easy to feel isolated and overwhelmed when navigating a new neurodiverse diagnosis for your child, especially when traditional school environments feel more like trauma than support. This conversation with Cliff Kilominster, host of the Parenting Autism and ADHD podcast, flips the script on conventional coping mechanisms. We dive into the profound shifts that occur when parents mo...

If you have ever sat in your car with tears in your eyes, wondering if your child will ever speak, look you in the eye, or call you "mummy" or "daddy," this episode is your turning point. Lara is joined by Sophia and Richard, who share the extraordinary, real-life recovery story of their six-year-old son, Roman. After years of sensory dysregulation and non-verbal isolated struggle, Roman underwent...

A child can go from typically developing to washing their hands a thousand times a day almost overnight, and the cause may have nothing to do with primary mental illness. Lara Barnes talks with Vicky Finlayson of The Happy Healthy Unicorn about PANS and PANDAS, autoimmune conditions where infections like strep, Coxsackie virus or impetigo trigger antibodies that mistakenly attack the brain's basal...

What if there was a place where you finally felt understood? Vicky Finlayson joins Lara to introduce Thrive Hub, a new community created for parents navigating the challenges of raising neurodiverse children. Drawing on their own experiences, they share why so many families feel isolated, overwhelmed by conflicting information, and unsure where to turn for trusted guidance. The conversation explor...

That springtime "regression" you're seeing in your child might not be regression at all — it could be their body releasing toxicity, compounded by a histamine system tipped completely out of balance. In this conversation, host Lara Barnes is joined by Vicky Finlayson of The Happy Healthy Unicorn to unpack why seasonal allergies hit neurodiverse children so hard. They explore the immune "seesaw" be...

Have you ever stopped to really watch your child breathe? While it is the most natural thing in the world, many neurodiverse children have developed dysfunctional breathing patterns that directly impact their sleep, focus, and emotional regulation. In this eye-opening episode, we are joined by breathing specialists Charlotte Marsh and Dr Louise Oliver to dive into the "NEAT" code for better breath...

Exhausted by the nightly battle to get your child to stay asleep? This professional yet accessible episode features Vicky Finlayson from The Happy Healthy Unicorn, who joins the Brain Development Podcast to break down why mainstream sleep advice often fails neurodiverse children. We dive deep into the biological "misses" that trigger night waking, from midnight cortisol spikes caused by blood gluc...

Ever felt the sting of being "held back" after school for another incident report? This episode is a lighthouse for any parent navigating the complexities of neurodiversity. We are joined by Tara Parry, a courageous mum who share the raw, honest story of her son, Herbie. Tara takes us through their intensive three-year journey, detailing the "hard graft" of an 18-month reflex integration program a...

If you’ve ever found yourself asking, "Why is my child so aggressive?" or felt the heartbreak of a violent outburst you can't explain, this episode is for you. We sit down with Vicky Finlayson to discuss Pyrole Disorder—a frequently overlooked biochemical imbalance that strips the body of the very nutrients needed for calm: B6 and Zinc. When these "scaffolding" nutrients are depleted, children are...