May, 2019

THE POWER OF KAWAII

In Japanese, the word Kawaii means cute. Not surprisingly, looking at cute things creates a sense of calmness. However, of greater interest to us educators is that looking at cute things, also, assists with creating an increase in attention and greater capacity to resolve more complex motor and cognitive tasks. Thus, why not use the power of Kawaii, by showing videos of cute babies or animals during transition times? This may help with getting our students ready to learn!

Following are some videos to get you started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p079QtWvf7o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFj0N5MGejo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiCpsIS90F0

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23050022/

February, 2019

Why Stand?

In school, our students sit much of the day. However, research tells us that standing is extremely important for our bodies, as well as for our mental health. Here are a few reasons to allow our students to stand, rather than sit, throughout the course of the day.

• Standing allows kids to interact eye-to-eye to assist with social skills development.
• It improves alertness and sleep patterns.
• Enhances circulation and blood pressure.
• Aids bowel and bladder function.
• Improves respiration and breath control.
• Increases bone density and decreases risk of bone fracture
• Improves posture and balance.
• Reduces the risk of obesity.

https://www.developgoodhabits.com/standing-vs-sitting/

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-health-benefits-standing-desks-180950259/

https://healthprep.com/living-healthy/health-benefits-standing-treadmill-desks/2/?utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=267708695&utm_medium=search&utm_term=benefits%20of%20standing%20vs%20sitting&utm_content=1276533320707775

https://www.startstanding.org/sitting-vs-standing-for-children/

January, 2019

January 23 is National Handwriting Day

The Many Benefits of Handwriting

Did you know that January 23 is National Handwriting Day? In recent years, there has been a large amount of scientific research that verifies the importance of handwriting. In a time when much of our written work is completed via some technological means, good old handwriting continues to be of great importance to learning and memory. Handwriting helps us to:

• Handwriting leads to reading acquisition.
• Handwriting supports later academic success.
• More efficient learning occurs when taking notes by hand (rather than keyboarding).
• Handwritiers exhibit more attentiveness during class discussions than those taking notes via keyboarding.
• Writing by hand encourage brain inter-hemispheric thinking which activates large regions of the brain involved in thinking, language, and working memory.
• Children write more words, faster, and ex- pressed more ideas when writing essays by hand rather than by keyboarding.

Please see the below links for further discussion of the above.

https://www.fahrneyspens.com/images/PDF/handwritings-trainsthebrain.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?ref=science&_r=2

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/memory-medic/201303/why-writing-hand-could-make-you-smarter

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn.2008.20504

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16390289

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581

December, 2018

Reasons Why Teaching Self-Regulation Should Be a Priority

Self-regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with our emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. Emotional self-regulation belongs to the broader set of emotion-regulation processes, which includes both the regulation of one's own feelings and the regulation of other people's feelings. Sensory self-regulation is the ability to effectively use or filter sensory stimuli coming from the environment around us and from our own bodies, and to make appropriate responses based on that sensory information.

Recent research has described the many ways in which efficient self-regulation is beneficial to our students. Results of the recent meta-analysis research review conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association on Pediatrics on Self-Regulation indicated positive outcomes for 23,098 students. The study indicated that consistent improvement in self-regulation was reported in:

- 16 of 21 of the curriculum based interventions programs

- 4 of the 8 Mindfulness and Yoga school based intervention programs lasting 6 months or less

- 4 of 6 exercise based programs including high intensity interval training and martial arts

- 4 of 6 social and personal skills program interventions

Additionally, positive outcomes of self-regulation interventions were noted in the following areas:

- 11 of 13 (85%) studies on academic achievement

- 4 of 5 (80%) studies on reduction of substance abuse

- 9 of 9 studies reporting on social skills, behavioral problems, and school suspensions

The research concluded that there are a wide range of programs to assist with improvement in self-regulation. Improvements were noted in all academic, behavioral, social domains.

Reference: Pandey A, Hale D, Das S, Goddings A, Blakemore S, Viner RM. Effectiveness of Universal Self-regulation–Based Interventions in Children and AdolescentsA Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr. 2018;172(6):566–575. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0232. Read the full text https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2677898

November, 2018

WHY KIDS' HANDS AREN'T AS STRONG AS THEY USED TO BE

Many kids don't have sufficient hand strength to complete functional daily tasks like: grasping a pencil, cutting with scissors, and completing clothing fasteners. Sometimes hand weakness can be attributed to specific diagnoses or medical conditions, but for some kids it can be a matter of exposure.

