Brain Gym and Educational Kinesthesiology are the study and application of natural movement to facillitate learning. It focuses on teaching people to do sepcific physical activities taht activate the brain for optimal storage and retrieval of information. The main goals adn outcomes include increased self-esteem, the ability to harness your own motivation, skills to identify and avoid stress, increased awareness of and respect for one's own intelligence, body and personal space, tools for team building, cooperation and co-creativity.
Building off of neurological reasearch performed by Dr. Samuel T. Orton (of Orton-Gillingham reading strategies for students with dyslexia), and combining it with the research of chiropractors and sports kinesthesiologists, Dr. Paul Denison developed Educational Kinesiology which takes advantage of the brain's connection between movement and perception. It appraoches the building blocks for successful learning from a physical rather than a mental perspective thus creating a safe space for students who have traditionally been frustrated in academic settings. In fact, children who struggle in early grades often go as far as developing postures, and biorhthyms that close off their brains to learning by causing stress in the body. Students sitting in class with great amounts of anxiety abotu learning may actually be stopping themselves from being able to retain information because of the physical stress they must overcome.
The physical activities and exercises focus on one of three areas:
1. Coordinating one side of the brain with the other- "Laterality"
2. Coordinating functions from the back of the brain with those in the front- this is related to attention and comprehension, and interpreting ideas and objects as parts of a larger whole.
3. Coordinating the top and bottom parts of the brain - "Centering" which helps with
relaxing from stress, responding rather than reacting, organization, sense of personal space and expressing ones emotions.
Activities are designed to stimulate the coordination of these parts of the brain in fun, physiologically sound exercises so that when these functions are called upon in academic settings students are more prepared and neural pathways are cleared for optimal performance.
More information on training and the research and uses of Brain Gym and Physical Kinesiology can be found at www.braingym.org, or by contacting gro.mygniarb|ofni#gro.mygniarb|ofni
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www.braingym.org
posted By Rachael Gabriel