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Educational Kinesiology, or Brain Gym, is an approach to learning that can be used at any level, from tiny physical movements directed toward specific neurological effects, to the clarification and implementation of life goals – and everything in between. The word kinesiology means "the science of movement," and so Brain Gym is based on the principle that we can educate the whole person through movement.
It was created in the 1970’s by Dr. Paul Dennison and Gail E. Dennison, who "were seeking more effective ways to help children and adults who had been identified as 'learning disabled.' They drew from a large body of research by developmental specialists who had been experimenting with using physical movement to enhance learning ability." They called their work "Educational Kinesiology." The Brain Gym website says that the program is being used in 80 countries. Dr. Dennison’s books and manuals have been translated into 40 languages.
The consistent use of Brain Gym® movements wakes up neural connections in the whole brain and body to make us feel safe and emotionally centred. The movements also integrate the distinctive functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain.
Brain Gym® has been proven effective in helping to arrest academic challenges like reading and comprehension, oral and written communication and math. It has helped improve many lives through improved vision, self-confidence and high self-esteem and is being used to arrest the challenges of autism, ADD, ADHD and other special needs of children and adults. It facilitates the brain and body to work more efficiently together to make thinking and learning, movement and creativity easier. Brain Gym® facilitates the process of achieving our personal goals - at our own rate and using the best of our resources. The basic idea behind Brain Gym is that the brain will develop, and learning will be enhanced, by certain bodily movements.
Brain Gym is a set of movement activities such as "crawling, drawing, tracing symbols in the air, yawning, and drinking water" (Hyatt 2007) that, according to the Brain Gym website, are said to help children, adults, and seniors to
- Learn ANYTHING faster and more easily
- Perform better at sports
- Be more focused and organized
- Start and finish projects with ease
- Overcome learning challenges
- Reach new levels of excellence
Brain Gym movements and processes are used by thousands of people around the world, to make their daily lives more comfortable and enjoyable.
- Brain Gym is used in school systems around the world to help students achieve more easily. While Brain Gym is frequently used to benefit children with "learning challenges," it makes learning of all kinds easier for everyone.
- Brain Gym is used in the business world to help workers at all skill levels to do their work more effectively and easily.
- Brain Gym is used in athletics, promoting both personal skill and team communication.
- Brain Gym is a wonderful personal growth tool, allowing people to make rapid changes in areas where they may have felt "stuck" for a long time
Brain Gym® is an Educational Kinesiology program of 26 quick, enjoyable and energizing activities designed to directly enhance brain and body integration. It allows access to full learning and living potential in all areas.
- Only 20% of the information we process moves from brain to body. A whopping 80% goes the other way! The brain primarily acts as an enormous filter, telling us what to ignore. For example, we can focus on a single conversation in a crowded room, because we are filtering out most of the other stimuli.
- Because most of our information travels from body to brain, we can learn most efficiently as we move. Simple, neurologically specific movements can actually take us out of stress, help signals cross the hemispheres of the brain, improve vision, coordination, cognition, and behaviour.
- Brain Gym is a learning readiness program appropriate to all ages. Through specifically directed movements, Brain Gym assists us in coordinating, organizing, and filtering sensory information, allowing tasks to be performed with maximum efficiency. The "task" can be anything: reading a sentence, calming down after recess or a board meeting, changing a habit, working through a relationship issue, making an important life decision.
Although the way Brain Gym is presented will change according to different ages, conditions, and applications, its basic content and philosophy remains the same. We never stop learning and moving; there is always room for growth.
At the micro-level, Brain Gym is a simple alphabet of movements to help learners achieve their goals. Many "Brain Gyms" can be done in a few seconds. Once they have learned some Brain Gym, people will often instinctively go into these movements and postures when they need to calm down or think clearly. At the macro-level, Brain Gym is the balance process. This is a simple, far-reaching framework for transformation that can be used individually or in groups to address any kind of issue.
Using Brain Gym® activities is shown to elevate achievement in both adults and children with or without special needs. While adapting well to any curriculum or teaching style, the movements provide specific strategies for improving classroom and organizational skills. An important feature is that once its benefits are recognized, self-monitored behaviour follows, along with greater self-confidence and self-esteem.
Brain Gym® Consultants all over the world report improvements in :
» Abdominal muscles (correlates to improved posture and supported spine)
» Attention spans, discipline, attitude, general performance and behaviour
» Being able to cross the visual/auditory/kinaesthetic/tactile midline
» Binocular & peripheral vision
» Breathing
» Centring, grounding, balance
» Comprehension and understanding
» Concentration, focus
» Co-ordination vs clumsiness, spatial awareness
» Abdominal muscles (correlates to improved posture and supported spine)
» Creative writing
» decoding and encoding of written symbols
» Energy levels
» Eye-hand co-ordination
» Fine motor skills
» Following directions
» Hearing and listening abilities (the two are very different! Finding it hard to follow instructions,
» Being unable to concentrate and have difficulty processing information can be as a result of an imbalance in this skill. Many
people have selective hearing, not hearing loss! Listening is
» Being able to cut out the irrelevant information and only process important information. Many learning and behaviour
problems relate to this).
» Integrating childhood reflexes (symptoms of which manifest in specific behavioural patterns in infancy and pre-school years
and in later years even panic disorders and low tolerance to stress).
» Irrational fears
» Left and right postural awareness, body awareness, movement’s skills
» Mathematics and computations
» Mild physical problems
» Motivation and positivity levels
» Penmanship, cursive writing, creative writing
» Personal organisational skills and personal relationships
» Reading (silent and oral) and writing abilities (especially good for dyslexia) relating to L- R eye movements
re-establishing the natural learning pattern of a whole-brain state as the process releases )
» Blocked learning patterns of any description
» Self confidence and self-esteem
» Short and long-term memory
» Speech
» Spelling
» Sporting prowess and stamina
» Stress levels (some movements are designed to calm and relax – good for exam times)
» Symbol recognition for the decoding of written language
» Team building
» The ability to handle difficult or specific situations
» The ability to learn and, very importantly, to retain what is learnt.
» Visual discrimination• What is the basis for Brain Gym® ?
Paul Dennison, Ph.D. spent years with many development experts, studying their work and that of others before creating what is now known as Brain Gym® in the 1970’s. Some of the combined 80 years of research modalities include: Repatterning, applied kinesiology, behavioural optometry, Alexander technique, Traeger, Laban, Feldenkrais and Yoga. Dr. Dennison built on this knowledge to create a series of movements that make new neural pathways to balance brain function.• Who benefits from Brain Gym®?
The movements are beneficial for persons of all ages, abilities and walks of life. Children especially find them to be fun and easy to do. Anyone who wants to move forward to a goal that will improve quality of life will benefit from Brain Gym®. The program has demonstrated rapid, far-reaching and lasting results.• In what ways does Brain Gym® help people?
It improves listening skills, concentration, organization and memory with resulting higher academic achievement levels. It also contributes to better self-control in young children and helps teenagers develop self-confidence and social skills. Improvements in communication lead to improved family relationships, with lowered levels of stress and depression.• Does Brain Gym® contribute to physical as well as mental changes?
Doing Brain Gym® movements has been shown to provide improved blood flow & balance, better oxygenation and a healthier physiology. Peter Cox, a former U.S. Fencing Team gold medallist, used Brain Gym® while he was training for the Olympics."I was amazed at the results,” he wrote, “and so were my opponents!"http://www.trainthebrain.biz/faq.html• Can businesses profit from a Brain Gym® program for their employees?
When an insurance company enrolled one-third of its agents in a Brain Gym®-based sales training program, they found that those agents achieved a 39% higher closing rate. They were more focused, organized and energetic. Train the Brain can set up a program to meet the needs of employees of both large and small businesses.http://www.trainthebrain.biz/faq.html• How frequently do clients practice Brain Gym®?
Those who show the greatest improvement do a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes a day. (Many do more.) One of Brain Gym®’s valuable features is that it becomes self-monitoring as participants recognize its value and benefits. Many class-room teachers have found that starting the day with Brain Gym® movements helps children to calm down, focus and perform better throughout the day.http://www.trainthebrain.biz/faq.html• How long does it take to do the Brain Gym® movements?
Most movements take one minute each. P.A.C.E, "the learning readiness/get set for the day program" takes five minutes and can be done in bed before arising, in the shower or anywhere else. Each person is invited to do movements that he/she feels appropriate.• Does Brain Gym® require special equipment?
No, just an interest in moving forward easily in one’s life, setting goals and balancing for achievement of goals.• How is a BRAIN GYM® consultant similar to a tutor, a physical therapist, a reading specialist, a speech therapist, a counsellor?
Unlike a tutor, physical therapist, reading specialist, speech therapist or counsellor, the BRAIN GYM® consultant does not have a preconceived expectation about what needs to be learned, or how that learning will occur. The consultant follows the learner’s lead as to the enfoldment of these processes• Can the use of BRAIN GYM® activities or balances affect health, or alleviate stress?
Research over 30 years shows the correlation between brain organization (dominance patterns), attention deficit, allergies, and auto immune deficiency. Balance of the left and right cortical hemispheres depends on cross lateral patterning, including binocular vision, binaural hearing, and contra lateral movement. Common sense tells us what research has validated: chronic one-sided behaviours (monocular vision or excessive left- or right-handedness), especially without the context of whole body movement, polarize the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system, adversely affecting learning, behaviour, and immune response. Both as a result and a possible cause of these one-sided behaviours, chronic anger, frustration, and depression become part of a cycle of habituated adrenal response and the related high levels of cortisol in the blood.• Does the use of BRAIN GYM® promote permanent, positive changes?
BRAIN GYM® promotes the ability to learn and to retain learning at a deep, whole-brained level. New learning occurs when a person is relaxed and easily able to access their sensory system for seeing and listening, and to comfortably feel and express their feelings. Learning tends to be more permanent, accessible, and applicable when a person is not tense, stressed, or frightened. As self-confidence and self-esteem increase, motivation and behaviour generally improve as well.What Brain Gym® does is direct brain wave activity and electrical energy away from the SURVIVAL AREAS of the brain (brain stem/back-brain) through the LIMBIC SYSTEM (EMOTIONAL MIDBRAIN) to the FRONTAL LOBES where deeper understanding and high level thought processes occur. We are then able to easily process information from the ’whole to parts’ (right ‘Gestalt’ hemisphere) and from the ’parts to the whole’ (left ‘Logic’ hemisphere). Doing Brain Gym® balances all aspects of the brain and with all areas integrated and harmonised, energy flows freely between all areas, revitalising and restoring balance to the mind/body system in the process.
DID YOU KNOW?
Music is also an important part of the learning process. Certain types of music actually stimulate right-brain learning. The higher frequency sounds of Mozart, Bach and Baroque music energises the brain and improves our focus, concentration, organization skills, memories, learning capabilities, and we are able to work for longer periods of time. On the other hand, mothers will be pleased to know that low-frequency sounds like rap, hip-hop and certain types of heavy rock music depletes mental energy by increasing physical energy–you have every right to ask your kids to ‘turn that noise off’ during study sessions!! Another good idea is to paint your children’s bedrooms pale blue (calming) and pale yellow (for stimulating the intellect) as both are beneficial for studying. Classrooms should also use the same colours.EVER SEEN THIS ?
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