Brain Gym® to the Rescue

by JENNIFER CROCKER, CAPE TOWN’S CHILD November 2004

Children can benefit as Brain Gym® exercises rapidly improve concentration, memory, reading, writing, organising, listening, physical co-ordination and more.

From poor self-image to underachievement, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder and anxiety, Brain Gym® is a wonderful self-help technique for children – and parents, discovers Jennifer Crocker.

Is your brain agile and elastic, open to receiving new ideas and stimuli? Like your body, your brain needs, and thrives on, exercise. Enter Brain Gym®, an exercise programme, developed more than 40 years ago, for the brain.

In a perfect world, we all operate with the left and right sides of our brain in harmony, in tandem with our senses.

But stress, learning - and lack of exercise - cause us to function less than optimally.

Even though the word ‘gym’ might conjure up muscle-building images, it’s also essential for your brain. Brain Gym® is a set of simple yet profound exercises developed by an American teacher, Dr Paul E. Dennison, in 1969. Together with neurophysiologists, he researched the links between body movement and brain function. Brain Gym® exercises are designed to get both sides of the brain operating at once, strengthening the connection between them.

Children can benefit as Brain Gym® exercises rapidly improve concentration, memory, reading, writing, organising, listening, physical co-ordination and more.

Dr Melodie de Jager, South African Brain Gym® expert and teacher - and author of Brain Gym® for all (Human & Rousseau) - believes Brain Gym® ‘rewires the brain’. ‘It stimulates the integration of the eyes, ears and brain to access all the parts of the brain - not only the dominant parts.’

De Jager says that it can be harnessed to assist children with learning difficulties because it ‘helps children to create a balance between the left and the right side of the brain and body, and it develops their ability to receive information, process and respond in such a way that indicates that they understand’.

When children cannot receive information due to ‘sensory blockages’, they lose interest and start daydreaming, De Jager says. This often happens when a child has Attention Deficit Disorder, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. De Jager says that once a child is able to access information and make sense of it, he or she will ‘naturally’ start paying attention or concentrating.

Brain Gym® is not a ‘miracle cure’, De Jager stresses, but a way of stimulating a child’s natural development so that the senses and brain respond and learn from the environment.

According to Cape Town occupational therapist and kinesiologist Sharon Gelber, a trained Brain Gym® facilitator, the philosophy behind Brain Gym® is easy to grasp. We have ‘two’ brains, she says. In 95% of people,the left brain is logical and verbal; the right brain is global and creative.

As children grow up, at certain developmental stages either the right brain or the left brain is predominantly developing. Ultimately, a fully functioning person uses both sides of the brain simultaneously.

This perfect working body can be compromised when experiencing stress. ‘We all have a dominant brain,’ Gelber explains, ‘and when we are stressed we tend to use the dominant brain and the non-dominant brain shuts down.’

But, as Dr Melodie de Jager, Brain Gym® expert and teacher, points out in her book Brain Gym® for all (Human & Rousseau), the brain has two other dimensions other than the left/right dimension. There is a front (expressive and extrovert) and back (receptive and introvert) dimension, and an upper (cognitive/thinking) and lower (emotional) dimension.

When we are stressed, we use only the lower, base part of the brain, says Gelber. ‘This is the primitive brain which is reactive. It’s here that the fight/flight impulse resides. To function at our full capacity, we need to use our cortex or higher brain as well as this is where understanding or problem solving reside.’

How can Brain Gym® help children use their whole brains and respond and learn in an integrated, calm way? ‘We learn to integrate the various parts of our brain through movement and physical integration,’ Gelber says. She points out that drugs used to treat children with Attention Deficit Disorder target the frontal areas of the cortex or the higher part of the brain. If this part of the brain is stimulated through movement, or Brain Gym®, then it is possible to address a child’s learning and social problems in a holistic way.

There are three main types of Brain Gym® exercises: cross-over or cross lateral movements (crawling, marching and rolling over correctly); lengthening or stretching movements that release tension and enhance concentration; and energising movements that bring together the emotional and thinking parts of the brain, and also aid in organisational skills.

Cross lateral movement is essential for healthy development. Gelber points out that crawling is vital for babies as it activates both brains simultaneously.

There are 26 targeted exercises and activities that make up Brain Gym®. According to the official Brain Gym® website, the exercises and activities ‘bring about rapid and often dramatic improvements in concentration, memory, reading, writing, organising, listening, physical co-ordination and more’.

Gelber points out that the simple, fun exercises take only a few minutes and can be done on waking up and during the day. Purposeful movement helps to wake up the cortex - the higher part of the brain - and this integration of the whole brain opens up a whole new world of positive opportunities.

Parents Joan and Michael Burnie* found that Brain Gym® had a positive effect on their son James*, aged nine. James had developmental difficulties and was diagnosed with a sensory integration disorder, which meant that he could not keep up with his grade reading, tie his own laces or even ride a bike without training wheels. Although he had received physical and occupational therapy for his problems, five sessions of Brain Gym® enabled him to ride without aid and tie his laces.

The Burnies also found that his reading rate and language fluency increased dramatically. The couple believes that Brain Gym® provided ‘the missing link’ which allowed James’s body to integrate the benefits from previous therapies. They have also noted an improvement in their son’s social skills.

Gelber has also had excellent results, but she cautions that a holistic approach to dealing with learning disabilities is needed. She has had wonderful feedback from children who have done the Brain Gym® programme. One child told her that the exercises ‘woke up’ his eyes and ‘warmed them up to read and work’. Another told her, ‘Before I learned Brain Gym®, I couldn’t sit down and focus on studying for more than five minutes. I was impatient and agitated. I couldn’t, and didn’t want to, study. After doing the exercises everything changed … I could study for long chunks of time’.

Apart from the exercises, Brain Gym® also highlights the importance of nutritional food and especially water, which is very beneficial.

De Jager recommends four glasses a day. ‘Drinking water, like doing the exercises, is a starting point to learning with ease. Water is brain fuel and needed for learning, but water alone is not enough. In conjunction with movement, the brain is prepared for learning, but factors like the child’s attitude and the relevance of the learning content also comes into play.’

Learning, Gelber notes, is a continuous process that carries on throughout our lives. ‘When children understand how their bodies work and that they can “wake up” their brains and their senses. they become calm and alert and then real learning can begin.’

How to kickstart your child’s brain:

• Encourage kids to draw with both hands at the same time. Get their whole bodies moving in an integrated way by encouraging them to jump on the bed and clap their hands.
• Breathe in! Deep breathing helps release anger: rub the forehead of an overwrought child while they breathe right into their tummies.
• Get your kids into a space where they have positive thoughts, where they know how to listen to their bodies and feel in control. To encourage cortex activity, teach them to rub the pressure point on their foreheads.
• A simple exercise such as crossing both arms and legs can be very helpful in relaxing a child and calming them down. It’s a great position to teach children in order to help them to sleep.
• Children should drink at least four glasses of water a day. It keeps the brain and the body hydrated and ready for purposeful activity. Water should not mixed with juice.
• Visualisation is a powerful tool to teach children. Try to get them to imagine their brain working, and the way in which they are going to get a task done.
• Stretching promotes clear thinking and is great for opening up our bodies and getting rid of blockages and straightening the spinal cord.
• Encourage children to use all their senses - learning should encompass all the senses.

See also: