BUY THE FILM "MOVE TO LEARN" ON DVD OR VIDEO
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 film 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 film is for teachers, professionals and parents who wish to help any child who is underachieving. These are children with Learning Difficulties such as ADD, ADHD and Dyslexia as well as children who are performing academically well but still not yet reaching their full potential.
The film 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 assessment at all in the beginning, because the program is best done with the whole class since everyone will benefit. The program itself will do the assessment for the teacher. As they watch their students going through the sequences they will soon see the degree of difficulty for each of their students.
Approximately one fifth or more of their students will struggle to varying degrees with the sequences and they will be the ones that don't do as well academically as they are intellectually capable of.
The Pyramid of Learning
There can be a copy of the Pyramid of Learning to record the progress of each student. This is found on page 27 of Help Your
Class to Learn and can be copied. Parents can assist in helping the teacher understand at which developmental levels their child is immature. As maturity occurs their progress can be marked off on their pyramid.
LD Is Not An Academic Problem
Learning Difficulties is a neurological problem.
There is a huge amount of research already done and being done at the moment to show this. The brain research now shows clearly why the 'Move to Learn' program has worked for the last 30 years and in other places for longer.
Teachers cannot help these students on their own because they are not trained in the following fields:
medical
physical
vision
hearing
The neurological development of the brain is not taught in teacher training and teachers are very, very busy so they need the help of something simple and spot-on.
Teachers have large classes, an overload of 'extra' things to do and students with a wide variety of difficulties to cope with all at the same time. Move to Learn has been made into a very simple and effective program by medical people who understand the brain and teachers who understand the stress of a classroom.
Everyone has some degree of LD and therefore is not achieving to their full potential. It is, therefore, a huge benefit when the whole class does the movement program and then can concentrate better. Use Help Your Class to Learn by Barbara Pheloung for examples of programs in schools whom you can contact.
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, are often unable to do the program consistently because they themselves may have LD, they both work, or they are not even aware of what the problem is. 19% of the 20% who need help won't either have the money or see the need to spend it to take their children to private practitioners.
This leaves classroom teachers as the main real source of help for this enormous problem.
This program is done easily in a Classroom or elsewhere.
Preparation
The sequences on the last half of the film, Move to Learn, can be shown at a staff meeting. Maybe only 2 sequences would be shown and practiced to start with.
Teachers/others need to learn to do the movements exactly as they are done on the DVD/video Move to Learn.
If they are not able to do the movements for any reason, the film, itself, will teach the children. Teachers need only to turn it on and then monitor their students' progress.
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 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.
The movement sequences should be done in the order in which they are shown on the film.
Each movement should be repeated daily until most of the class has mastered it. The film will tell the teacher what to look for to indicate that each movement has been mastered.
To double-check for mastery and to further challenge the brain the teacher can ask students to do something else while they do the movement sequence such as saying the alphabet, counting backwards, blinking alternate eyes etc.
The few who continue to find it difficult can be encouraged to do it at home as well or be referred to an appropriate professional.
After the movement is practiced for a few minutes, one fun activity can be chosen. There are suggestions below.
Movement should be done SLOWLY.
If necessary students can use the space under their own desks and beside them.
Rolling activities - keep legs under own desk and make one roll from back to front and return same way, then other way and back. Shoulders lead with arm crossing body; then hip can lead. Later - eyes closed.
Creeping and crawling can be done up and down aisles or around the room.
Quick tests of results
A pre-test of 10 suitable nonsense words, or spelling words can be given before you start the sequences if you feel it is encouraging to show improvement after 3 months and 6 months when you can do a post test.
Keep samples of and compare the changes in the hand writing of each child.
Take a video of the group doing the movements on the first or second day, after three months and 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
