Brain Break Videos for Classroom Implementation

BRAIN BREAK VIDEO OVERVIEW: 
 Hello! I had the opportunity to create some "brain break" videos to help students get up and moving when transitioning between seated tasks.  The idea behind these videos is to facilitate movements based actions in an effort to help neuro-synaptic communication between different areas of the brain.  It can be difficulty for a child to sit and attend to a task for extended periods of time without having a break. 

When choosing activities to highlight, I wanted to focus on crossing midline and using all parts of the body when possible.  I completed five short videos total and will discuss them each briefly here with you so that you can implement these with your own children or students at home.  Most of these activities are easily explained and do not require a video demonstration in order to grasp the concepts. 

Hookups: 
1. For this activity, the student will stand with feet crossed at the ankles. 
2. He/she will then put arms straight out in front and then cross them over one another with palms facing inwards.
3. Intertwine and clasp fingers together.
4. Bend elbows inward and brings hands up towards chest. 
5.  Keep arms and feet crossed while taking deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Opposite swirls:
1. The student may sit or stand for this activity.
2.  Move R ankle and L wrist in clockwise circular motions. 
3. Switch direction of motion (counterclockwise).
4. Alternate body parts...(now move L ankle and R wrist in clockwise circular motions).
5. Switch direction of motion (counterclockwise).

Partner Passing:
1. Have the students choose an item that can be easily handed to one another safely.
2. Students may sit or stand back to back with a partner.
3. While remaining back to back, have the students alternately reach with both hands to left and right sides to pass the item to one another, crossing midline each time they pass the item.

 Standing Cross Crawls:
1.  Student reaches across the body to touch body parts on opposite side (i.e. reaches with left hand to touch right toes, ankle, or knee...then switch!).

Superbrain Yoga:
1.  This is a form of yoga that can be quickly found through searching the internet.  Here is a quick link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSwhpF9iJSs
2.  Cross arms and grab opposite ear lobes (i.e. grab left ear lobe with right hand).
3. Squat while taking deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

BRAIN BREAK VIDEO PREPARATION: 
My professional rotation site mentor and I collaborated to create ideas for brain breaks that we felt would work well within the classroom setting.  I also did research by watching many online videos and looking up commonly used movement based activities within the classroom.  I tried to incorporate crossing midline whenever I could as I know this helps both sides of the brain to work together more effectively.  Crossing midline is developmentally challenging for many students but is a great activity to encourage for anyone.  I also incorporated feedback and requests from teachers when creating these videos.  Several teachers had requested such brain breaks and were excited to receive them for classroom use.

In order to increase likelihood of use for teachers within the classroom, I created all videos with the teachers in mind.  These videos were meant to be selected and played on a screen without requiring facilitate from a teacher.  This small break may allow the teacher to set up the next activity with the students follow the instructional and interactive video to complete the task at hand.  For this reason, the videos were kept simple and instructive in nature.  I also had the opportunity to partner up with someone I know very well in order to complete these videos.  My little sister performed most of the activities and explained each task before beginning.  She did a phenomenal job and I am so proud of her!  My mother gave consent for my sister to be in the videos prior to filming or video release.

I had the opportunity to trial several of the brain break videos within a first grade classroom.  They followed along well with the videos and seemed engaged and interested.  It took them a little while to catch on as the activity was new for them.  However, the teacher stated that once a task has become more routine, they do initiate it more quickly.  She gave me some great feedback about my videos, indicating that she felt one of them was too short.  She wanted it to be a little bit longer so that the students could remain engaged in the same thing for a while longer without having to transition too many times (or without her having to pull up another video back to back). She really liked the ones that crossed midline.  In fact, she even said, "If you have any that cross midline, that would be great!".  Overall, I feel that the implementation went well and that the idea of the brain break videos was much anticipated and well received. 
 

