An Introduction to how children learn

There are no learning disabilities – only learning blocks.
Brain Gym® Handbook.

Paul Dennison wrote this more than twenty years ago, but he could as easily have been writing about South Africa today. It is true of our system in South Africa right now. As education in this country plunges deeper and deeper into crisis, less attention is being paid to the small percentage of the learning disabled as the urgent needs of the vast population of the "learning disadvantaged" are addressed.

Yet as many as 25% of our school-going population present with learning problems of one sort or another.

Dr. Paul Dennison says,"Learning problems are not diseases. They are "crossed wires" in the communication network which connects a child to his world. The learning disabled has a "jammed system"  because he has been switched off by today's high pressured competitive approach to education. The wonderful irony is how easily we can switch on our frustrated children to the exciting adventure that learning is meant to be ".

"We are all learning blocked to the extent that we have mastered the art of not moving".

In Brain Gym Edu-K, we do not see clients as learning disabled, but rather as "learning blocked". We see each client as being individual, with his/her own unique learning style and potential. Our philosophy is to accept the learner as a unique growing good person who will learn when given the correct nurturing environment. Every child learns differently and is as unlike any other as are two fingerprints. Brain Gym Edu-K identifies the individual learning styles and learning blocks, and utilizes techniques to unblock learning blocks and to enhance learning through all the systems, so that clients can develop fully integrated sensory modes for integrated whole brain function.

Some of the things that you will experience on a Brain Gym course:

Discover Brain Gym:

• The sensory - motor readiness programme in Educational Kinesiology for preparing the learner for the learning process.

Explore a definition of learning based on input, integration and output of information.

• Learning is the input of information from our environment via the senses into our brain-body system; the assimilation (putting together), organising and integrating that information with what we already know; and responding to that information through a motor response.

Learn more about the three dimensions for learning

• Focus - how well do we pay attention and focus on the information coming in
  The front / back brain integration
• Organisation - how centred and organised are we to assimilate and integrate the information
  Integration of the top and bottom of the brain
• Communication - How well can we interpret the information so that we can communicate what we have learnt
  Integration of the two sides of the brain.

Each of the areas of learning can be linked to a part of the brain, according to the Triune Brain Theory.

Triune Brain Theory:

The Triune Brain Theory was developed in 1952 by Dr. Paul McClean, the director of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behaviour in Poolesville, Maryland.

By separating the brain into three distinct parts based on the evolutionary age of the brain, he was able to piece together the evolutionary history of the modern brain.

The Reptilian Brain.

What happens when we get stuck in survival:

Stress is a survival mechanism. It has been designed to trigger a reflexive response to life - threatening danger.  It worked well for our ancestors , who met the occasional man-eating lion and they had to react immediately, either running away or fighting. They could then go and hole up in their cave for a few days and recover.

It is in the reptilian brain where the fight or flight reflex takes place, although the reflex originates in the emotional midbrain.  You will learn to recognise a person stuck in fight or flight and understand why some children and adults find it difficult to concentrate and learn when they are stressed out.

Dr. Carla Hannaford, in her book - Smart Moves - states:

I believe that chronic stress inhibits full brain development.... since stress necessitates an overemphasis on survival-oriented processing at the expense of rational, limbic and cortical functioning, especially within the frontal lobes.

Children stuck in survival exhibit very specific behaviour patterns which create learning difficulties. Rigid, obsessive, compulsive, ritualistic and paranoid are only some of the fifteen different characteristics that we can identify that are holding the learner back from learning fully.

How to identify a Reptilian Learner:

• Stuck in what he/she already knows, loathe to try new learning
• Stimulus bound, cannot generalize a concept to new situations

Brain Gym Implications:

To switch on this type of learner, organization and integration of the higher centres of the brain (which control rational decision-making) with lower centres of the brain (which controls action and movement) is required.  Learn how to apply this principle through Classroom Management and Movement strategies.

Brain Gym® Movements for Focus

The tendon guard reflex needs to be released for increasing listening skills and comprehension ability.  The Brain Gym Lengthening activities can assist in better integration of the front and back brain.

The Mammalian Brain

When this part of the brain is stimulated with a mild electrical current various emotions (fear, joy, rage, pleasure and pain etc) are produced.

Limbic System Behaviour:

• Did you know dreams/fantasy originate in the limbic system and the right brain?
• Primal activities related to food and sex, particularly having to do with our sense of smell and bonding needs, and activities related to expression and mediation of emotions and feelings, including emotions linked to attachment. Immune and autonomic nervous system are regulated from this brain
• Centre for social and family protection and bonding

Many other functions of this system will be covered in the course.

How do we recognise a limbic learner:

• Develops a strategy and uses it for everything
• Easily upset and emotional about situations
• Labile, can go from crying to laughing in seconds
• Needs frequent repetition to learn
• Reacts with strong emotions – temper tantrums
• Learns with strong emotional overlays

Learning implications:

• Use emotionally charged activities – elicit a limbic response – fun, laughter, elements of fear and risk taking.

Explore other learning implications on the course

Movements to enhance the limbic system:

• Water and the Energy Exercises help this system to work more effectively. You will learn the specific uses for each of the movements.

The Neomammalian Brain:

This is our intellectual creative brain, dependent on the lower brain for expression. It contains 70% of the brains 100 billion neurons, although only 3-10% is actually developed.

Learn much more about the actual function of the two sides of the brain an dhow they develop from conception.

Neomammalian Behaviour:

• The neocortex makes language, including speech and writing possible. It makes logical and formal operational thinking possible and allows us to see ahead and plan for the future. Many more functions are listed in the manual.

Learning Implications:

• This is the centre for all rational and logical thinking and reasoning. It is where concepts are formed and new ideas develop.  Abstract thought and imagination take place here, capable of high level creativity and innovation.  Discrimination and matching ability, as well as focusing and perceptions are dealt with here. When the child has not had the opportunities to fully integrate the two sides of the brain, one-sided learning happens, with one side “switching off” while the other side is functioning.

Movements to integrate the cortex:

• Midline Movements assist in integration of the two sides of the brain. Learn how to apply the movements in a session with a child, to enhance midline crossing and enhance bilateral integration for better handwriting, visual and auditory perception and thinking skills. Enhance reading, spelling and maths. ability. With these movements.

Explore through movement how the cortex and laterality develops and how it can become dysfunctional through a lack of movement and integration during early childhood.

See also: