[mary.lu]

I was doing some research about ADD, motor skills, writing etc. tonight and came across the Brain Gym website. Does anyone know anything about these exercises? Have you done them with your child or a class and seen any good results? It seems to go along with the Ready Bodies Ready Minds research which I have heard before. The idea is that when you learn to control your body this in turn positively affects your learning and concentration. The Brain Gym idea is more learning through movement, I think. Any thoughts or experiences you have with Brain Gym would be much appreciated!!

[AZTeacher07]

it's all the rage in my district.... Yes it does seem to work for many. I do it with my whole class as team building. It's fun to watch them take tests now though

[mary.lu]

what book do you have or recommend?

[dtrabilsy]

I believe we have an inservice on Monday afternoon about this. I will be able to tell you more then.

[mary.lu]

I would love any extra insight after your inservice, thanks!

[Tounces]

Its ridiculous!! About 15 years ago some people in my district were trying to use this. Its not backed by research nor does it work. Back when I was doing my research paper, I conferenced with my advisor. We got talking about what resources would count as acceptable and such. When I told him about Brain Gym he couldn't believe what I told him. He is a nationally known researcher at one of the top research colleges. I think you should look into something else. There's a lot of new brain research out there now. I'm sure you could find something more useful.

[Margaret916]

On brain gym and a K teacher and I (5th grade at the time) implemented with our kiddos. We saw dramatic increases in concentration and focus across the board. The kids were implementing it in many different ways -- the K did it as a whole group (everyone stop, do the activity, go back to what you were working on) and the 5th group did it where we learned them all, started to figure out what they are good for individually then the students would use them as they needed to refocus, calm and get back to work. Parents noticed the difference and the PTA requested we do a presentation. The students in my grade used the movements to calm and focus at times like swim team, before presentations or concerts. It was fun to watch them implement during standardized testing when they'd do the movements as they needed them.

A few of the parts of the training were a little "out there" for me. I enjoyed most of it and "bought in" to most of the background. It's a lot of work on connecting both sides of the brain and helping them to work together by using movements that cross the midline and use both sides of the brain at once. By "training the brain" to use those bi-lateral neural pathways, the chance of both sides interacting on a regular basis increases.

Some of the basics like hydrate and do "PACE" (a short series of movements incorporating some deep breathing) work well, if for nothing other then to hydrate and promote healthy processes like deep breaths for calming and drinking enough water!

http://www.braingym.org/BG_Research.pdf

that's the link for the research provided by braingym.org

http://www.braingym.com/html/our_products.html

That's the link for the bookstore. The little book "Brain Gym Teacher's Edition" is good for an introduction.. Also, the "hands on" book is helpful with ideas of how to implement in a classroom.

I like this as a structure, calming and centering activity. I've seen it work wonders with my autistic and LD diagnosed kiddos. It's great for my AD/HD kiddos (and I fall into that category too!) Whether it's significantly "rewiring" their brains and creating new pathways or it's just a routine that calms and allows them to re-center, I can't say. I'm not a neuropsych! But I do believe it's helped my kids year after year.

[lovkteaching]

I took a workshop on it about 4 years ago and i still use some of it just to get the children up and going in the classroom in the morning.

[lovkteaching]

I re-read the post that was right before mine and i had to laugh. She used it as a calming excise and i used it to get their brains going!

[Savannah]

The research was there 15 years ago, maybe some weren't able to locate it. Trying researching Action Based Learning by
Jean Blaydes Madigan. Eric Jensen (guru on brain research) completely supports her teaching and studies.
Just like anything else, it's not a one-size-fits-all curriculum!

[mary.lu]

Hey, I was wondering how your inservice went? I talked to my principal about ordering a few books to check it out. Let me know what you think. Thanks for everyones thoughts on this, I am still very interested. My school is already doing Ready Bodies Ready Minds in kindergarten and the brain gym exercises seem like a good extension of that in the older grades. It's all very interesting!