Lower Brain Quick References

Throughout this professional fieldwork rotation, I have been taking a course on how to screen for lower brain underdevelopment and lack of primitive reflex integration. This course is provided by Brain Highways (brainhighways.com).  I have attached a few pictures of quick reference handouts that explain the ways in which underdevelopment in the lower brain (pons and midbrain) can impact an individual. This information has been very helpful as I have completed this final professional rotation within a school district, as it seems that many children are impacted academically by underdevelopment in these areas of the brain.  I take no credit for these handouts, as they were created in full by Brain Highways.   These handouts are not available commercially but we are permitted to distribute certain pieces of the PDFs acquired through completion of the online course in an effort to educate others. For more information on Brain Highways, please visit brainhighways.com.

Another company called Brain Balance uses similar foundational knowledge to implement a variety of interventions aimed at facilitated brain development.  They have created a chart which demonstrates the typical ages of primitive reflex integration.

http://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/2014/09/retained-primitive-reflexes-sign-brain-imbalance/


All of this information has been very helpful as I have attempted to troubleshoot the reasons that children are experiencing academic difficulties.  Having this information helps one to look at academic struggles through a whole new lens.  If the root cause of the problem (underdevelopment of the lower brain and lack of primitive reflex integration) is not addressed, then progress may be limited.  If the root cause is addressed and paired with handwriting remediation or other academic supports, the student may progress more quickly and more efficiently.

Before & After HWT Student Examples

Throughout this fieldwork rotation, I have been able to implement the knowledge I've gained through all of my extra certifications and additional learning objectives.  For example, I have been able to use the knowledge I gained through my HWT certification to plan intervention sessions and remediate specific handwriting components within the school districts.  I want to share a few examples of the difference that Handwriting Without Tears has made.  The top image is from August.  A 3rd grader who was struggling with line placement and letter size was having difficulty using the HWT two lined paper as intended.  The bottom image is a handwriting sample of the same individual writing the same sentence in December, after having received HWT interventions. You can tell that this student demonstrated more accuracy with line placement, sizing, and even letter formation based on a comparison on these two samples. 

Furthermore, here is another example of a student who showed improvement in spacing and line placement after receiving HWT interventions. The top image was completed in August and the bottom image is from December. In the top image, you can tell that the student had no idea that he needed to leave a space between his words.  He was not able to visually discriminate the need for appropriate spacing.  With HWT intervention methods and remediation strategies, this student learned to leave spaces between words, still requiring intermittent verbal prompting but performing much more accurately than before. 

These are just a few examples of how Handwriting Without Tears can improve a student's handwriting and increase legibility of written work across all subjects matters.  Parents and teachers will be excited to see these improvements in just a few months.  :-)

Handwriting Without Tears Presentation to Kindergarten & 1st Grade Teachers

Hello!  I was a little nervous about giving a presentation on the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum to the Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers within the school district.  However, it went really well!  Many of these teachers have helped me tremendously throughout my fieldwork rotation.  We have collaborated together regarding specific students who receive occupational therapy services.  We have also sat in on many individualized education plan (IEP) meetings together.  They were extremely warm, welcoming, and full of questions!  It was awesome to see everyone so interested and engages in the HWT curriculum.  I knew prior to the presentation that the officially adopted handwriting curriculum for the school district was HWT; however, the teachers had only been provided with the workbooks and were never supplied with any of the multi-sensory or developmentally appropriate manipulatives that make HWT so fun and effective! They had a lot of questions about how to get their hands on many of the HWT products including the chalk boards, roll-a dough, stamp-and-see letters, wooden pieces, laminated letters cards, and so much more.  Many of them were not familiar with the Wet-Dry-Try method so I demonstrated that for them as well.  I spoke a lot about the neuro-developmental reasoning behind the layout and teaching order of  HWT. We discussed remediation plans and strategies for several highly debated topics such as reversals and the use of the double lined paper.  Some people had strong opinions on these matters; many disagreed.  However, we did discuss many key points and everyone's opinions were heard.  It seemed that all were receptive to the strategies of the HWT curriculum and that they had simply been seeking some consistent guidelines by which to abide.

When planning for this presentation, I implemented powerpoints from the HWT advocacy website, which is available for those who wish to spread the word about HWT!  I used the foundational elements of their pre-designed powerpoint and then tailored it by focusing specifically on K-1st grade.  I also added information on topics of high interest within the district and implemented interactive activities within the presentation. I embedded videos and audio recording when applicable.  Everyone thanked me after the presentation and seemed to be grateful for the discussions and information presented.  Several of the teachers came up to me afterwards and requested a secondary informal discussion over lunch within the following week.  I happy obliged and was able to suggest different remediation techniques using the HWT materials.  I also introduced The Print Tool Assessment to them during this time.  The teachers seemed just as excited about the thought of a more uniform handwriting assessment.  One of the teachers went so far as to take The Print Tool to the vice principle and request that the district purchase these for the teachers.  I was so excited to see them interested in using the HWT assessment! As it is not standardized, teaches and therapists alike are encouraged to use it with any student.  I think it would be very beneficial for teachers and therapist to utilize the same handwriting assessment, as this would help to show consistency and may increase efficacy of communication between staff members when speaking about various handwriting components. Overall, I am so glad I had the opportunity to give this presentation on HWT! :-) I learned so much from the teachers!


The unedited powerpoints can be found on the HWT website: http://www.hwtears.com/advocate/hwt

Feedback on Handwriting WIthout Tears from OT Staff

I received some great feedback from the occupational therapy staff members within the school district after giving an informal presentation on what I had learned through my recent Level 1 Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) certification.  Both occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants reported that they utilize the HWT curriculum, materials, and concepts frequently during intervention sessions.  They were already familiar with many of the multi-sensory manipulatives that I included pictures of in a previous post.  They also utilize the developmentally appropriate teaching order of HWT curriculum as well.

Aside from common intervention methods for handwriting remediation, I also introduced occupational therapy personnel to The Print Tool Assessment, which is a HWT non-standardized handwriting assessment.  All OT staff reported that they rely on clinical reasoning and personal judgment when scoring handwriting components such as letter size, line placement, and word spacing.  The Print Tool provides a more uniform and objective way of measuring the components of handwriting through use of a transparent layover that indicates acceptable boundaries for placement, spacing, and sizing. They loved the idea of incorporating this assessment as part of their program.  All staff felt that a uniform assessment tool would be helpful in supporting findgins when completing progress reports or reporting to parents/teachers in individualized education plan (IEP) meetings.  I provided them with resources and hard copies of relevant information.  They were grateful for hard copies so that they could follow along during my presentation.  I also directed them to the handwriting without tears advocacy website which allows access to many resources.  Those who have been trained or certified in HWT have more access but all are able to utilize some portions of the site by creating a username and login.  The website is http://www.hwtears.com/advocate/introduction. 

Primitive Reflexes: Brain Highways Screening for Lower Brain Development

http://theorganizedmindhq.com

Brain Highways has come up with a quick screener which assesses pons development, midbrain development, vestibular processing, proprioception, visual tracking, and eye teaming.  Challenges include "army crawling"/creeping, crawling on hands and knees, answering questions while standing on one foot, touching specific body parts with eyes closed, and following a visual target without moving one's head.  Based on difficulties identified, one can observe which primitive reflexes are not yet integrated, which areas of the brain may be underdeveloped, and what effects this may have on academic achievement.

For example, if a child has not yet integrated the Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR) then it may be difficult for he/she to engage in tasks that require bilateral coordination of both upper extremities and lower extremities.  ATNR is the reflex that causes babies to form the "fencing position" shown below.  Sitting at a desk and turning one's head to watch the teacher as she moves about the room may be challenging for a child with ATNR because his/her entire body wants to reposition when the head moves.  It is hard for this child to disassociate head and body movements. Likewise, a child may often be seen lying his head on the table with one arm bent and the other extended.  This is often interpreted as disinterested or unengaged.  However, this may be the most naturally comfortable position for that child due to lack of primitive reflex integration. 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

Likewise, a child with unintegrated Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) may have difficulty sitting still in a desk because every time the head looks up at the board and then down towards the paper again, his/her arms and legs was to readjust.  Typically with STNR, if the head flexes then the arms flex and the legs extend.  If the head extends then the arms extend and the legs flex.  The baby below is demonstrating significant STNR.  Imagine having STNR and being asked to sit in a desk with your head looking down at your worksheet, your arms bent towards your work, and your knees bent while sitting---it would be nearly impossible and extremely uncomfortable.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com

Our pons is primarily developed through creeping ("army crawling") when we are young.  If we don't spend as much time in this position, our brain may not receive the input it needs to fully develop.  The good news is that we can go back and develop those centers of the brain through repetition of specific exercises and physical movements. The Brain Highways program suggests that the pons can be further developed through creeping on one's belly while using bilateral upper and lower extremities to advance, as shown in the top picture below . The midbrain can be further developed through repetitive crawling on hands and knees as shown in the bottom image below.