1. Infants are getting less tummy time. When babies are on their tummies, they’re doing more than just playing. When they’re on their tummies, babies and kids push up on their hands to see the world around them. They shift their weight from one hand to the other as they reach and grab for their toys. And this weight bearing equals hand strengthening!

2. Babies are getting less exposure to crawling. Once babies master tummy time, they graduate to the quadruped position and eventually begin to crawl. For months (until they begin standing and walking), crawling will be their primary means of exploring and experiencing the world around them. Just think of all of the hand strengthening benefits babies are getting when they spend nearly all of their waking time crawling and bearing weight on their hands!

3. Kids are exposed to more screen time than ever before. More screen time and more time with a video game controller in hand means that kids these days aren’t getting as much exposure to toys and games that include small pieces, manipulatives, and moving parts that require fine motor coordination and manipulation.

4. Kids are getting less exposure to outdoor, active play than ever before. An increase in screen time and more sedentary play has other negative effects on the development of hand strength too. When kids are spending their days in front of a video game system, tablet, or computer, it means that they’re spending less time outdoors and engaged in active play experiences that build hand strength like: climbing ladders on the playground, climbing trees, crawling through tunnels, swinging from the monkey bars.

5. Kids are getting less exposure to fine motor/art/craft activities. Many families don’t prioritize art and craft activities as a way to spend time with their kids because of work and other obligations or because they perceive art/craft activities as being complicated, messy, and overwhelming. Parents may not realize that kids get huge hand strengthening and fine motor benefits from activities as simple as playing with play dough or snipping paper with mom.

Taken from theinspiredtreehouse.com

May

As a follow up to April being Healthy Living Month, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight some lesser known reasons why exercise, nature and movement (in general) can positively impact our students.

• Movement can improve academic success by improving memory, enhancing creation of new brain cells, and improving executive functioning.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171122093024.htm

https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/category/movement-and-learning/

https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2017/01/05/acute-exercise-executive-function-children/

https://www.pediastaff.com/blog/exercise-and-working-memory-in-school-children-32266

• Students are more engaged/attentive after spending some time outdoors.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180111115340.html

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1087054708323000

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220679809597584

https://www.beyondbooksmart.com/executive-functioning-strategies-blog/can-spending-time-in-nature-improve-executive-functioning?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=62307148&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9vDMgzKpZl2S9baFJFNJ5KtA0VY68WlHBHLhUvgCbbWY_j7_T14vtYVaqKd1W5tihcVY4PqaGdZzRf3daqEItR-Yheag&_hsmi=62307148

• Movement (exercise) assists with creating a positive mood by increasing neural activation in parts of the brain associated with positive emotions and increased attention and focus.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/2/431.short

So, please consider:

Incorporating some movement into your classroom routine

Maintaining recess times

Going outside to teach a less formal lesson

April

Unlocking the Sensory Systems- Part Four

Tactile System

What it Looks Like at School and How We Can Help

Tactile Avoiding Behaviors

Avoids certain textures or clothing

Avoids or dislikes messy play or craft projects (things like glue, paint or clay)

Extremely ticklish

Avoids or becomes angry with touch (especially unexpected touch)

Fearful of large crowds, busy hallways or lunch rooms

Picky eater

May only walk on toes

Tactile Seeking Behaviors

Prefers tight clothing

Work area seems messy or child may appear personally unkempt

High pain tolerance

Low impulse control

Seems to touch everything

Craves vibration

May demonstrate behaviors that may seem hurtful to other children like hitting, pushing or pinching

Constantly touching things around them

Frequently mouthing non-food objects

Activities to Help Poor Tactile Processing

Use gentle encouragement to interact with objects of a highly tactile nature like sensory bins, sensory doughs like playdough, cloud dough or moon dough or finger paint

Do tight squeezes like deep pressure massages, self-hugs or hand squeezes

Allow student to sit periodically in any area with lots of pillows or bean bag chairs

Consider allowing student to chew gum or have periodic super chewy snacks several times during the day

March

Core Strengthening

When most people think of the core and core strengthening, they are probably thinking about only the abdominal muscles. But the abdominal muscles are only the beginning when we refer to

“ The Core.”

