Jj is for Jottings 138. Brain Gym.
Brain gym is a series of movements which claim to enhance whole-brain learning. An alternative term is “educational kinesiology”. The word “education” comes from the Latin educare, which means “to draw out”. “Kinesiology” is from the Greek root kinesis, which means “motion” and is the study of the movement of the human body. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 109. 8 Types of Intelligence.
Most people know about the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) test, and you may have taken an IQ test at some stage. Some scientists argue that tests like these favour people with logical and mathematical abilities, and ignore other areas like artistic, linguistic, musical or interpersonal skills.
Harvard scientist, Howard Gardner finally discovered, after many years of research, that there are 8 types of intelligence. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 53. To Fidget or Not to Fidget?
Fidget spinners are all the rage at school and in homes at the moment – flat, triangle-shaped pieces of hard plastic or metal with a ball-bearing in the centre that the user spins between two fingers. Are they just a distraction in the classroom? Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 51. Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 2).
Shanti says:
“When learning to rhyme just relax, like me,
Play games and have fun: it’s easy – you’ll see.
How do we explain what a rhyme is? I usually say that rhyming words sound the same at the end, and follow it up with plenty of examples. However, be prepared for some children to think that you are talking of only the last SOUND. You might have some extra explaining to do. The most important way Continue reading
Off to school next year – excellent preparation.
Jj is for Jottings 33. How More Routine, Fewer Choices Make for Smarter and Happier Children. Part 3.
Here is the third part of an article which appeared in the Pulse section of the Border Mail on February 6 last year, and it bears repeating. The first part was in Jottings 18 and the second in Jottings 26.
Behavioural optometrist Michael Smith gave these guidelines:
How to prepare your child for the ‘game of school’
• Talk with your child;
• Travel/drive/explore the world;
• Use a wide range of vocabulary;
• Play simple games with words and alphabetic sounds (make it fun);
• Read books daily — limit distractions and make the experience a special time; and
• If you are concerned about your child’s progress or development, do some research and get help as it is easier to rectify problems at an earlier age.
THE fallout is felt in the classroom.
Mrs McCormack (a teacher for 45 years, now retired) knows all too well the validity of Mr Smith’s comments after four decades of teaching.
“Nothing can replace the experience of the smell and touch of a book, of sitting cuddled up on your parent’s knee while they read to you and hearing and seeing the expression in their voice,” she says.
And while she believes advances in technology have brought a wealth of stimulation to our world, at the same time it is robbing children of vital skills needed for school and life.
“It’s like we have thrown out everything that’s old to bring in everything that’s new,” she says.
“It may not happen in my lifetime but I can see a point where the focus will return to the basics — the three Rs (Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic).
Mr Smith is adamant the over-use of electronic media before kids start school is affecting them socially, physically and mentally.
“Plonking children in front of a television for hours a day and then another two hours on the iPad or Xbox is depriving children of movement and of words,” he says.
“So many kids are starting school with a limited ability to be creative, to see in their mind.”
These are the children who end up at Mr Smith’s door.
He has countless stories of parents who come to him almost at their wit’s end about little Johnny mucking up, falling behind and generally struggling to grasp the basics of learning.
In a heart-felt letter, one mum wrote that she once had a son who hated school so much he would cry and lock himself in the toilet.
“Every day he would lay on my bed and say I hate myself, why can’t I learn and every day my heart would break (sic) for him,” she wrote.
“He was three years behind the other children in his grade and falling further and further behind.
“Now he’s a changed boy; he loves going to school, his handwriting has improved 100 per cent and he is now reading books, loves maths and is going well at sport.”
But it was the new-found confidence evident in her son’s own words that captured it best for Mr Smith.
“Thank you for helping me. You have helped me in my school work so much,” the boy wrote in pencil.
“Now can you help me pick up a chick … ha ha.
Marshmallow sitting on the front door mat. Notice the white bits on the mat from her preening. Quite messy, and rather difficult to get out the front door without sending her flying (not literally).
Jj is for Jottings 26. How More Routine, Fewer Choices Make for Smarter and Happier Children. Part 2.
Here is the second part of an article which appeared in the Pulse section of the Border Mail on February 6 last year, and it bears repeating. The first part was in Jottings 18. We will visit other parts of the same article in other Jottings.
GETTING your priorities right as a parent is a sentiment with which behavioural optometrist Michael Smith wholeheartedly agrees.
