Anyone heard of "brain gym"?

[sapphire_chan]

http://www.witchhazel.it/braingym.htm

It appears to be aimed at teachers of struggling students, but seems like it'd be awesome for anyone who is having trouble with learning.

Anyone cured "mommy brain"?

[raksmama]

I did it with my son for a while. It really depends on the practitioner. The first we had for a few months was fantastic but we moved. The second one we went to was a bit flaky we stopped. I also did the Brain Gym 101 seminar. I think it can be good but sometimes it is presented as a miraculous cure for all and I don’t think it is.

[blizzard_babe]

I've been trained and have used it with students and... I'm not a believer. While it may have produced nominal results with a few students, it certainly wasn't universal enough or dramatic enough to really justify following the "program."

Now, I liked how the exercises were just little things we could do to break up monotony, get everyone moving in different ways, engage various parts of the brain and body... but as far as setting the stage for miraculous gains in learning, I never saw any real evidence. The jumpier, more energetic students may have improved somewhat with the consistent breaks for exercise, but I think that wasn't the nature of the movements themselves, but rather having consistent, physically active, brain breaks.

[sapphire_chan]

But it's hard to get schools to take "stop to wiggle" breaks seriously? Although the discipline of following the actions probably was important. Too bad you're not teaching anymore, you could experiment with doing yoga or silly songs with hand motions and see how those worked.

Hmm, come to think of it, back in the day we used to do stuff like "my bonnie (crouch down) lies over the ocean, my bonnie (stand up) lies over the sea..." when I was in elementary school, before the big surge in school-only AD/HD diagnoses.

[sapphire_chan]

Oh, a question though. For kids who had real attention problems and not just normal difficulty with sitting all day long, were the exercises helpful? I guess I want to hear from an adult who tried them.

Or maybe I'm the only adult who's read the list of what the exercises are supposed to do and went "OMG, I want that" ?

[raksmama]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Oh, a question though. For kids who had real attention problems and not just normal difficulty with sitting all day long, were the exercises helpful? I guess I want to hear from an adult who tried

For me they, brain gym exercies,did not make a big difference. any conscious deliberate movement that you have to do carefully and precisely can have the same results, be it dance,pilates,yoga,tai chi

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Oh, a question though. For kids who had real attention problems and not just normal difficulty with sitting all day long, were the exercises helpful? I guess I want to hear from an adult who tried them.

Or maybe I'm the only adult who's read the list of what the exercises are supposed to do and went "OMG, I want that" ?

Well... they HELPED in that they broke up the day, gave kids a physical break, but a FOCUSED physical break that was easy to come back from.

But as far as the big claims they make, I didn't see (in students or myself... I did the exercises along with them and I have many of the same attention, focus, and learning issues as my students ) any big changes. I, too, really liked the science behind it, and the claims, but my experience just wasn't all that dramatic.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by jalilah

For me they, brain gym exercies,did not make a big difference. any conscious deliberate movement that you have to do carefully and precisely can have the same results, be it dance,pilates,yoga,tai chi

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

Well... they HELPED in that they broke up the day, gave kids a physical break, but a FOCUSED physical break that was easy to come back from.

But as far as the big claims they make, I didn't see (in students or myself... I did the exercises along with them and I have many of the same attention, focus, and learning issues as my students ) any big changes. I, too, really liked the science behind it, and the claims, but my experience just wasn't all that dramatic.

Well, that's nice and clear. Darn.

DD's just learned "low" and "high" so I'll just do some stretching games with her.

[moss]

i think that where 'brain gym' differs from other sensory excercises is that it's designed to get both sides of the brain working at the same time. should be good for anyone with 'crossing the midline' issues. personally, i think it's a good idea.

[karne]

We've used it for some attention and other issues. We so wanted to believe that this was something profoundly helpful. But, our real life feedback is that it isn't. getting up and skipping rope or doing yoga poses is equally effective-from our experience. I don't think that the crossing the mid line exercises are anything you couldn't find or do on your own or w/an OT or special ed teacher. Just talking from our personal experience here.

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by moss

i think that where 'brain gym' differs from other sensory excercises is that it's designed to get both sides of the brain working at the same time. should be good for anyone with 'crossing the midline' issues. personally, i think it's a good idea.

Yeah, I thought it was a good idea, too. But when I tried it, I didn't see any real notable results, in myself OR my students... other than what we already were achieving by taking mini breaks for in-class movement activities.

I think it's one of those things that *IS* scientifically based, and probably shows pretty good results in a laboratory. BUT, when you look at the realities of life, it's not going to be nearly so neat and tidy. Perhaps, had I sat my students (and myself) down and administered a test immediately after doing the exercises, they would have shown improvement. But in real-life, non-laboratory settings, other stuff gets in the way. It's not so simple.

[raksmama]

Let’s put it this way, if someone has serious learning problems be it dyslexia, ADHD, or whatever, Brain Gym alone is not going to completely “ cure” them.

It can, at most, be an aid when combined with other things.

As I said in my first post, DS's first practitioner we tried before we moved 5 years ago, was wonderful. She did other things along with the BG exercises. Ds were diagnosed with sensory processing disorder at the time. We were also seeing an occupational therapist, so I can’t say which actually helped more.

[Kivgaen]

My mom is an elementary school teacher and she has heard of Brain Gym. She finds it quite useful in her class.

While we haven't done "Brain gym" specifically, we have been doing eurythmy with my son, which I believe is based on similar principles and uses similar techniques. I think it would best be described as movement therapy. My son has been described by a few doctors we saw as "textbook ADHD", and we chose not to medicate but are doing Eurythmy instead. IMO, it has helped him tremendously and I see very strong differences in him now than at the start of the school year. But then again, he's also 6 months older now

So who knows... I am a believer, but I don't have any empirical evidence to back it up. At the very least, it can't possibly HURT, and it *might* be helping, so that's enough for me to keep going. Plus -- DS likes it!