I went to a great conference today and had to get back to translate the information in a series. I'll have to break it apart. The first article will be introductory while the second will contain activities that teachers can do in class or suggest children do at home.
Have you ever heard of children eating a balanced meal being important to their health? Of course you have. Have you ever heard of children simply being able to balance as an important part of their ability to perform in class? I didn't either until today. Our keynote speaker was Ann Anzalone and she suggested that students need to be active learners in the classroom. She meant for the listeners to take that statement literally, and included in her lecture the fact that many children lack proper engagement in tasks simply because they are functioning from the lower part of their brain or because they are operating from either the left or right side of their brain when they should be working at a level whereas both sides are intersected and working together. Good exercise, and in particular balancing activities, helps to accomplish this.
Whereas ADD is concerned, I had read in a book by Alfie Kohn that researchers (this was in the early nineties however) found no differences in the brain activity of someone labeled ADD and someone who wasn't, but I was happy to hear the skepticism over this disorder more validated when Ann revealed that many studies have been done on the effect of improving balance to change student behavior. In the studies done the researchers had children participate in a program that had them doing various balancing activities over the course of a few months and at the end the results were profound. The analysis seems to imply that when children are off balance they are quite literally out of whack.
Ann went on to show documented cases of how balance training (which helps the brain stay wired together instead of apart, functioning only in halves) helped to improve student behavior, performance, handwriting. Of course this idea of balance training connected to the general notion that children getting more exercise are going to be better students. Exercise keeps the brain connected and when the brain is connected children are able to operate at a higher level. She pointed out that children in sports programs are usually better students because of the physical activity lending itself to brain connection.
In the next article I'll provide balancing activities kids can do in the classroom and at home!
