1. Growing and Glowing
Teaching The Truth About
Chiropractic to Kids
By
Kevin Donka, D.C.
Chirothots
Copyright 2005, Kevin Donka, D.C. - Chirothots (847) 458-6900

2. (Introduction…)
• Who here has ever been to a
chiropractor?
• Who knows what a chiropractor
does?
• Today, we’re going to teach you
what a chiropractor REALLY does
by teaching you something you
may not know about yourselves!

3. (Two Kinds of Animals…)
• Today we will talk about 2 kinds of
animals…vertebrates and invertebrates.
• Have you heard of these?
• Who can tell me what a vertebrate
animal is?
• Who can name some vertebrates?
• Who can tell me what an invertebrate
animal is?
• Who can name some invertebrates?
• Which kind of animal are you…

4. (Why?)
• Why do you suppose some animals have spines
and some don’t? (Let’s see if we can figure it out!)
• Does anyone here know what part of your body
controls every other part of your body?
• It’s your brain and nerves - what we call your
NERVE SYSTEM.
• Your brain, spinal cord and nerve system are
the MASTER CONTROL CENTER of your whole
body!
• Your spinal cord is really just a part your brain
that has been stretched out (like when you pull
Silly Putty apart) and it runs down your back.

5. (How Many Nerves?)
• Does anybody know how many nerves you
have in your body?
• You have so many nerves, that if you close
your eyes and have someone touch 1 hair
on your arm, and then touch another hair
right next to the first one, you can tell
they’re in different spots!
• In fact, if you took away EVERYTHING else
except your nerves, you would still look
pretty much like you!
• That’s a lot of nerves!!!

6. (What Do Nerves Do?)
• Can anyone here tell me what nerves do?
• By themselves, nerves don’t do ANYTHING!
• Do dead bodies have brains and nerves?
• YES!
• So why aren’t dead bodies alive anymore?
• Something is IN you, and everything else
that is alive, that isn’t there anymore in
dead things…
• It’s called your Life Force!

7. (Your Life Force…)
• Your Life Force is what runs
everything in your body, and it’s what
heals your body whenever something
has gone wrong!
• Take a deep breath…what’s in the air
you just breathed?
• How does your body know to keep the
good parts of the air and breathe back
out the bad parts (Life Force - it’s very
smart!)

8. (Your Life Force…)
• How does your body know to take the
vitamins and good stuff out of your food
and leave the rest to come back out the
other end? (Life Force - it’s very smart!)
• When you cut your finger, what do you
usually cover it with? When you take
the bandaid off in a few days, there’s
new skin there! How did your body
make that new skin? (Life Force - it’s
very what… SMART!)

9. (Your Life Force…)
• So you see your Life Force does
EVERYTHING for you… it runs your
body, makes you grow, helps you fight
off germs, heal when you’re hurt or sick,
it lets you run and move and jump and
EVERYTHING!
• Who has seen any of the Star Wars
movies?
• What do the Jedi Knights use to make
things move? (The FORCE!)

10. (Your Life Force…)
• You have a Force inside of you too…I’ll
show you…
• Everyone put up one finger…now,
wiggle your finger…YOU JUST USED THE
FORCE! You told your brain to send the
force down your nerves to your muscles
in your finger and make your finger
move - and it DID!
• What is this Life Force inside
of you?

11. (Your Life Force…)
• Can a car drive itself?
• Why Not - what does it need? (A driver!)
• A car is what’s called a vehicle - it’s what
people use to go from one place to another,
isn’t it?
• YOUR BODY is also a vehicle…and YOU are the
driver!
• You see? You ARE your Life Force - it’s who
you really are, and YOU send thoughts into
your brain, then your brain sends messages
down through your nerves and out into your
body, telling it what to do! (Pretty cool, huh?)

12. (Your Life Force…)
• Now, we said that your Life Force was
very…what? (SMART!)
• So if your Life Force is very smart, and
you ARE your Life force, what does
that make you?
• VERY SMART, THAT’S RIGHT!
• Remember, your Life Force travels
over your NERVES, so that makes your
nerves REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT,
doesn’t it?

13. (Why a Skull?)
• In fact, your brain and nerves are so
important that nature decided to cover
them with bones to protect them!
• what bone covers your brain?
(Your skull, that’s right!)
• Everyone knock on your head (knock,
knock, knock); do you see how hard it is?
It protects your brain!
• You would hurt your brain every time you
bumped your head without your skull!

14. (Why a Spine?)
• Nature decided we need some bones to
protect our spinal cord too…remember,
your spinal cord is the stretched out silly
putty part of your brain that runs down
your back.
• So what do we call the bone that covers our
spinal cord…That’s right, our SPINE!
• Did you know your spine is really not just
one bone, but 24 separate little bones?
• Who knows what we call the spinal bones -
VERTEBRAE!

15. (Why a Spine?)
• And what do we call animals with
spines?
• Why do you think Nature didn’t
just make it one big bone? (We
wouldn’t be able to move!)
• You see, you are very smart, and
nature is very smart!

16. (Vertebrates &
Invertebrates)
• So if the main reason WE have a skull
and spine is to protect our brain and
spinal cord, what do you think WE
have that an invertebrate doesn’t
have? (A brain and spinal cord!)
• Very small animals like insects have a
very simple nerve system - no real
brain or spinal cord - so they don’t
need a spine to protect it. They have
what’s called an exoskeleton or shell.

17. (Vertebrates &
Invertebrates)
• But, as we look at bigger and bigger
animals, we see more complicated
nerve systems.
• That’s why vertebrates like us have
spines…
• to protect our very
complicated nerve
systems!

