Reclaim the joy of Living with the Brain Gym Program

Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D., is a professional educator, an authority on the attainment of cognitive and academic skills, and a pioneer in the field of Educational Kinesiology. In the 1960s, he began the research into reading achievement and its relation to brain development that would eventually form the basis for the Brain Gym® program. Paul received the Phi Delta Kappa award for Outstanding Research at the University of Southern California; and was granted a Doctorate in Education for his research in beginning reading and its relationship to cognitive development and silent speech (thinking) skills. Using his discoveries of the interdependence of physical development, language acquisition, and academic achievement, he began to develop the basis of Educational Kinesiology. Eventually, Paul joined forces with Gail, an artist and movement educator, who later became his wife and collaborator. 

The Dennisons gathered some of their favorite activities for learning and moving, gave them playful names, and organized them according to three dimensions of movement, publishing them in a little orange book called Brain Gym: Simple Activities for Whole-Brain Learning. This series of activities is known today as the Brain Gym® movements, and are and integral part of the Brain Gym® program. 

Many of the Brain Gym activities were developed from Paul’s understanding of the impact of movement and perception on fine-motor and academic skills. Others were learned during his training as a marathon runner, his work with developmental optometrists doing vision training, and his study of Jin Shin Jitsu (a form of acupressure). Dennison Laterality Repatterning and Three Dimension Repatterning are Paul’s original contributions to the field of education, while Gail contributed movements from her background in dance, natural vision training, acupressure, and Touch for Health. With a group of dedicated educators, the Dennisons founded the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, now doing business as Breakthroughs International. Their goal was to train professionals around the world in Brain Gym® fundamentals. Breakthroughs International has since expanded its program-base and mission to include other kinesiologies.

Parents, Counsellors, Special Educators , Physio-therapist, Occupational Therapist AND any professional individual who is interested to support children who learn differently.

What is Movement Based Learning?

With the varied needs of children, Cecilia Koester, M.Ed developed a movement-based program that addresses the foundational pieces of learning so that children who have special needs can learn how to learn. 

The movements and activities that Movement Based Learning™, Inc. incorporate in the child's learning are based on natural, normal human development. They bring about rapid and often dramatic improvements in focus, comprehension, communication, organization and physical movement. 

Participants will leave this course with the new skills that optimize learning and performance in all areas of life. And they will find that these tools are immediately applicable in home, school and therapeutic settings!

About the Movement Based Learning Approach

Movement-based learning has come to be known in the neurobiological field as any brain-based learning that stimulates the growth of neural pathways through movement of the body.Movement-based learning grew out of research revolving around kinesiology. Kinesiology is the study of human movement that encompasses biological components of movement including anatomical, physiological, neurological, biochemical and biomechanical. Theoretical knowledge of kinesiology is applied in many areas including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and vision training. The approach of these applications can be therapeutic, preventive, or high-performance. Cecilia uses movement-based learning in the educational realm rather than the developmental kinesiology realm which means that she teaches adults to work with differently-abled children and adults (through workshops and private consultations) by showing how to observe postural and behavioral cues. Once this information is gathered, a movement program is developed that will enhance a more integrated way of learning. This will allow for the child or the elder to accomplish his goals in life with greater ease – the goal may be walking, talking, self-feeding, reading with ease, organizing classroom tasks, relating to peers or learning to self-regulate behaviors. Kinesiology is also studied in the relationship between the quality of human movement and the overall health and/or quality of life of a human being.

Movement-based Learning and its Many Applications

Babies and young children naturally perform what experts in early childhood education call developmental movements. These movements develop the neural connections in the brain, which are essential to learning.The foundational pieces of learning, the infant reflexes and developmental movement patterns, all play a part in the physical and mental growth of a human being. What Cecilia does is assist the adults in the child’s world – general and special education teachers, occupational therapists, physical therapists and parents, to come to a preliminary understanding of these reflexes and developmental movement patterns. A change in the functioning level of a child or elder is assessed, developed, evaluated for effectiveness and then modified as the need arises. Through the use of the tenets of movement-based learning, the child or elder is better able to grasp the methods and techniques.

What is Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT)

Rythmic Movement Training™ is founded on replicating the rhythmic movements an infant naturally makes in order to stimulate the brain to build better foundation. Such movement training has been used in Sweden for more than 25 years. 

RMT provides sensorial stimulation to develop nerve nets of the brain stem, cerebellum, basal ganglia and neo-cortex to develop. It has the effect on improving attention and concentration.  RMT also found very beneficial to people with ADHD as it decrease the hyperactivity and impulsivity. 

Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) explores the role of babies’ natural developmental movements during various stages of development:

• Before birth
• The first six months after birth
• As they get up on their hands and knees
• As they learn to walk

These movements are crucial for laying down the foundations of neural network pathway growth and myelination in the brain. They are also important for establishing head control, muscle tone and posture, the basis of our ability to move through life with ease and choice. 

RMT™ works with integrating the retained, or underdeveloped, infant reflexes (also called primitive reflexes or neo-natal reflexes) that are involved in learning challenges such as ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, writing problems, focusing and comprehension challenges, co-ordination difficulties and Asperger’s Syndrome.

Founder

Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) originated in Sweden in the 1970s when a self-taught therapist, Kerstin Linde used the observational skills she had developed as a photographer to devise a series of movements based on what infants naturally do in the first months after birth that are rhythmical and start as uncoordinated activities and transition to coordinated movements. She first called her method Rhythmic Movement Pedagogy and later Harmony Doctrine. 

RMT International , as founded by Moira Dempsey, continues to expand the original work of Kerstin Linde into a powerful way of working with people of all ages, promoting the integration of postural , sensory , emotional and behavioural challenges, in a safe and gentle way.

For whom?

This drug free approach to people with learning, emotional and behavioral challenges is now available in India. Teachers, therapists, parents and people who are interested in acquiring these special skills can contact Leap Ahead Assessment and Learning Centre for more information.

RMT- 1

Date: December 13-14, 2019

Venue: Raheja Classique Club, Andheri West

Instructor: Phoebe Long                     

RMT- 2

Date: December 15, 2019 

Venue: Raheja Classique Club, Andheri West

Instructor: Phoebe Long