What Can Teachers Do?

 Buy the Move to Learn DVD

An ideal teaching resource for parents and teachers in their quest to prepare children for academic learning and living.  Barbara will show practically how to:

• Identify children who should be achieving more.
• Integrate movement programs into a school environment.
• Run a simple movement exercise program at home or in the classroom which will dramatically improve a child's ability to learn.
• Show the root causes of underachievement.
• Identify appropriate professionals for further treatment or support.

The techniques shown in the DVD have been demonstrated to work. One Australian school found that the average improvement for 6 remedial children using the movement program taught in this film was 7.7 months in 7 weeks.

This DVD is for teachers, professionals and parents who wish to help any child who is underachieving. These are children with Learning Difficulties or disabilities such as ADD, ADHD and Dyslexia as well as children who are performing academically well but still not yet reaching their full potential.

The DVD and the book Help Your Class to Learn is a complete teaching and seminar resource to be used any time, anywhere and for any number of people. It is a great tool for community groups who want a practical start to implementing programs without the need of hiring speakers. We recommend purchasing the book
Help Your Class to Learn as reference material for the film.

Recognition of Learning Difficulties

There is no need to do any initial assessment. The program is best done with the whole class and studies have shown that all children will benefit, even those who don't appear to have any difficulties. The program itself will provide a means of assessment, clearly highlighting which children have areas of immaturity or difficulty.

Approximately one fifth or more of students will struggle to varying degrees with the sequences and these students will be the ones that don't do as well academically as they are intellectually capable of.

The Pyramid of Learning

The Pyramid of Learning, found on page 27 of Help Your
Class to Learn and also in chapter 2 in School Floors, can provide a useful tool to record the progress of each student. Parents can help to determine at which developmental levels their child is immature. As maturity occurs, the child's progress can be marked off on their pyramid.

Why Has It Been Left To Classroom Teachers And/Or Parents To Do A Movement Program?

Classroom teachers and parents are the only ones who see the same children every day or at least 5 days a week.

Parents, however, may feel unable to do the program consistently because of work commitments or other family stresses. They may have LD themselves, or they may not be aware of what the problem is. Finances may be a problem in terms of seeking outside help, or the parents may just not feel it is a priority. In the end, 19% of the 20% of children who need help won't get it.

This leaves classroom teachers as the main real source of help for this enormous problem.

The good news is that this program is done easily in a Classroom or school setting. It requires little space or preparation and no equipment other than a TV and DVD player if you choose to use the DVD as a resource.

Method:

The sequenced movements need to be done daily or at least 5 days a week with students as we are changing brain patterns and building new neural pathways.

They are best done in short bursts, for only a few minutes each time. They can be done at times when the class has worked hard and is becoming restless and/or in preparation for a period of concentrated learning. Ten to fifteen minutes a day will bring changes.
No extra money is needed.

They can be done on the floor of any classroom with legs under desks if necessary. Plastic can be put on the floor if desirable.

Breathing exercises should begin each session, moving the lower ribs down and out to the side while the top of the chest moves forward. In this way 142 joints will be moving at once.

Eye movement exercises should be done once during the day
Students should drink plenty of water during the day.

Children can often usefully work in pairs taking turns to help each other as the DVD/video teaches.

Creeping and crawling can be done up and down aisles or around the room.

Quick tests of results:

Pre-testing and post-testing can be encouraging and also provide you with evidence to justify your efforts. 

Suggestions:

Keep samples of, and compare the changes in, the hand writing of each child.

Do the 'goodenough Draw a Man' test

Take a video of the group doing the movements on the first or second day, after three months and again after six months.

Fun Learning Activities:

• Blowing whistles
• Blowing ping pong balls
• Clapping rhythms
• Animal walks
• Rolling on spine, arms around legs like a ball
• Rubbing parts of own body and identifying them e.g. left knee, right ear
• Drawing letters on the back of student in front who then guesses what it is
• Hugging yourself as hard as you can
• Eye tracking - moving eyes to different places in the room on command
• Tai chi twirls and slaps
• Chewing
• Tracing the figure eight (lying on its side) in the air
• Standing on one leg with eyes closed
• Tapping alternate feet while poking tongue out on opposite side
• Tapping a balloon from student to student, every alternate student etc.
• Playing 'Simon Says'

Any fun thing! The students can be asked to suggest a lot more