18. (Flow & Subluxation)
• Now, this is a plastic model of your
spine - don’t worry, it isn’t anyone’s
grandma!
• Do you see this yellow thing running
down the inside of your spine?
• What do you think that is?
(Spinal Cord)
• And what do you think all of these
yellow things sticking out between the
bones are? (Spinal nerves)

19. (Flow & Subluxation)
• These nerves keep branching out and
eventually cover your entire body!
• Some nerves are so small, you almost
need a microscope to see them!
• When the bones of your spine are lined
up correctly and can move normally,
there is plenty of room for the spinal
nerves to come out between them
without the nerves getting pinched.

20. (Flow & Subluxation)
• This allows your Life Force (POWER)
to move back and forth over your
nerves easily.
• This means that your brain and body
can talk to each other…
• And when your brain and body can
talk to each other, everything in your
body works the way it is supposed to
work because your POWER is ON!

21. (Flow & Subluxation)
• Sometimes, things can happen that
cause the vertebrae to go out of place
or get stuck.
• This causes your nerves to get pinched
and stretched, and now your brain and
your body can’t talk to each other as
clearly anymore.
• This can cause your POWER to go too
fast or too slow and make you sick.

22. (Flow & Subluxation)
• Sometimes when your Power is not working
right it hurts because some nerves allow you
to feel things (heat, cold, itch, tickle and pain).
• But most of the time,it doesn’t hurt because
it affects some other nerve that has a
different job…
• Maybe this nerve goes to your lungs, and
now you have trouble breathing or what we
call asthma.
• When your POWER to your lungs isn’t
working right, you can’t breathe right!

23. (Chiropractic)
• I am a doctor of chiropractic, also
called a chiropractor.
• My job is to make sure your Life Force
is flowing (i.e., to make sure your
POWER is on) by keeping your spine in
alignment and working properly.
• I do this by giving what is called an
adjustment to your spine.
• Let me explain this using my model
again…

24. (The Adjustment)
• Every nerve supplies your POWER to a
different part of your body (give a few examples)
• When one nerve gets pinched and your
POWER gets stronger or weaker, it causes
its own problem that is different from what
happens when any other nerve gets pinched
(give a few examples)
• Adjusting your spine makes your POWER
flow NORMALLY again and heals those
problems (just like it heals a cut on your
finger!) and makes everything work
normally again!

25. (The Adjustment)
• Adjustments feel good!
• BUT, they don’t JUST feel good; they also
help EVERYTHING in your body work the
way it’s supposed to!
• Can anyone think of some ways your
spine might get out of alignment?
**(Make sure you cover at least a few physical,
chemical and mental/emotional stresses)
• I’ll bet ALL OF US have had at least a FEW of
those things happen to us, right?

26. (Why Get Checked?)
• That’s why chiropractors like me
recommend that EVERYBODY get their
spines checked by a chiropractor and
get adjusted if they need it.
• By keeping your nerves free and clear,
your brain and your body can talk with
each other, your Life Force (also called
what…Your POWER!) can flow easily,
and you have the best possible chance
of being healthy and happy!

27. (How Does This Work?)
• How does chiropractic help you be healthy?
• Everything is always changing - EVEN YOU!
(Here’s how…)
• Your body is always either getting stronger
or it is getting weaker.
• What’s really cool about this is that most of
the time, YOU get to choose if it will get
stronger or weaker!
• If you want to help your body keep getting
stronger all the time, you need to do three
things…

28. (How Does This Work?)
• Think about good things and be happy.
• Make healthy choices
• Keep your POWER on!
• Here’s why these three things make
you stronger…
• EVERYTHING works better when you
are happy!
• Thinking about good things makes
your body stronger all the time!

29. (How Does This Work?)
• Making healthy choices helps your
body get everything it needs to keep
getting stronger all the time too.
• And, your POWER is what helps you
keep thinking good things, it helps you
USE all the good things you get from
your healthy choices and it is really the
thing that causes you to keep getting
stronger all the time!

30. (How Does This Work?)
• When you get your spine
checked by your
chiropractor, you are
making sure your POWER
is on FULL BLAST so that
you can keep getting
stronger all the time!

31. (Acorns and Oak Trees)
• Who can tell me what an acorn turns
into?
• That’s right…an OAK TREE!
• You see, every acorn has everything it
needs to become a mighty oak tree
already right there inside of it.
• It just needs a few things to grow;
sunlight, air, water, nutrition from the
soil…and one more thing…

32. (Acorns and Oak Trees)
• It needs to have its Life Force - its
POWER free and unblocked to grow it
into that mighty oak tree!
• Now, guess what…YOU…ARE
ALL JUST LIKE THAT ACORN!
• You have everything you need to grow
and become whatever you are meant
to be, already right there inside of you!
• You just need a few things too…

33. (Acorns and Oak Trees)
• You need some sunshine, some air,
some water, good food, and one more
thing…
• You need to make sure your spine is in
alignment so that your POWER is on!
• Chiropractors help you keep your
POWER on by adjusting your spine!
• And that way, you can be the best YOU
you can be!

34. (Summary)
• So, what are the three things you are all
going to do to keep getting stronger?
• Think about good things and be happy.
• Make healthy choices
• Keep your POWER on!
• One more time, what are they?
• That’s right! Boy, you guys are quick
learners!
• Does anyone have any questions for me?

35. (Close)
• I want to thank all of you in the
class, your teachers and the school
for inviting me to talk with you
today.
• Did you learn some cool things here
today?
• Well, it was really a lot of fun for me
too.
• Thank you all and bye bye!