CREEPING: http://i.ytimg.com

CRAWLING: http://www.freelargeimages.com

These lower centers of the brain are responsible for vestibular processing, proprioception, visual tracking, and eye teaming.  Therefore, a task such as handwriting, which is performed every day within the classroom may be really difficult for a child with unintegrated primitive reflexes and lower brain underdevelopment.  Lack of visual motor integration leads to difficulty with letter formation, spacing, line placement, and sizing of handwriting.  Decreased attention leads to an increase in errors, difficulty following directions, and trouble generating sentences in a given amount of time.  Reading comprehension may also be effected.  Due to deficits in visual tracking, following each line when reading can be tiresome and non-preferred, causing the child to avoid reading or act out when prompted to read in class.  Proprioception, or the awareness of one's body in space, can also be effected.  Deficits in this area can cause a child to run into peers in the hallway, accidentally hurt others when giving a high five or hand shake, or push so hard that the paper rips when writing.  These are just a few ways in which academic performance can be effected by the issues discussed in this post. 

This has been a very brief overview of lower brain underdevelopment and primitive reflexes.  To access the full Brain Highways screener, one must complete the Brain Highways course, which can be accessed at the following link: www.brainhighways.com. 

Potential Effects of Lower Brain Development on Academic Performance

http://images.medicaldaily.com

The academic setting is demanding in many ways.  A child's performance expectations are high and they seem to be continually rising each year.  School curriculum is written with the expectation that each child's brain is fully developed.  However, this is not always the case.  At times,the demands may outweigh a child's developmental capabilities, causing them to struggle within the classroom. 

There are so many areas of our brain functioning at once during any given moment.  Ultimately, the goal is to be able to achieve higher functioning tasks while also completing more automatic tasks (example: standing still without falling over while talking to someone).  In an underdeveloped brain, multi-tasking may be very difficult.  If the brain was already busy working hard at another job, then it has to "drop what it was doing" to come help out with the new challenge.  

Imagine if you were trying to load the dishwasher and your child bumped his elbow.  He is crying and requires your full attention to put a bandaid on his wound, give him a hug, and comfort him.  Meanwhile, the dishwasher has not loaded itself and all of the dirty dishes remain where you left them.  An underdeveloped brain can resemble this scenario.  A child who is focusing really hard on sitting still in her desk and then gets called on in class, now has to divert her attention to answering the question and she may slouch or lean over in her chair.  This change in posture may lead the teacher to believe that the student is "lazy" or "disinterested" when really it is just her brain's way of compensating. 

I have been completing an online course as part of my professional rotation which looks at some of the possible physical explanations for why it may be difficulty for some children to pay attention in the classroom.  Attributes of decreased attention may include retained primitive reflexes, incomplete pons and midbrain development (lower centers of the brain), or poor sensory processing.  Some children may have underdevelopment in multiple areas of the brain, making it difficulty for them to respond appropriately when you ask them to "pay attention".  Tasks that require bilateral coordination, fine motor control, visual motor integration, visual perception, visual tracking, eye teaming, proprioception, and vestibular processing may be difficult if the lower brain is not fully developed.  Within an academic setting, deficits in these areas can impact handwriting, pencil grasp, reading, attention, gross motor skills, and much more.  

This video from Brain Highways provides teachers with student feedback regarding individual brain processing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTMLzXzgB_s

For more information related to the Brain Highways online program, please visit www.brainhighways.com. 

Stay tuned to this blog for more specific information regarding the Brain Highways screener and what detected deficits may tell us about areas of academic difficulty.