You see the child that comes into your class and you immediately have a feel for them as they play. They run but they do not seem quite as light on their feet, their arms 'flop' by their sides, they are slightly behind everyone else. Or when they do jumping jacks, the arms and legs may not move in synchrony. Maybe the child bumps into the desk on their way to their seat, or slumps over on the desk all day. Some how you know this child is going to struggle a little more in learning. You know this by observing their motor pathways! In extreme cases, say a child with Downs Syndrome, you can tell it IMMEDIATELY and even from a distance by the way they walk.
Use your music and PE teachers - they are great resources for the classroom.
Add rhythm and movement to academic goals. Have the children move while learning. Do memory work to a beat and a simple hand jive - hit legs, clap, hit legs, clap, etc. Have the whole class do this together or break into twos and have children make up their own TWO step hand jive to the memory verse or times tables. The next week maybe up it to a 3 or 4 step hand jive, slowly increasing the difficulty but keeping it VERY repetitive. To load the task even more for those ready for the challenge, you might have the children include a crossing mid line step (right hand goes into left body space) But..limit this to a few steps, repetition is a key! You need to get to a stage of mastery in the movement pathway. Do it enough to reach mastery level, where you don't have to think about the movement but can just 'do it'. Teach hand jives, play clapping games, jump rope rhymes, and musical memory tasks.... a lot like our parents use to do! Here's a few suggestions: Grease Hand Jive; Miss Mary Mack II:Double This , II; Chinese Restaurant ; Stella Ella Ola ; Boom Snap Clap II; Hand clapping misc.
Start the day with good old rhythmic calisthenics. Calendar time - jump 23 times for April 23rd! Do 23 toe touches, better yet, touch right hand to left toe! Math facts, memory work, spelling, history facts, what can you work into a beat. Here is a free metronome link to use to keep from going too fast! Stay together! A huge piece of rhythm tasks is CONTROL. Encourage control! The impulsive student will want to go too fast, his mental clock is set too fast. There has been research showing that the ADHD adult cannot keep a rhythm as well once the spacing of the beats gets too far apart. Make the 'too fast child' go slower. Reward the child for slowing down! The slow child (a different timing issue) may not be able to keep up with the movements. Modify the task a bit for them so they can do it on the beat with the others, adding more of the movement as they get more proficient.
IM tasks are based on 54 beats per minute, researched to be slightly slower than comfortable for older children and adults (therefore requiring the use of focus to be successful). 54 beats per minutes will probably be too slow in a classroom setting without the IM feedback, but try 60 to 80 beats per minute, depending on the task. For the kindergartner or first grader, begin at 40 - 50 beats per minute and work up. Listen and stay together. Maybe let the class earn one minute more for recess if everyone stays together. You will soon note that many of the children that struggle academically will stick out in these timing tasks as well as their motor tasks, especially as you approach the minute or two of focus level (they may be able to do the task for a short time but they have difficulty as the task increases in length.) "Where's the beat?" "I can't go that slow!" or "that fast!" "My body won't move together" "Which ways is left/right" or "I can't step backwards!" Try to make it easy enough to be successful for all, but 'load the task' to make it challenging for those that are already successful. IE: Jumping jacks alternatives, if jumping jacks are easy, add a right then left twist, or scissor the legs front to back. Do basic jumping jacks if basic jumping jacks are not in good form yet. If Basic jumping jacks can't even be done up to speed, have that child only do the feet part at first. As you do these tasks, remember the goal is to attend to the beat - this also works attention! Often we just let children move however they want, just so they are moving and trying. Sure this may be good aerobic exercise, but if you add the mental process of control and correct movement patterns, you’ll be working so much more! I strongly suggest adding the goal of attending to the the beat as well. A little 'boot camp' is good for everyone!
We see significant gain in attention through IM training. Children have to attend to the beat non-stop, every second of the task. The very first second that the child looses focus, the computer catches that loss of focus and tells the child 'pay attention'. You cannot catch every child in your class the second they stop focusing, but you can talk about trying hard to stay on the beat, trying to attend. And you can reward gains you see in this.
Infinity Walk I have always wanted to try this Infinity Walk. I have heard wonderful things about this but have not had the opportunity to use it myself. The processes they use are definitely important for learning. A lot of visual spatial training, plus rhythm with the need to walk the same pace, etc.
What about helping the child to focus? Most teachers already understand that some children simply cannot tune out distractions. (If you observe a child closely, you may notice that often it is not that they don't attend as much as that they get distracted, a lot!) Computers are HUGELY distracting to some children. Creating quiet, isolated areas for working away from any electronics offers the best possible work area in the school setting (Distractions can hardly ever be totally eliminated, and even if they were, these children often have internal sensory distractions that distract them and interfere with their productivity!)
Refocusing is just as important as staying focused. Once these children are distracted, they do not return to the task they were doing. They just hang out looking at whatever distracted them until something else 'distracts' them elsewhere. A warm gentle touch on the paper that the child is suppose to be working on would 'distract' them away from whatever they were looking at and bring their focus back to the task on hand. This soft tap, plus a warm encouraging look refocuses a child with out causing a chemical burst of anxiety that might happen if you verbalize your expectation with a “Junior, refocus” comment. Even saying the child's name, often used to call attention to a short falling, can evoke a negative emotional response for some children. In the brain training I do, I find it blatantly obvious that when this negative chemical is released for even a mild event like call a child out on something, then good focus is impossible for a while - the next 5 - 30 seconds. If the negative chemical reaction in the brain is large enough to see (child express anger, emotion) then it takes even longer. So if your child has any sort of anxiety release, by mentioning his short falling, you've just made it harder for the child to focus. This is why I recommend a soft tap and eye contact to refocus a child. The chidl is are NOT being willful when they aren't focusing. It's a brain immaturity, a brain misfiring, not under their control. I know walking over and tapping their paper each time they lose focus is exhausting teaching... but if is often the only way this child will finish that paper in the time allowed. Children want to do well in school. To recap, the child cannot tune out the distractions - it's impossible, and once distracted, they cannot shift their focus back to the task. If you gently touch their paper sitting in front of them, they reengage, at least until the next external or internal distraction calls them away again. (Yes, it is an exhausting process, I parented one of those students and taught many others. Have you ever noticed the child's parents are as exhausted as you are!)
Do not take away recess as a motivator. For one, it does not work. The child that misses recess in first grade is still missing recess in 5th grade. If it worked, they would not be missing recess any more. Second, these children NEED recess the most! Click here to read about some alternatives to missing recess.
