What if you relied more heavily on a region of the brain responsible for conscious, effortful movement while typically developing students utilized a region of the brain important for automating motor tasks?
I've copied nearly the entire abstract here. My comments will be in orange, the paper is in black. This Kennedy Krieger Institute research, here, published in the journal Brains this month, compared the brain activity of children with high functioning autism and their typically developing peers while performing a simple motor task - tapping their fingers in sequence. Sounds like an IM task. The researchers found that children with autism relied more heavily on a region of the brain responsible for conscious, effortful movement, while their typically developing peers utilized a region of the brain important for automating motor tasks. Often I see children thinking hard to move a certain way. Higher functioning typical children, the siblings often, are usually much more automated in their movements. This is not true just for those on the autism spectrum but this lack of subconscious movement happens with most students that have below average timing. Below average timing almost seems synonomous with non-automated movements.
Less Connectivity between Brain Regions with Atypical Development Children with autism also showed less connectivity between different regions of the brain involved in coordinating and executing movement, supporting the theory that a decreased ability of distant regions of the brain to communicate with each other forms the neurological basis of autism. This is why every task, expecially the more challenging task, is important. Each task involves different brain regions. It's also why each task needs to be worked until the child automates that particular neuronetwork. I consider the task automated when the student can reach the superior or elite range, AND also can listen to me talking or even respond back while staying on the beat, maintaining focus. Sometimes you'll get a student that can hit in the elite range, but you say something to them and they mess up right away. This task is not automated, they can not process your words consciously without messing up their conscious focus on the task. If the child can maintain the score, while tossing a ball, saying rhyming words or talking to you then he is using his subconsious to fire the movement, then that neuronetwork is automated.
Typically Developing Children use Subconcious (Cerebellum) to Move; Atypically Developing Children use Conscious Mental Processing to Move (SMA) Researchers used fMRI scans to examine the brain activity of 13 children with high functioning autism and 13 typically developing children while performing sequential finger tapping. The typically developing children had increased activity in the cerebellum, a region of the brain important for automating motor tasks, while children with autism had increased activity in the supplementary motor area (SMA), a region of the brain important for conscious movement. This suggests children with autism have to recruit and rely on more conscious, effortful motor planning because they are not able to rely on the cerebellum to automate tasks. If you watch my little girl with sensory integration issues - here you'll see how she seems to have to 'think hard' how to make the movements during early sessions. I can't show faces, but if I could, you could see the deep concentrations on her face too. You can see by the end of training how much more 'automatic' her movements are. I could talk even to her sometimes with out messing her up by the end! This is typically what I see, every child seems to eventually automate atleast the easiest tasks.
Decreased Connectivity in Atypical Brains Impacts Motor Planning Researchers also examined the functional connectivity of the brain regions involved in motor planning and execution in order to compare the activity between different brain regions involved in the same task. The children with autism showed substantially decreased connectivity between the different brain regions involved in motor planning and execution. These results add to increasing evidence that autism is related to abnormalities in structural and functional brain connectivity, which makes it difficult for distant regions of the brain to learn skills and coordinate activities. These distant, more difficult neuro networks, involving coordinating several parts of the body at once are what I think I'm seeing, or should I say seeing the lack of, when a child can not rock from the hip. The neuro-typical population that I often see, usually can rock close to the way I demonstrate, using their whole body. But some children with neuro-disabilities are VERY resistant to developing this skill, even if their timing is in the elite range, they can still be minimizing the movements, just tapping a toe, or bobbing their head to find the beat. I find, with enough practice, most can get it, but this takes time. It's only been my 'guess' that this pathway is significant. This paper reaffirms what I've been thinking for several years now so I'm encouraged to increase my focus on developing this motor skill of rocking from the hips for more children.
Connectivity Impairs Social and Communicative Skills too "Tapping your fingers is a simple action, but it involves communication and coordination between several regions of the brain," said Dr. Stewart H. Mostofsky, senior study author and a pediatric neurologist in the Department of Developmental Cognitive Neurology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. "These results suggest that in children with autism, fairly close regions of the brains involved in motor tasks have difficulty coordinating activity. If decreased connectivity is at the heart of autism, it makes sense social and communication skills are greatly impaired, as they involve even more complex coordination between more distant areas of the brain." Connecting these more distant pathways, and automating them seems to significantly improve social and communication skills for many of my IM students! I'm loving this research! Connecting the dots as to how movement impacts emotions has typically been a more difficult train of thought for many.
