the left side having dominance over language. Cerebral dominance theory suggests a lot of things, but e ssentially comes down to the idea that it is normal for each side of the brain to have dominance over certain tasks, e.g. We all know that the brain is in two hemispheres, and they are joined by a collection of axons at the “midline”, called the corpus callosum:īroadly speaking, and according to Dr Robert Schmerling, “There is truth to the idea that some brain functions reside more on one side of the brain than the other”.
So… we aren’t really equipped to go as deeply into neuroscience as we would need to to truly understand and explain cerebral dominance theory and, most importantly, the degree to which it is being appropriately applied in Brain Gym’s ideas. Hold on tight, it’s about to get all neuroscience-y.Īs you know, Katierose and I are teachers, with undergraduate degrees in things like business, psychology and music. If you don’t know what Brain Gym is, or you - like us - didn’t know that the academic world has some pretty strong opinions about it, this Newsnight segment from 2008 will be an excellent introduction (and it’s always entertaining to watch Jeremy Paxman do one of his oh-so-polite, British maulings): I had no idea, as a newly qualified teacher at the ripe old age of 24, that this program I had been told was going to help my students learn (just about everything) was being soundly debunked not just in academic papers from around the world, but even on BBC Newsnight. I trained as a teacher in 20, right at the height of Brain Gym’s popularity and, I only now realize, its controversy. We expected to learn something along the lines of “Brain Gym works sometimes, in some circumstances, for some things”. So, when we started looking into this, we both expected to find the type of results we have come to expect from education research: nuanced, neither black nor white, context-dependent. After all, Brain Gym was actively and officially endorsed by several national departments of education, including the US and Australia, so it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that it has value, and is based on evidence. This is because Brain Gym epitomizes the sort of topic we want to explore: things we have been taught to do, or told to do, or heard about but perhaps never really questioned. It is a brilliant, extremely effective and simple programme that the children do 4 to 5 times a day in school.Brain Gym has been on the list of topics we wanted to explore since long before we were sure what this podcast would even be.
Hook Ups is a calming exercise that helps students focus.Cross Crawls also help with comprehension, as the movement engages both halves of the brain and force them to work together. The Cross Crawl helps burn excess energy, making it easier for students to concentrate on the teacher's lesson.Thinking Cap helps in improving the child's hearing, peripheral vision, and short-term memory.Brain Buttons are meant to stimulate blood flow to the brain and helps the child to concentrate and focus.These exercises are done with intention and designed to ‘wake-up’ the brain to improve learning and mental organization. These simple exercises boost brain function and make kids smarter, sharper, improve their eyesight, enhance creativity, improve their communicative skills, and increase confidence.
Brain gym exercises help develop the Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Vestibular, Tactile and Proprioceptor senses using movement.
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