is anyone using any brain gym type activities, what do you do and does it help concentration, and do you need to attend a course to implement it?

i have 2 students that have come to us from Basic Education, and will be having an hour lesson on basic literacy skills, some numeracy and some fun activities, as well as their assignment work

i was wondering whether to have some brain gym type activities as a starter

Good idea I was given details years ago from an outside agency but staff at the time wouldn't take it on board said ther wasn't enough time! Don't know if I still have it as I think I gave it to SENCO last year. Do you want it? Or do you have a copy.I believe it is successful.

i dont have any details of courses or anything yet so would love anything you can suggest or link for me

I'll see if I can find it .It may take a while.

thanks, i am going to have a look around myself, just interested in whether it helps in any way too

think i need to pop into Basic Ed for some time and see if they use any of these ideas too

Brain Gym is generally held to be Bad Science, dq.

But I should think that the exercises probably help to improve co-ordination and relieve stress. A good phonics course will probably do more to raise achievement in reading & writing.

Well, I would say that, wouldn't I?

yep!!!

im pretty sure their reading will be fine, was just thinking about the co ordination and concentration, as they are really 'basic ed' students

im going to do phonics with them anyway, as i can order 'anything'i want from the LRC and it will arrive in a couple of days!!!

My old school did 'brain gym' in the morning but the exercises they did were for Yr-2 not so sure the age group you work with would appreciate the silly songs they used or the actions. The children it was supposed to be aimed at were the ones giggling and not doing it properly anyway!

I have a printout DQ, will see if I can hunt it out tomorrow and scan it for you, not sure how much info it contains though.

thanks!

sorry Maizie, i didnt explain that very clearly, im not sure if you know i am in FE. Basic Education is the area that runs courses for students with MLD, behaviour and emotional difficulties, maybe who have come from special schools.

the college runs specific courses for students that come in with these learning disabilities, as well as basic skills classes, obviously some will never progress into mainstream college but my two girls are now on the level 1 course. They will receive an hour support lesson from Learning Support lecturer, and so my lesson with them can be less intense

their literacy and numeracy levels are low, so i will be concentrating on building those up, as well as differentiating the assignment tasks so they can achieve this qualification.

DQ, we've used brain gym in school. One of the main problems I found was that we were very good at doing it for a few days then it trailed off because of other priorities then picked up again for a short time. We never managed to sustain it over a long enough period to come to any conclusions whether it helped or not. You might find this link of help.

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

I'll pm you a couple of names and telephone numbers of people in your area who might be able to give you more info and tell you about available courses

thankyou Tiki