Looking at Motor Skills is a Way to Study Learning Skills Examining motor execution provides researchers a way to study the basic brain systems important for learning and guiding actions, which has important implications for all learned behavior, including complex communication and social skills. My paraphrase: Motor skills are so related to learning that you can look at them to see how one learns? That's what I've been telling teachers for a long time. teachers, have all your students do jumping jacks, skip, or balance and those that look 'atypical', will also be atypical and maybe even struggle academically - they are good IM candidates. Get those motor pathways connected and then you can learn! Learning is a motor skill. Do jumping jacks with math facts!
Summary Studying motor skills provides important information about how the brain of a child with autism learns differently, and how autism affects the basic neural systems important for acquiring all skills, from tapping your toes in rhythm (IM) to recognizing emotions in the facial expressions of others."
Wow, this research explains so well what I'm seeing daily in IM. Movement does impact learning. There is a correct, well connected motor pathway as well as a shortened, ill connected motor pathway. Well connected movement patterns are the version you want for the best learning outcomes. IM builds these.
Practicing tasks enough so that they are automatized is important as well. We don't want to just visit that task once or twice, but to do it enough that you can fire the neuronetwork automatically. Dr. Hollowell called IM cerebellar exercise. Exercising the subconcious may be another way to express this and would make the concept of what IM does more tangible.
Decreased Connectivity in Atypical Brains Impacts Motor Planning Researchers also examined the functional connectivity of the brain regions involved in motor planning and execution in order to compare the activity between different brain regions involved in the same task. The children with autism showed substantially decreased connectivity between the different brain regions involved in motor planning and execution. These results add to increasing evidence that autism is related to abnormalities in structural and functional brain connectivity, which makes it difficult for distant regions of the brain to learn skills and coordinate activities. These distant, more difficult neuro networks, involving coordinating several parts of the body at once are what I think I'm seeing, or should I say seeing the lack of, when a child can not rock from the hip. The neuro-typical population that I often see, usually can rock close to the way I demonstrate, using their whole body. But some children with neuro-disabilities are VERY resistant to developing this skill, even if their timing is in the elite range, they can still be minimizing the movements, just tapping a toe, or bobbing their head to find the beat. I find, with enough practice, most can get it, but this takes time. It's only been my 'guess' that this pathway is significant. This paper reaffirms what I've been thinking for several years now so I'm encouraged to increase my focus on developing this motor skill of rocking from the hips for more children.
Connectivity Impairs Social and Communicative Skills too "Tapping your fingers is a simple action, but it involves communication and coordination between several regions of the brain," said Dr. Stewart H. Mostofsky, senior study author and a pediatric neurologist in the Department of Developmental Cognitive Neurology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. "These results suggest that in children with autism, fairly close regions of the brains involved in motor tasks have difficulty coordinating activity. If decreased connectivity is at the heart of autism, it makes sense social and communication skills are greatly impaired, as they involve even more complex coordination between more distant areas of the brain." Connecting these more distant pathways, and automating them seems to significantly improve social and communication skills for many of my IM students! I'm loving this research! Connecting the dots as to how movement impacts emotions has typically been a more difficult train of thought for many.
Looking at Motor Skills is a Way to Study Learning Skills Examining motor execution provides researchers a way to study the basic brain systems important for learning and guiding actions, which has important implications for all learned behavior, including complex communication and social skills. My paraphrase: Motor skills are so related to learning that you can look at them to see how one learns? That's what I've been telling teachers for a long time. teachers, have all your students do jumping jacks, skip, or balance and those that look 'atypical', will also be atypical and maybe even struggle academically - they are good IM candidates. Get those motor pathways connected and then you can learn! Learning is a motor skill. Do jumping jacks with math facts!
Summary Studying motor skills provides important information about how the brain of a child with autism learns differently, and how autism affects the basic neural systems important for acquiring all skills, from tapping your toes in rhythm (IM) to recognizing emotions in the facial expressions of others."
Wow, this research explains so well what I'm seeing daily in IM. Movement does impact learning. There is a correct, well connected motor pathway as well as a shortened, ill connected motor pathway. Well connected movement patterns are the version you want for the best learning outcomes. IM builds these.
Practicing tasks enough so that they are automatized is important as well. We don't want to just visit that task once or twice, but to do it enough that you can fire the neuronetwork automatically. Dr. Hollowell called IM cerebellar exercise. Exercising the subconcious may be another way to express this and would make the concept of what IM does more tangible.
