Dawn’s Relevant Training & Skills:
32 years of experience as an Autism momma and more years as an ADHD woman
BC certified teacher
Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership
Orton Gillingham Therapeutic Tutor
Reading Simplified Therapeutic Tutor
Brain Gym Movement Facilitator
Natural Bioenergetics Advanced Student
Vantage Vision & Reading Programs Vision Skills Assessment & Program Developer
Hi there parents, caregivers, and teachers!
I am so glad you’re here!
Teaching is my profession and passion. I have always found a way to teach! Whether it’s volunteering as a Sunday School teacher, organizing a children’s club, or homeschooling our children, I have been teaching since I was 14.
We homeschooled our kids for 11 years and while we loved it we were challenged by how differently each of our kids learned. When our son was 15 he was diagnosed with Autism and it answered so many questions that we had!
BUT, accessing resources, at that time, was nearly impossible. In my desperate search for much needed services for our child, I discovered some amazing learning centres that were half way across the world from us. Sadly, we could not afford to go there. It was out of that inability to access much needed help for our son that a dream to start my own learning centre was born! Body Brain Learning!!!
Now here we are, 17 years later and I have come through 3 university degrees (education), and much training in therapeutic methods that support and bring freedom to learners! Wahoooo.
Body Brain Learning was born out of desperation, long years of study & life experience, and …. love.
It is now my passion to help both parents and students discover how they learn best, identify their strengths, and advocate for themselves effectively. I believe that empowering learners to have autonomy over their own learning is a lifelong gift. My dream is to see children and their families have the tools and knowledge to take control of their learning journey.
Our Story Began with Vantage Vision
Alice Ross, founder of Vantage Vision & Reading was a long-time Educator in Kamloops, BC. She developed the foundation of our process with Dr. Len Demarchi, optometrist, in the 1960s to address learning disabilities or difficulties. Alice passed away in 2017 but her legacy lives on.
Milly Saville continued with the Vantage Vision & Reading programs from 1989 offering vision therapy services and a variety of training workshops to tutors that have taken their practices around BC, Alberta, Ontario and South Africa. Milly extended the outreach and awareness for the programs in many communities and is now retired while continuing to offer occasional training workshops.
Now Dawn Bast is continuing this legacy, adding her own expertise & supportive processes through Body Brain Learning.
We work with learners of all ages, we help by discovering and addressing particular underlying causes of learning difficulties.
Our approach focuses on developing and fine tuning vision skills necessary to read and to comprehend. These five skills include tracking & saccades, convergence, accommodation, and eye alignment and are intricately linked to activating and fine tuning neuroplasticity.
While we address underlying issues that go far beyond “needing glasses”, a visit to an optometrist is always recommended.
Learn More about our Programs
Common Symptoms of Learning Difficulties
Reading Symptoms
Loses place while reading
Skips lines and/or words
Moves head to read
Gets headaches when reading
Writing Symptoms
Body is tense while writing
Poor spacing, size and form
Poorly organized
Problems note taking
Frequent erasing/correcting
Behavioural Symptoms
Overactivity
Easily frustrated
Anxious/ nervous
Short attention span
Avoidance behaviours