Kyndal’s Story
Bianca Rimbach is the best teacher that our son Kyndal has ever had. She went out of her way to research the best way to teach children with autism.
She found the Horse Boy Foundation that uses movement to help the brain to learn. She went all the way to Texas and spent a week at the ranch to learn everything that she could about how the brain works, how sunlight and motion affects the brain. She immediately came back and started implementing what she learned to her classroom. Our twin boys, Kyle and Kyndal, were born prematurely at 32 weeks of age. They have autism and low muscle tone over their entire body. Kyndal is very shy and doesn’t socialize with other kids very well. He has a lot of anxiety and gets very emotional when he gets upset. Kyndal was assigned to Bianca Rimbach class for fifth grade and we sat down with her before the school year started to explain all of his fine motor and autism issues with her. A few months later, at parent teacher conferences, Bianca wanted to know if she could use Kyndal as her case study for the Horse Boy and Movement program and of course we said yes! We are all about helping other families finding better ways to help their children with autism and if Kyndal could help other children we are on board.
Kyndal loved the movement lessons that Mrs. Rimbach did for class because he said that they all happened outside. Kyndal liked being outside in the sunlight and he says that “the sunlight makes him learn better it activates his brain to enhance his learning.” His favorite lesson was the French and Indian War Lesson. He liked it he said, “Because it had the most movement. It was kind of like a game of tag. Some classmates were the French and some were the British and the rest of the class was neutral. It was very fun because we got to tag classmates and they became part of your team and had to switch T-Shirts.” He learned that his classmates couldn’t decide which side they wanted to be on. He would come home telling us all about the different movement lessons that he had done in class each day.
Kyndal also loved to ride the horses!! He said “I liked the rhythm of the horse’s movements which were soothing and it energized me.” He said, “I was surprised at how well he was able to balance myself on the horse when it was moving. Riding the horses helps my core muscles.” He said he liked the writing lesson he did while riding the horse. “It helped him understand the writing topics better and what to look for in his writing to make it better.” Kyndal said, “I feel happy when I am hugging the horses. I wish that I could ride the horses every day!” He wants to increase his confidence in riding so that he could ride the horses all by himself. Riding the horses helped him to socialize with others as he was able to tell them the benefits of riding horses and how they made him feel when he was riding.
After riding the horses Kyndal’s anxiety was lessened and his speech would become more fluent. He would talk to everyone he saw all about how riding the horses made him feel and how much he loved it!! Just seeing the smile on his face while he was riding the horses was reward enough for us! Bianca was a great inspiration for Kyndal and was able to learn a lot in his fifth grade year.
