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Peter Blythe From Chester University Set Out To Search For A Physical Basis ...


Peter Blythe from Chester University set out to search for a physical basis for learning difficulties. He proposed that children with learning difficulties may benefit from some sort of exercise programme (Pollock et al., 2004, p.42). Movement of any kind produces a feel good factor in humans, important for successful learning, and many schools in the UK use programmes such as Brain Gym. There is a growing awareness that exercise programmes that mimic the natural development of babies and toddlers are very important, and enable children and adults to acquire literacy and numeracy techniques much more easily, thereby enabling children to be ready to learn (Pheloung, 1986), and making the learning process more productive.
Brain Gym:
Brain gym is a programme devised by Paul and Gail Dennison which is part of an integrated approach to learning centred around ideas about movement. It has seen substantial application in schools in the UK with considerable success being reported. It was originally designed in order to help children who were labelled as ‘learning disabled' but has made its way into mainstream education in Britain at both primary and secondary levels.
In the book ‘Brain Gym Activities for Simple Learning', Paul and Gail Dennison explain that the exercises used in Brain Gym promote efficient communication among the many nerve cells and functional centres located throughout the brain and the rest of the body. They say that blocks to learning occur when information cannot flow freely among and communicate with these centres. Increasing numbers of neurons and neural pathways, facilitated by exercise, enable information to flow more freely through the brain (Dennison and Dennison, 2003).
The exercises in Brain Gym, a core programme of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, help the nervous system to work more efficiently. Central to the programme is the idea that all learning begins with movement, and it makes various claims about the role of exercise in learning. It supports the idea that learning difficulties can be overcome by finding the right movements which will serve to create new pathways in the brain and thereby enhance learning. Many schools use the programme on a daily basis and have reported positive effects in respect of the learning process as a result of adopting the programme.
Alan Heath has spoken out in support of Brain Gym exercises, purporting that thousands of youngsters have participated in the programme which has had a positive impact on the learning process. All of the children in the original studies of the programme had learning difficulties in school. Heath goes on to propose that the higher cognitive skills of reading, writing, sequencing of language and so on, are based on a good foundation of balance, an understanding of rhythm and the internal development of good proprioceptive and vestibular function (Heath, 2006).

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