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S'cool Moves Workshop With Debra Em Wilson The brain changes as it grows. What
determines the brain's course? Some force outside the brain causes
it to wire in special and distinct ways. But what? The resounding
answer came as neuroscientists watched the brain work: Experience
makes the brain shape itself into what it becomes. The brain changes and builds itself
more after birth than before birth. 83% of dendritic growth happens
after birth. The key has to do with senses, with stimulation. The
amazing and wondrous fact is that the brain is created to create
itself after birth &endash; brain development as a conversation.
Brain development as a response. The body and mind must be mirrored
universes - it is as if the mind were the clouds and the body were
the lake. When you look into the body, you see a reflection of the
mind, the way clouds appear in a clear pool on a sunny afternoon.
Change the body. Change the mind. Stanley Greenspan is a child psychiatrist well known for his work in child development. He had spent 16 years studying the subject at the National Institute of Mental Health,which led to a new philosophy of emotional development, for which he won the Ittleson Award, the American Psychiatric Association's highest honor for research in child psychiatry. Dr. Greenspan applied recent research
about how babies and toddlers "process" the vast amount
of sensory information available to them each day. His therapeutic
model to help children with a variety of problems is called D.I.R.
(developmental, individualdifference, relationship-based model) or,
informally, "floor time." Children with autism talk and move
stiffly, not because they don't have feelings but very likely because
they just don't have good motor planning skills. A quote from a book
on autism said, "It seems answers came from disparate corners,
different camps, and conflicting sciences." One of the elements of Greenspan's "integrated
program" was the notion that skills are wrapped together. With
an intellectual gain, invariably a physical one appears as well. No learning is really yours until
it is in your body. According to Greenspan's developmental
approach, the brain depends on the body for its breadth of knowledge.
By moving through space, we integrate with the world, and thus be
declaring ourselves a creature in it, we come to know it and can
call ourselves intelligent beings. Movement stimulates brain function,
it creates the nerve impulsesthat build mental pathways. Greenspan says, "If you want
to improve one system, go through another." "If you want
a child to learn a word, you must use the body to teach it." ...Imaginative
play is the first real schoolhouse, the stage on which all abstract
thinking plays itself out. A major nerve runs directly to the
brain from the gum area of the mouth. This nerve is responsible for
noise tolerance and organization. Thumb sucking is one way children
organize themselves. Massaging this area in the mouth helps children
with organization. The body and brain cannot be separated. The research about rats whose brains
grew in response to their enriched environment has more information
that wasn't shared. The rats brains that were the most highly developed
were the ones that were in their "natural" environment,
out of cages and running free, doing what rats do naturally. Play
creates the foundation for all learning! If 10-15% of school age children have ADHD, 20% have vision related learning disorders, 12%-30% sensory integration dysfunction, 20% spectrum related autism, 10-20% dyslexia, and 5% some degree of depression or emotional disorder, statistically, there must be overlap between diagnosis. Debra Em Wilson, variety of sources compiled Even though it is generally assumed
that people diagnosed as having ADHD evidence a common set of characteristics
emanating from a common etiology, little agreement is found among
researchers regarding these symptoms. Making careless mistakes, not listening
to what is being said, difficulty organizing tasks and activities,
losing and misplacing belongings, fidgeting and squirming in seat,
talking excessively, interrupting or intruding on others are symptoms
that are seen in children and adults with ADHD, vision problems,
dyslexia, sensory integration dysfunction, undiagnosed allergies
AND normal children. Many children must depend upon body
tension to maintain balance. Children with inadequately developed
balance find it difficult to sit or stand quietly. They often have
short attention spans and are most comfortable when in motion. There is something in nature that
forms patterns. We, as part of nature, also form patterns. The mind
is like the wind and body like the sand; if you want to know how
the wind is blowing, you can look at the sand. The cerebellum is the part of the
brain that processes learning through movement. To date, according
to Dr. Carla Hannaford, about 100 studies suggest strong links between
the cerebellum and memory, spatial perception, language, attention,
emotion, nonverbal cues and even decision-making. These findings
implicate the value of movement, play, games, physical education,
and the arts (which all use coordinated movements) in boosting cognition. I tried to teach my child with books. A study by Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
of children whose parents sent their children to "academic" preschools
versus traditional preschools that emphasized play and discovery
found that children in academic preschools had no short-term, let
alone longterm, academic advantages. By the time the children were
in first grade, the research couldn't distinguish between the two
groups. There was one difference however: children who had been in
the academic environment were more anxious and less creative that
the children in the other group. If you want your children to be brilliant,
tell them fairy tales. If you want them to be very brilliant, tell
them even more fairy tales. Imagination is more important that knowledge.
