S'cool Moves & High School Students

November 09, 2015Debra Em

Thank you to the middle and high school teachers who came to my Hillsboro, Oregon training last week for the inspiration behind this blog post. A common question I receive is, “How do we get older students to do S’cool Moves activities?”

Focus Moves Research by Dr. Amy Spence

September 14, 2015Debra Em

Okay, yes, oxygen. Maybe a winning lottery ticket, or the missing sock? Something else?

TIME. IT’S ONE THING WE ALL NEED MORE OF ON A DAILY BASIS.

Or, how about the answer to this question: “How do I find the TIME to do S’cool Moves, and how much TIME will it take for me to know if there is change in my students’ behavior or academics?”

Enter Amy Spence, occupational therapist from Dayton, Ohio. Amy’s research study provides some insights to help us answer the TIME question.

Dr. Spence's research results provided evidence-based data showing that doing S’cool Moves activities for 15 minutes per day for 3-4 days a week leads to improvement in on-task classroom behavior in six weeks.

Evidence-Based Movement in the Classroom

September 03, 2015Debra Em

I’ve been connecting with the groups focusing on dyslexia and trying to understand why they have a problem with movement-based learning techniques for children diagnosed with dyslexia. One dyslexia “expert" has gone so far as to call Brain Gym and all movement-based learning programs snake oil.

The reason the dyslexia groups are so opposed to movement-based learning programs is because of the claims many of them make. It is really important that if we advocate for movement in the classroom, we are very clear what type of movement we are advising and not make claims about movement healing dyslexia and other learning challenges.