The Pica Perspective

Brain Gym Pointless?

In Carla Hannaford's wonderful book, Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head, she tells the story of Todd, who at 16 years old was unable to read -- until his mother discovered the Dennisons' Brain Gym and its cross-crawl exercise. Within 6 weeks of doing this exercise, which alternates opposite elbow to knee and requires crossing the midline of the body, Todd was reading -- at grade level.

Dr. Hannaford, a neurophysiologist,explains that Todd had everything he needed to able to read in the two hemispheres of his brain; however, the two hemispheres weren't communicating across the corpus callosum, the gray matter that connects them. By doing an exercise that crossed the body's midline, the corpus callosum was engaged and communication enabled.

Thousands of educators across the globe have embraced Brain Gym and its exercises, proclaiming their effectiveness in boosting energy, concentration, and learning. Now along comes a statement from England's Department for Children, Schools and Families, claiming that studies put its success down to nothing more than the 'placebo effect' and the general benefits of breaks and exercise.

The DCSF said: "We are unaware of any sufficiently robust or peer-reviewed evaluation of the approaches it promotes which would allow any clear link between the use of Brain Gym and pupils' learning to be established.We are also aware of a significant body of criticism of the theoretical underpinnings of the programme."

It said that Paul Dennison, the California teacher behind it, had admitted that many of Brain Gym's claims were based on "hunches." Also, officials said Brain Gym had been "criticised as being unscientific in a wide-ranging and authoritative review of research into neuroscience and education."

What do you think? Is Brain Gym pointless? Could Todd's ability to read after six weeks of doing the cross-crawl have been coincidence? What have been your experiences with Brain Gym?

A Webinar & a Film Clip

On September 23rd, I presented a webinar for Head Start Body Start, called "Movement Across the Curriculum." It's the first in a series of four, and it looks at the connection between moving and learning, between mind and body. (And there are plenty!) If you'd like to see it or the PowerPoint slides, go to the HSBS website.

Coming in November: "Movement Across the Curriculum: Literacy," to be followed in later months by "Movement Across the Curriculum: Math," and "Movement Across the Curriculum: Science."

Also, although not specifically relevant to early childhood education, I highly recommend that you stop reading this blog and spend the time watching the clip from the documentary The 4th Purpose. It's a powerful indictment of the U.S. system of education that absolutely gave me chills.

New study: Recess is important

Ah, technology. I wrote a post on this subject earlier in the week and scheduled it for publication on Wednesday -- and just discovered this morning that something obviously went wrong! At any rate, here we go again...

If you've been reading this blog, you know how I feel about recess! So I was thrilled to discover that the results of a comprehensive review of published literature on recess throughout the United States showed that recess breaks as short as 10 minutes improve children’s learning efficiency and the teacher’s aptitude during the other 50 minutes of a school hour.

Said the study’s author, Catherine L. Ramstetter, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati, “A child’s attention span begins to wane after 40 minutes of intense instruction. Recess provides children a chance to refocus.” She added that reducing or eliminating recess detracts from a child's ability to concentrate in the classroom.

In addition to the mental benefits of recess, Ramstetter said an unstructured play time offers kids physical benefits, especially for young children still reinforcing movement and motor skills.

Of course, we have research going back to the 1880s showing that recess is necessary. Guess we can only hope that this time the policy makers will pay attention!

On Creativity

Creativity in children is one of my favorite topics -- and one of the most frustrating because our society tends to value it so little!

Have been thinking a lot about creativity these days. Last week's featured interview on Body, Mind and Child Radio was with Cheri Sterman of Crayola, who discussed the "other IQ" (imagination quotient). This month on NAEYC Radio is an interview with Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld, known to those in the early childhood field as perhaps the fiercest proponent of creative experiences for children. And on Tuesday I will interview Sir Ken Robinson, whose TED video, which makes the case for an educational system that nurtures -- rather than undermines -- creativity gave me goose bumps!

Sadly, creativity is too often considered the domain of artists alone, and thus expendable. But creativity -- the ability to see beyond what already exists and to imagine -- is a life skill. When one can imagine, one can envision possibilities and the solutions to problems.

True problem solving is the result of what's called divergent production -- the ability to find multiple solutions to a single challenge. Each of us solves hundreds of problems a day. It can be as simple as producing a decent meal from leftovers, or figuring out where to look for the answer to a question, to the more complex dilemma of balancing a budget, or salvaging lost data from a crashed computer system. For some, problem solving involves getting along with difficult coworkers or family members. For others it involves launching a spaceship or ridding the world of cancer.

Imagine, if you will, a world in which people have lost the ability to imagine -- or create. Of course, in such a world there would be no artists -- no novels or movies to entertain us, no paintings to admire, and no songs to soothe our souls. But there would also be no new discoveries in science and medicine. No advances in technology. People would be unable to feel empathy, which is dependent upon being able to imagine what it's like to be someone or something else. And they would be unable to create solutions!

Now imagine what happens to a child's ability to imagine when she is surrounded by ready-made images and has no need to create her own. With the push of a button or the flip of her hand, she is presented with images the software programmers, video and TV producers, and flashcard manufacturers deem important. Those images are outside of her head and not the result of an inner process that leads to discovery.

