The creators of Brain Gym point to some ‘evidence’ on their website but this is so fragile that one look and it’ll crack into a thousand pieces of gibberish and twaddle. So, let’s have a look at some well-conducted peer-reviewed studies showing the programme’s effectiveness at improving learning.…umm, sorry but there aren’t any. Okay, the brain is split into two hemispheres but there is no evidence that there is a ‘midline’ between them which children must be taught to utilise the Dennisons claim.Īcademics have jumped in, cartwheeled and bent over backwards to point out that Brain Gym is just wishful thinking and should be renamed brainless gym. That’s all fine and dandy if you buy into the left-right brain notion but the idea that we are dominantly left- or right-brained has never had a concrete basis in neuroscience. It’s easy to get blinded by science if you are a non-specialist and anything that talks a lot about the body and brain when wrapped up in scientific words can easily bamboozle us or beguile us.īrain Gym is a seductive idea because it persuades us to see that body movements can coax the two hemispheres of the brain to work in synchronisation.
Their idea is that purposeful movement activities can activate the right and left sides of the brain and using specific types of movement connects the body with the brain which they call ‘crossing the midline’. They believe that certain physical movements can access different parts of the brain and teachers and parents can use these to help children grow their learning. The Dennisons created a variety of movements to directly target and stimulate the brain to release stress, expend excess energy and help children reach their academic potential. They claim that Brain Gym exercises can help to wake up the mind and body and bring it into a state of learning readiness. The founders claim that when children are inactive or stressed then their learning ability switches off so we need ways to awaken their brains and we can do this through movement. Brain Gym which is a movement based programme based on the idea that moving leads to optimal learning and “we empower all ages to reclaim the joy of living.” Short story: it’s faulty fungus, pure moonshine, gibbering crap and a stinking pile of baloney.Ĭreated by Paul and Gail Dennison in the 1980s, Brain Gym is the shop-front name for what they call Education Kinesiology or Edu-K. In the UK, Brain Gym has been popular in hundreds of British state schools and promoted across Government websites. This has been gobbled up in good faith by thousands of teachers worldwide bewitched by the brain-based sales patter.
/https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/content/dam/thespec/life/health-wellness/2018/06/19/exercise-promotes-brain-health-for-kids-with-autism-and-adhd-study/B88239897Z.1_20180619113412_000_G8Q7ME69.3-0_Gallery.jpg "brain gym for autism")
Jaw-droppingly, billions have been spent on the idea that training the brain can improve your memory, concentration or intelligence.Ī classic piece of bonkers neuro-nonsense is the widely discredited Brain Gym, a pseudo-scientific movement programme dripping in snake oil. The neuroscience gold rush has had many victims and you will find the casualties of brain training everywhere. In fact, you couldn’t be more wrong even if your name is W. Can Brain Gym help children learn more effectively?
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