Integrating Brain Gym and Sensory Integration Therapy

by Rita Edwards - Occupational Therapist and Educational Kinesiologist

As early as 1978, Dr. Jean Ayres, an American OTR recognised the need to deal with the underlying causes of the challenges that children labelled “Minimal Brain Dysfunction” (or more recently Attention Deficit Disorders) were presenting with. In a research study of 92 children assessed as MBD, a larger number of the experimental group improved on standardized tests than did the control group after they used specific exercises designed to stimulate the brain stem area of the brain, especially the vestibular system( the system for balance and equilibrium.) Dr. Ayres and a number of other researchers have done intensive research into the role of movement in learning and learning deficits. Sensory Integration Therapy has developed out of this research, and is now widely used in many countries around the world in Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy practices.

Brain Gym® is the registered trademark for an educational, sensorimotor program developed by Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D., an expert in child motor-development and his wife, Gail Dennison. It is based upon more than 80 years of research by educational therapists, developmental optometrists, and other specialists in the fields of movement, education, and child development. Brain Gym consists of simple movements similar to the movements that children naturally do during their first three years of life as they complete important developmental steps for coordination of eyes, ears, hands, and the whole body. The Brain Gym movements have been shown in clinical experience, in field studies, and in published research reports, to prepare children with the physical skills they need in order to learn to read, write, and otherwise function effectively in the classroom. The ability to learn easily is especially important for children in the first years of school, when they are laying the foundation for their future schooling and adult life work.

Brain Gym is the readiness programme for Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K) which is the process of drawing out learning through our natural movement experiences. It is more precisely the study and application of exercises which activate the brain for optimal storage and retrieval of information. Edu-K is a process for re-educating the whole mind/body system for accomplishing any skill or function with greater ease and efficiency.

The Edu-K process emphasizes the “educational model”—the model of “drawing out through movement.” The intention is to support and nurture the learners innate and organic unfolding of skills and intelligence.

The Dennisons describe brain functioning in terms of three dimensions - laterality, focus, and centering:

Laterality is the ability to coordinate one side of the brain with the other, especially in the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic midfield, the area where the two sides overlap. This skill is fundamental to the ability to read, write and communicate. It is also essential for fluid whole-body movement, and for the ability to move and think at the same time. Integration of learning in this dimension enhances bilateral integration of the two sides of the brain for improved coordination, and planning of movements and action.

Focus is the ability to coordinate the back and front areas of the brain. It enhances the ability to assimilate incoming information, to integrate that information, and then to give expression through that information through the frontal lobes of the brain. It is related to comprehension, the ability to find meaning, and to the ability to experience details within their context. This dimension enhances our ability to focus on a specific task while still remaining aware of what is going on around us, but not allowing ourselves to be unnecessarily distracted by these external stimulii. People without this basic skill are said to have attention disorders and difficulty in comprehending. At a deeper level, focus allows us to interpret a particular moment or experience in the greater context of our lives or to see ourselves as unique individuals within the larger framework of our society.

Centering is the ability to coordinate the top and bottom areas of the brain. This skill related to organization, grounding, feeling and expressing one’s emotions, a sense of personal space, and responding rationally rather than reacting from emotional overlay. Centering is closely linked to praxis. Our ability to plan thoughts and actions depends very strongly on our ability to organize on a mental and physical level.

The Brain Gym movements interconnect the brain in these dimensions, allowing us to easily learn through all the senses, to remember what we learn, and to participate more fully in the events of our lives. We are able to learn with less stress, and to express our creativity using more of our mental and physical potential. The movements also assist in clearing emotional stress that can effect us both mentally and physically. Reported benefits include improvements in such areas as vision, listening, learning, memory, self expression, and coordination in children and adults. Teachers typically report improvements in attitude, attention, discipline, behavior, and test and homework performance for all participants in the classroom.

Brain Gym prepares students of all ages to practice and master the skills required for the mechanics of learning. The program includes a simple teaching format, a language for stress-free learning, and a series of movements for integrating learning into the physiology. Brain Gym offers the learner a self-directed system with which to pace individual learning needs, building self-esteem through successful mastery of skills.

This program is distinctive, in that it addresses the physical (rather than mental) components of learning. It builds on what the learner already knows and does well; it meets the learner just as he or she is, without any judgment of capabilities; it teaches the student key elements of learning theory that he or she will be able to apply. Brain Gym requires little additional training for the classroom teacher, no testing, no technology, and it enhances (rather than replaces) current curriculum. The program is used as effectively in business, sports, and the arts, as in the classroom.

I have worked with children and adults presenting with learning and attention deficits using Sensory Integration Therapy for a number of years. More recently, I trained with Dr. Carla Hannaford in the advanced courses for Educational Kinesiology and then trained with Dr. Paul Dennison to complete my training as International Faculty for Edu-K. Working with both approaches, I very quickly saw a strong connection between the two, and started using a combination of the two in my practice in Cape Town, South Africa.

One of the first things that I had to do was to take a quantum leap of faith into letting go of my role as therapist and accepting the role of facilitator. Using muscle checking as a biofeedback tool to determine what the person requires in terms of intervention was at first strange. As I became more skilled in using the muscle checking technique, I was amazed at how quickly children became integrated when I followed what the body was indicating, rather than using a prescriptive intervention programme.

With the younger child, I still use the SCSIT test (we are not able to utilize the SIPT in South Africa) as a baseline of functioning. The intervention programme works on integrating each of the senses through kinesiology balancing and then using Sensory Integration activities to anchor in the new learning. Parents become an important part of the intervention, doing a lot of the work at home. A number of parents attend the basic three day Brain Gym 101 programme and then follow a home programme using Brain Gym and SI which is drawn up for each individual child. This approach empowers the parents to be involved in their child’s progress, it is cheaper for the parents who cannot afford individualized therapy, and it inspires many parents to continue with the Brain Gym training to then work with other children and adults.

In the workshop that I will be offering, I will be facilitating an exploration of the basic similarities and differences between Brain Gym and Sensory Integration, and demonstrating how the two can be linked to provide an effective therapy intervention.

About the presenter:

Rita Edwards is a licenced Brain Gym instructor and Educational Kinesiologist.

She qualified as an Occupational Therapist in Pretoria in 1973. Rita has worked extensively with children and adults presenting with learning and attention deficits using an eclectic approach including sensory integrative therapy and Brain Gym.

Rita is International Faculty for Educational Kinesiology, and trains the advanced courses in Edu-K and Brain Gym both locally and internationally. Contact her on +27 (0)21 7884916 or email edukafrica@iafrica.com

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