Imagine what happens to a child's ability to imagine when an educational culture of testing teaches him that there is only one "right" answer to every problem.

Brain Gym

This week's featured interview on BAM Radio is with Paul Dennison, the creator of Brain Gym, a concept that so clearly proves the mind and the body are not separate entities! Here's my favorite story related to Brain Gym:

In Carla Hannaford's Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head, she tells the story of Todd, who at 16 years old was uable to read -- but not for lack of trying. His parents had spent thousands of dollars on reading programs, but all had failed; Todd was certified learning disabled. Also, although he was six feet, two inches tall and the basketball team was eager to have him participate, he was too clumsy, unable to get from point A to point B while dribbling a ball (a bit of a prerequisite for playing hoops).

Then his mother made a discovery while at a conference in California. That discovery was Brain Gym. Very excited, she returned home and announced, "Todd, we're going to Cross Crawl."

Now, Cross Crawling is simply a matter of standing and slowly touching opposite elbow to knee, alternating from one side to the other. To be sure Todd would actually do it, the whole family Cross Crawled together every morning before Todd went to school and every night before he went to bed. Six weeks later, Todd was reading at grade level. He later became a fully participating member of the basketball team -- and even later received a college degree in biology!

Coincidence? Highly unlikely. Dr. Hannaford tells us that cross-lateral movements (actions involving the left arm and right leg or the right arm and left leg at the same time -- like a baby's crawling or creeping) activate both hemispheres of the brain in a balanced way. Also involved are coordinated movements of both eyes, ears, hands, feet, and balanced core muscles. The result of all this balanced and coordinated movement is that the corpus callosum, the area between the two hemispheres of the brain, as well as the brain's four lobes, become more activated. According to Hannaford, this cross-hemisphere communication heightens cognitive function and increases ease of learning.

Because the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, crossing over the midline of the body (the imaginary line running down the center of the body, from head to toe), as is the case when touching opposite elbow to knee, prompts the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with each other. In Todd's case, specifically, he was finally able to integrate all the information that had been "up there" all along!

If you know a child who's having difficulty reading, give the Cross Crawl a try. It certainly can't hurt -- and it might do a world of good!

Studies in the News

Yesterday it was reported that children living close to parks and other play areas are more active. That may not seem so surprising, as we imagine children "frolicking" when we think of them in parks and playgrounds. What's interesting is that the study, conducted by researchers at Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center and Université de Montréal in Canada, found that for every park within a half-mile of home, a girl's likelihood of walking to school doubled and a boy's odds of taking part in leisure walking increased by 60 percent.

"There was a strong association between walking and the number of nearby public open recreational spaces, including neighborhood parks, playgrounds and sports fields," the study's lead author, Tracie A. Barnett, said in a news release issued by the Heart Association. "We were able to relate the proximity and number of parks to how often children aged 8 to 10 years walked."

Data for the study came from 300 families and more than 600 children participating in a study of weight and cardiometabolic risk in kids. Children in the study were all considered at a high risk for obesity because at least one parent already was obese. The researchers said that the findings were consistent even when factoring in family income and average level of education in the neighborhood, a measure of economic advantage.

Childhood and adolescent obesity increased three-fold in the past two decades, a rapid climb that Barnett said is thought to be more environmental than biological.

"In the past few decades, we have become more sedentary due to the increased use of labor-saving devices, motorized transportation, television and computers," she said. "In addition, children are spending more time inside, yet we know that spending time outdoors is an important determinant of activity. In future urban improvements, consideration must be given to parks, outdoor recreational areas and walking or cycling infrastructure in order to increase active living. Equally important is that the parks and recreational areas are well maintained and are safe."

The researchers plan to continue following the participant families for the next decade, or until the children turn 18, to measure how environment affects their weight.

According to an American Heart Association statement issued in June, "walkable" neighborhoods -- featuring sidewalks and places for physical activity -- can make it easier for people to get daily exercise and can help fight the climbing obesity rates.

-------------------------

As reported on the CBS Evening News this week, the state of Texas experimented with a mandate for daily physical education and annual fitness tests for the state's 2.4 million kids ages 8 to 18. The idea was proposed to help combat increasing childhood obesity rates, but this first-of-its-kind study also looked at whether or not physically fit kids are better students. And you know what? They are.

According to Texas school officials, after just one year, students are performing better on standardized tests. Moreover, absentee rates -- and behavior problems -- have declined. Also, there is a direct correlation between more cardiovascular activity and better grades. At the top performing schools, where at least 90% of the students pass the state assessment tests, 80% of them are fit. Conversely, at the poorest performing schools, only 40% are fit!

This is exciting news, of course, for those of us who have long believed in the connection between mind and body. (Good grief -- Aristotle and Plato espoused the connection between a healthy body and a healthy mind!) What I find ironic is that it came from the state of Texas, where one of their (former?) state school board members once said that devoting too much time to physical education would result in kids who were healthy but dumb!

Pathways to Family Wellness

I'd like to tell you about a resource that may not be familiar to you. It's a magazine called Pathways to Family Wellness.

