Resources

Resources 

The  following resources may help you develop a greater understanding of  Brain Gym and its benefits to you and your children.  There is much to  discover!
 

The Brain Gym® International websites are a good place to go for clear information and research on Brain Gym, for inspiring success  stories, and for Instructors and Seminars world-wide:  https://www.BreakThroughsInternational.org and https://www.BrainGym.org
 

Available at www.BrainGym.com are the following excellent books: Smart Moves,  Making The Brain/Body Connection,  Brain Gym® Teachers Edition,  Brain Gym® For Business,  I Am The Child: Using Brain Gym® With Kids Who Have Special Needs,  Hands On: How To Use Brain Gym® In The Classroom,  Brain Gym and Me, and many others.
 

RESEARCH  

www.braingym.org: Learn More>
Brain Gym Studies>
Chronology of Annotated Research…
 

Archives of Brain Gym Journal.
Peer-reviewed controlled study at Cal Poly by Khalsa, Morris, and Sifft, published in Perceptual and Motor Skills 1987.
Sampling of Brain Gym… (See below.)
 

Movement-Based Research (outside of Brain Gym):

FLOORTIME  Autism Speaks

https://www.autismspeaks.org/floortime-0Gomez-

Pinilla and Ying: Journal of Neurophysiology 2002: (Voluntary Exercise induces sequence that promotes neuroplasticity.)

Pope and Whitely: European Journal of Special Needs Education 2003: (Cerebellar/vestibular brain function linked to exercise-based interventions.)

Nicolson and Fawcett: Annals of Dyslexia 1994: (Deficits in cognitive and motor skills among children with dyslexia.)

Budde and Voelcker-Rehage, Neuroscience Letters 2008: (Acute Coordinative Exercise Improves Attentional Performance in Adolescents.)
 

Sampling of Brain Gym Studies
 

#1 Research by Carla Hannaford, Ph.D, Biologist and Educator 

Background: In 1989-90, Dr. Hannaford implemented a year long program  in Hawaii School District, incorporating Brain Gym in the classroom  with nineteen 5th graders in Special Education. Prior to beginning the  program, students exhibited one or more of the following behavior  patterns: Hyperactivity, Attention Problems, Disruptive, Learning  Difficulties, Inability to control behavior in alignment with social  norms, Marked discrepancy between seemingly high verbal skills and  inability to communicate effectively, Erratic/non-graceful or poorly  controlled movements.

Method: Pre-tests and post-tests were completed using the Brigance  Inventory of Basic Skills. During the year, a basic program was  initiated that included Brain Gym several times during the day for a few  minutes each time, with individual Brain Gym work as the learner called  for it.

Results: All students showed 1-2 years growth  in reading and comprehension; most also showed 1 or more years growth in  math. The changes in Cognitive Skill development were dramatic,  especially considering that these are certified Special Ed Students  considered to have limited potential to make academic progress.

 From an observational standpoint, these  students were able to: relax and have fun in the classroom & enjoy  the learning process, carry on intelligent conversations about something  important to them, focus their attention on a task for a long enough  period to complete it, show care and concern for the other students in  the class & their teachers, listen quietly as others shared ideas,  work well with other students on projects, come to an equitable  understanding following a fight, stand up for themselves in a confident  & postive way when being abused by others, confidently express their  creativity in a myriad of ways, appropriately express affection,  exhibit some use of inner speech for deductive reasoning and control of  their own behavior, experience success & celebrate the success of  others.
 

#2 - Research by Liz Jones Twomey, Teacher, Ontario, Canada  

Method: Ms. Twomey utilized Brain Gym movements with "at risk" students at Breslau School in Ontario, Canada.

Results: The following chart shows the  percentage of students achieving the high levels of 3 & 4 (equals A  & B), in the years before and after the use of Brain Gym.