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion
that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent
for abstract thinking. Nerve networks grow out of our unique
sensory experiences laying down intricate patterns that govern all
our higher level brain development...The richer our sensory environment
and the greater our freedom to explore it, the more intricate will
be the patterns for learning, thought, and creativity. Mounting evidence show that movement
is crucial to every other brain function, including memory, emotion,
language, and learning...Our "higher" brain functions have
evolved from movement and still depend on it. In the early formative years, play
is almost synonymous with life. It is second only to being nourished,
protected, and loved. It is a basic ingredient of physical, intellectual,
social, and emotional growth. Play is a joyful activity that has
no clear-cut goal, that is free from anxiety, and done for its own
sake. There is a tremendous hunger in our culture for true play. Dyslexia is being studied scientifically by the National Institute of Health. So far, we know that there is are several genes responsible for reading challenges associated with dyslexia. If one parent has dyslexia, the odds are 50% that their children will inherit it. People with dyslexia have a right hemisphere that is 10% larger than the left. In most people, the right hemisphere is the artistic, global, whole thinking portion of the brain. The left hemisphere is the logical, linear, language portion of the brain. For children to be good readers, they must use both hemispheres of their brain in an integrated way so that they can decode words and comprehend what is read. There is not one specific area in
the brain reserved for reading. The skills essential for reading
are housed in every area of the brain. 75% of children will learn to read
despite the method taught. 20% of children will need specific reading
intervention. 5% of children may never become functionally literate. 10-20 percent of the population has some form of dyslexia. 50% of left hand children are dyslexic. What is the percentage of left handed people in our society? Of that small percentage, 50% are dyslexic. This is an intriguing statistic. The more closely we consider the
elaborate interplay of brain and body, the more clearly one compelling
theme emerges: Movement is essential to learning. Movement awakens
and activates many of our mental capacities. Movement integrates and anchors new
information and experience into our neural networks. Movement is
vital to all the actions by which we embody and express our learning,
our understanding and ourselves. No one part of the central nervous
system works alone. Messages must go back and forth from one part
to another, so that touch can aid vision, vision can aid balance,
balance can aid body awareness, body awareness can aid movement,
movement can aid learning, and so forth. Of course we know that our brains
are encased in our skulls and are in ceaseless communication with
the rest of our bodies. But in practice, when we think about thinking,
when we try to encourage it, to mold conditions favorable to learning
and creative thought, we tend to regard it as a kind of disembodied
process, as if the body's role in that process were to carry the
brain from place to place so it can do the important work of thinking. All the best educational programs
around the world combine elements that stimulate both a child's physical
and mental development; for in truth there is no split between the
two. The most important thing is to realize
that the brain is growing and changing all the time. It feeds on
stimulation, and it is never too late to feed it. We always have the ability to remodel
our brains. To change the wiring in one skill you must engage in
some activity that is unfamiliar, novel to you but related to that
skill, because simply repeating the same activity only maintains
already established connections. A recent study in England of children
labeled "Gate",
"Developmental Dyslexia", and "Normal", found
that the children with developmental dyslexia had a significantly
more difficult time detecting tones in sounds and rhythmic patterns
in speech. A recent study with boys labeled
ADHD found that after participating in activities that improved motor
planning, rhythm, and timing, their test scores in academic areas
improved significantly.
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