Pathways is a quarterly publication that offers parents articles and resources to make informed health care choices for their families. It provides thought-provoking information from the holistic health perspective (which is why I like it) and invites parents to explore options for family wellness. Among the articles in the latest issue are:

• Why Light Matters
• Fundamental Problems with Maternity Care in the United States
• The Importance of Skin-to-Skin Contact (about moms and babies)
• Children Who Feel Loved Are More Loving
• Guided Imagery for Children Dealing with Stress
• Baby Crawling: How Important It Really Is (a favorite topic of mine!)

The featured article is titled "How We Are Making Our Children Sick." Quoting from the table of contents:

The purpose of the immune system is to allow us to live in harmony with our environment. In fact, most of the trillions of foreign cells present within our body coexist peacefully, and in some cases even contribute to our health and well-being. In spite of this, chronic diseases such as allergies, asthma, and eczema, which were rare several decades ago, have risen exponentially, especially in children, quadrupling during the last two decades.

A subscription for the magazine is $25 for a year and $45 for two years. For more information, and to subscribe, click here.

Children and the 3 R’s of Resilience

Here's another from a guest blogger, this one Lynn Durham, RN, Well Being Coach, whom I met just the other night! Lynn is focused on wellness as an adjunct professor, columnist, speaker, author, consultant and personal coach. You can learn more about her at www.lynndurham.com.

We want the best for our children. What is something to give them as tools for life? How about teaching the 3 R’s of resilience – relax, reflect, and respond?

When the stress response is elicited there are a number of negative things that happen physically in the body. We can change what happens by changing our thoughts and our words and actions in the moment.                

We have a choice. We get to determine the thoughts we’ll hold, when we’ll speak, what we’ll say and how we’ll act.

The Harvard Deaconess Mind Body Medical Institute has researched the relationship between exposure to a relaxation response curriculum and academic achievement using the four measures of grade point average, work habits, cooperation and attendance. “Students who had more than two exposures to semester long classes in which teachers had been trained in the relaxation response curriculum had higher grade point averages, work habits scores and cooperation scores than students who have two or fewer exposures.” www.mbmi.org is a resource for programs and tapes for children, some in Spanish.

For relaxation: I’ve had my children listen to relaxation tapes and experience how it feels as they consciously let go and calm down. I’ve led guided visualizations in schools. Children enjoy using their imaginations. Learning to take slow, deep breaths is a very important technique for being more peaceful.

Children can choose AND they watch and learn from you. Do you Relax into the moment? Do you Reflect on what is most kind and respectful? Do you choose to Respond (Take responsibility for your thoughts words and actions as opposed to blaming others) or are you a reactor on automatic (with a mushroom cloud?) pretending that others are the cause of how you live your life?

Resources are abundant, get a coach, take a workshop, buy a tape and practice new skills. It’s important for your health - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. And …your children are watching you.

Practice the 3 R’s of resilience for you. Teach it to your children. Relax, reflect and respond. It’s a gift for yourself, for your children and all those you touch.

 

Getting with the Program

Recently, I was approached by a toy company known for its electronic products. They have a new game coming out that promotes physical activity for preschoolers, and they wanted to know if I'd be interested in consulting for them. So of course they also wanted to know how I felt about electronic toys and games.

My answer? That I am "of a certain age" and am still in the process of accepting the fact that we can't seem to just let the kids out the door to play anymore. It's a brand new world -- one in which kids and electronics go hand-in-hand (pun intended) -- and I'm working to get with the program.

This is indeed a challenging issue for me. My last post was about reconnecting children with nature (it's not the only post I've written on the theme), and in October I blogged about the silliness of a solar-powered, interactive playground system that took three years to create, versus the simplicity of children climbing trees.

I faced a similar issue when asked to consult for a new Canadian television program that would promote physical activity for preschoolers. While not generally in favor of screen time for children, if it meant children would be more physically active, could I really object to it? And if the program were going to be created anyway, didn't I want to make sure it was done in the best possible way? By the same token, if children are going to use electronic devices (and they are, evidently), isn't it best to ensure the devices promote movement and that they do so in developmentally appropriate ways?

Electronically-generated physical activity is the subject of an article this week in The Free Lance-Star, and of an interview I conducted with physical education specialist Steve Sanders, now playing on NAEYC Radio. "Exergaming" is the word used to describe video games that get kids moving.

Seems what it all comes down to is the same thing I promote in so much of my work: balance. I told the people from the toy company that my stance is that, if it's pouring out or under 20-below, if the children are going to turn to videos (or TV programs), they should be ones that promote physical activity. Otherwise, I wanted them outside running around and climbing trees! I was pleased to hear them agree.

Reconnecting Children with Nature

I'm going to save you the time you'd normally take to read this blog today because I want you to watch this short film instead.

Click here to take a look at "Wetlands and Wonder," which is about children's outdoor play with water. It was produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and features Joan Almon of the Alliance for Childhood (a BAM! advisory board member) and Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods. Free copies are available from the EPA.

(Thanks to Wendy Z. for calling this to my attention!)