Reading     Writing     Mathematics

            1997 (no Brain Gym)                     39%             31%         33%

            1998 (no Brain Gym)                     46%             31%         45%

            1999 (with Brain Gym)                   81%             84%         84%

            2000 (with Brain Gym)                   82%             82%         92%
 

#3 - Research by Cecilia K. Freeman, M. Ed.

Background: The purpose of the study was to  determine whether the Brain Gym activities have an effect on the reading  abilities of students in third, fourth and fith grade classrooms, as  indicated by comparison of standardized test scores taken in May 1998  and May 1999.

Method: This study was completed using a  non-equivalent control design. 205 students were assigned to either the  Brain Gym group or control group. Throughout the year, 12 teachers  incorporated Brain Gym into classroom curricula so that the students and  teachers did a minimum of 15 minutes of Brain Gym per day. Equal  samples of students were randomly selected for the Brain Gym group and  the control group. (Assigned by randomly selecting test scores from an  equal sample of students who did not use Brain Gym).

Results: The results indicated that those  children in the Brain Gym group improved their reading abilities, as  measured by the standardized test, twice as much as those in the control  group.
 

#4 - Doctoral Thesis completed by Jan Irving, Ph.D., R.N.

Method:  This multiple baseline design was completed with twenty-seven  first-year nursing students, using three separate groups as controls  during the different phases of the nine-week study. The study measured  the effects of four Brain Gym activities, making up a six-minute  sequence known as the PACE process, on weekly assessments of  self-reported anxiety and performance on fourteen technical-motor skill  tests.

Results: The PACE group experienced a 69.5%  reduction in self-reported anxiety and an 18.7% increase in performance  on skill tests, as compared to continued self-reporting of high anxiety  and higher failure rate in the control groups not using PACE.
 

#5 - Informal Research by Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., Biologist and Educator

Background:  Dr. Hannaford was invited to work with a football team of boys aged  14-16 who wanted to win the state championship. They were good players,  but all too often they lost their self-control during games, were  penalized, and so lost.

Method: She had the team focus on one goal: "We're calm, cool and  collected and will win the state championship." Until the championship  game came round, she had them drink lots of water and do specific Brain  Gym exercises such as Cross Crawls, Brain Buttons and Hook-ups before  each practice & game and also at intervals.

There was a marked improvement in their game, so much so that they  qualified for the state championship quarter-finals in Honolulu. There,  they won their way through to the semi-finals and made it to the final.  Tension mounted during this last game, since the championship was so  near. Patience was difficult to control and tempers began to fray during  the match. At half-time, the boys grouped together and lay down on the  field to do Hook-ups while the coach, parents and everyone else looked  on in amazement.

Results: The team won the state championship.
 

#6 - Student Research by Kristin Lynn Scheel, Sixth-Grader

The following study was completed by Kristin  Lynn Scheel, a sixth grader, who did it as a science project on Brain  Gym after attending Sun Grove Montessori School in Ft. Pierce, Florida.  The following words are hers.

Background Information: The brain is made  capable of memory by its establishment of new synapses and development  of new brain circuits. Memory is divided into three types: sensory,  short-term and long-term. Different parts of the brain provide different  aspects of memory. The temporal lobes and hippocampus in the right and  left hemispheres involve long-term memory. The left cerebral hemisphere  deals with short-term memory.

Method: In 1997 as a sixth grade researcher, I  tested this hypothesis: Brain Gym will improve short-term memory.  Fourteen sixth, seventh and eighth grade students volunteered for my  project on the effects of movement on short-term memory. For the  pre-test, thirty random objects were placed in a bag. Fifteen of these  objects were then randomly selected and moved into a box. Each volunteer  had fifteen seconds to observe the items in the box, then thirty  seconds to recall the objects and list them. The subjects then completed  five Brain Gym activities: Water, Brain Buttons, Cross Crawl, Hook-ups  and the Positive Points (which I like to call the Butterfly). The  post-test involved repeating the pre-test activities with the different  randomly chosen objects.

Results: The results showed that twelve of the  fourteen volunteers were able to remember two to three more items with  Brain Gym than they had without having done the Brain Gym activities.