It all started with an idea.
The Brain 1st Program developed from three incredibly passionate people who saw a need and wanted to create a solution. It was the brainchild of these dedicated individuals who started out on separate paths, each towards a common goal. Dr. Laura Iverson Dieleman, Cally Bailey and Dr. Kevin Dieleman all share a vision of helping children and youth function at their highest capacities so they can navigate this (sometimes challenging) world with greater ease.
Each with a different passion, they poured it all together to deliver an easy to use, web based platform that educators can utilize as a tool to create positive changes in their students’ lives. Dr. Laura, Cally, and Dr. Kevin’s mission is to change the way students across the globe move, learn, and feel.
Cally Bailey, BBA, CHC has spent over six years studying and practicing the most research-backed form of mindfulness available - Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Strengthened by her own personal success story of overcoming depression and anxiety, she was inspired to use her knowledge to help children and youth build their own resilience from within. With continuous experience working with small and large groups of children, Cally continued to be driven with the positive changes she witnessed stirring within them as they developed various mindfulness techniques. Cally was determined to design a large-scale platform to reach more students and therefore create an even bigger impact.
Dr. Laura Iverson Dieleman, BSc. DC. began studying Functional Neurology at various institutes in the U.S. over a decade ago. The majority of her studies were completed with the Carrick Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation. She was fascinated at the changes that could be made within the brain with the proper stimulus. While in the midst of having three active children of her own, she developed a growing concern for the increasing challenges children around her were facing. Due to this, Dr. Laura shifted her focus toward neuro-behavioural disorders in children. When her children reached school age, she got a closer look at what educators were experiencing in their classrooms first hand and noticed the number of struggling students that educators needed to manage. She was determined to find a way to create students with healthier brains so teachers could spend more time teaching and less time managing daily classroom challenges. Dr. Laura launched an in-school beta version 3 years ago which has developed into the Brain 1st Program.
Dr. Kevin Dieleman, BKin. DC, since the birth of his three children (with Dr. Laura), went deep down the rabbit hole of studying proper movement development from infancy to adulthood, with the goal of instilling an active and healthy lifestyle in his family. He recognized the increased number of movement abberencies that he was witnessing in adolescents and adults and began to note how early development may be playing a role in this. As a big kid at heart, he took it upon himself to create easy to use, quick start activities geared for gym classes within the school system to properly install correct movement techniques in children. He did this knowing full well all the positive impacts proper movement and physical development have on the growing body and brain. This includes increased coordination, injury prevention, as well as improved learning processes within the brain. You are likely to find Dr. Kevin in his home literally hanging with his kids in their very own monkey bar room.