As thousands of students poured back into classrooms across the Border in recent weeks, the odds are that some of them will come across the path of the Wodonga Vision and Learning Centre founder.
Mr Smith believes about 30 per cent of children start school before they are ready.
For the past 30 years he has helped children (and adults) with “visual processing problems” who may be struggling in a classroom or with reading.
His work is about much more than prescribing glasses.
Behavioural optometry examines how a person’s vision affects how they function in the world around them, according to Mr Smith.
“Vision is your pervasive means of dealing with the world around you and if you don’t do that well then you are going to be compromised — at school, in sport and even at work.
But it’s at school that the problem generally rears its head, according to Mr Smith.
“Often a child who has not developed their vision adequately will be written off as clumsy or just not good at sports for example,” he says.
“But when you hit school, you have a situation that forces the issue and many kids are just not ready.
“They have not developed the skills they need to be able to deal with the classroom and they are the ones who end up needing intervention.”
So what does this all mean?
It begins when we are babies, Mr Smith says.
“Visual curiosity first triggers a baby to move their hands to try and grasp something or to roll towards something.
“Eventually your movement becomes more and more complex as you learn to crawl and then eventually walk.
“Once you are on the move your visual curiosity can take you to places you can’t reach.”
Mr Smith says that as we get older we don’t always have to go to things and touch them.
“Your vision has had so many experiences, you can look at something and know what is is,” he explains.
But if your visual system does not develop beyond that point, for whatever reason, problems can arise, he says.
“If, for example, you start school and you still have to touch everything you are not going to function in a classroom because you can’t touch words or numbers,” Mr Smith says.
“It is parents who give them their language and they need to both watch and listen to you. That cannot be replaced by a computer screen.”
He says once you have a vision problem it modifies the way your body works and the way you move.
It can also affect behaviour.
He says there are a lot of things parents can do to help ensure their child’s visual system develops properly.
But it requires an investment of time.
It means reading to your child is more important than the washing.
It means less time in front of the television or Xbox and more time playing outside.
“Children need a lot of movement experience,” he explains.
“They need outside play so go to the park, ride a bike, dance, catch and throw a ball or play with a balloon when they are little.
“Give them something to make or create — whether it’s Lego or some paper towel tubes and sticky tape.
“And you must read to your child. That is essential.”
Mr Smith says a lot of children come to him with poor vocabulary and don’t know how to construct a simple sentence.
“It is parents who give them their language and they need to both watch and listen to you,” he says.
“That cannot be replaced by a computer screen.”
But the investment of time can sometimes be the hardest thing to do, he concedes.
“It’s difficult because both parents generally have to work and our society is such that in order to support ourselves parents have to work,” Mr Smith says.
“The parent may only see their child for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and most of that time is spent pushing the kid to get ready for breakfast or dinner or out of bed or off to bed.
“It’s not quality time.
“It’s survival time.”
Jj is for Jottings 5. Movement and Learning.
Pictured: “Will you just go away and stop taking photos!” Manuel – an alpaca with attitude.
Did you know that learning requires movement? We fall into the trap of dividing life into physical versus mental activities, but in fact we can’t separate movement from learning.
Skills of all types are built through muscle movements, from the physical skills of athletes, dancers etc., to the less obvious (but very complex) muscle movements involved in speech, language and gesture. Even if our thinking is deep and abstract, it can only be manifested through the use of the muscles in our bodies – speaking, writing, making music, computing and so on.
At the very start of the learning process we move so that we align our sensory organs to receive maximum input from our environment eg. turning your head so that one ear is close to the person speaking to you in a noisy room; moving your eyes around to take in the entire diagram on the whiteboard.
There must be movement to “pin down” a thought. You may sit quietly to think, but an action must be used to anchor a thought – either written or spoken words. Talking (or writing) allows us to organise and elaborate our thoughts. When we talk about what we’ve learned, the physical movements internalise and solidify it in nerve networks.
Studies clearly show that more active people – adults and children – score better on mental tests than less active people. Recent research has discovered that muscular activities, especially co-ordinated movements, stimulate the production of neurotrophins, which in turn stimulate the growth of nerve cells and increase the number of neural connections in the brain. How many times have we observed that the students who excel academically at secondary school are also excellent sportspeople, and many are also talented in music and other arts?
So it is essential to the learning process that we allow children to explore every aspect of movement and balance in their environment – walking along the kerb, climbing a tree, or even jumping on the furniture! Or perhaps a more acceptable alternative to that last one.