Our core muscles are also found in the lower back and shoulders, the internal and external obliques, the stomach muscles such as the rectus abdominis and diaphragm, and the gluteal muscles and hamstrings. There are, also, deep core muscles!

Core muscles are categorized as flexor muscles -- those in the front -- and extensor muscles -- those in the back, The goal to achieve good core strength is to gain balance between the 2 muscle groups.

Children develop Core muscles through play and activity. This starts through being on the their backs and stomachs as infants and progress through climbing on playground equipment, chores, bike riding and basic outdoor play.

Kids are best able to build strength by participating in unstructured, spontaneous play. And, the more diverse and varied their play is, the better they can achieve the comprehensive and dynamic strengthening they need to be successful with everyday play, self care, and gross motor skills.

WIthin the classroom and movement throughout the day is the best way to develop good core strength, next to PE and Recess!

Core weakness in school can present as:

Slumping in a chair

Getting up and down

Clumsiness, they bump into walls or furniture

They fidget in their chairs

Lean over their desks

Ideas for your classroom:

Yoga poses

Alternative sitting options

(balls, cushions, different chairs)

Motor breaks

Ask child to perform 3 specific tasks on

the playground.

The attached short videos are 3-6 min videos that can used for transitions during your day.

The Party (Movement) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3bZWNKfjtW4WHlzSmVGeng0YWc/view?usp=sharing

Pancake (endurance)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3bZWNKfjtW4dS05Z2RjM0d1Nzg/view?usp=sharing

February

Unlocking the Sensory Systems- Part Three

The Auditory System

What it Looks Like at School & How We Can Help

Auditory Avoiding Behaviors

Cries, screams or covers ears when confronted with loud noises

May look uncomfortable or grouchy in loud situations like gym, assemblies, music or lunch room

Avoids everyday loud noises like toilet flushing, water flowing out of a faucet or vacuuming

Bothered by high pitched or metallic sounds like whistles

Auditory Seeking Behaviors

Prefers loud music

Seems to always use an “outside” voice

Puts musical instruments or computer speakers right next to the ears

Seems to crave common noises such as an air conditioner, fan or water running

Appears to be calmed by louder sounds

Activities to Help Poor Auditory Processing

For the sound avoider, use headphones

Have a quiet room or space to retreat

For the sound avoider or seeker, use calming or white noise music in your classroom. Music that is non-vocal is best.

Allow the sound seeking child to use earphones and an I-Pad with music on during non-listening times of the school day

Allow the sound seeking child to listen to auditory books on an I-Pad during non-listening times of the school day

January

Unlocking the Sensory Systems (Continued)

What it Looks Like at School & How We can Help

Vestibular

Vestibular Avoiding Behaviors

Scared of movement activities

Fearful of or avoids playground equipment

Can appear clumsy or uncoordinated

May avoid stairs or holds on to railings with two hands

Can appear stubborn

Vestibular Seeking Behaviors

Unable to sit still

Seems to need to be in constant motion

Runs, instead of walks frequently

Seems to take unsafe risks both inside and outside

Activities to Help Poor Vestibular Processing

Encourage use of playground equipment, starting slowly and increasing level of difficulty

Jumping on trampolines

Riding bikes, trikes or scooter boards

Movement games like Freeze Dance or any of the Go Noodle activities

November

Unlocking the Sensory Systems

What it Looks Like at School & How We can Help

Proprioception

Proprioceptive Avoiding Behaviors

Appears lazy or lethargic

Avoids active activities

Can be a picky eater

Prefers to sit still

Avoids touch from others

Seems uncoordinated

Prefers familiar activities

Difficulty using stairs

Proprioceptive Seeking Behaviors

Runs into objects, walls or people

Uses extreme force

Stomps or walks loudly

Poor body awareness

Kicks, bites or hits

Poor personal space

Prefers tight clothing

Chews clothing, pencils or fingers

Activities to Help Poor Proprioception

Bear hugs

Massages

Animal walks

Carrying or lifting boxes

Trampoline

Wall pushups

Yoga Stretches

Playdoh kneading