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Movement & Mindfulness for Executive Function & Self-Regulation
Leah Kalish, MA: [email protected] www.move-with-me.com
818-667-3689
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Leah Kalish, MA Education and Experience •NYU in 70’s and Pacific Oaks College 90’s •Teaching & developing resources/curriculum since mid-90’s
Successful Curriculum and Resources •Move With Me Action Adventures – Pizza Party and Scooter & Me •Barefoot Books - Yoga Pretzels and Yoga Planet Decks •Every Kid’s Yoga – Teaching Yoga to Children with Special Needs •School Specialty and Yoga Ed – Pre-K through High School Curricula •Imaginazium - Yoga Kit and Empowerment Pack for Kids •Gaiam - Yoga Fitness Videos for Kids, ages 3 – 6 and 7 – 12
Dr. J.C. Pearce: Play is nature’s biological plan for learning.
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Objectives
• Understand how play/movement/ embodied self-regulation nurture executive function, optimal development, social-emotional competence, and learning readiness.
• Use 4 Adventure Skills in your daily routine to support well-being, ease of learning, self-control, and self-regulation.
• Use games & story books for enjoying more movement / play activities.
• Be inspired to model mindfulness and practice self-care throughout the day.
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Overview • Pre-Activity • Adventure Skills Intro • Post-Activity • Physiological Benefits • Adventure Skills Practice • BE – DO – HAVE Principle • Entrainment – Modeling - Mirroring • 3 Games for Building Skills • Movement Stories • Review • Discuss Action Plan
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Pre-Activity
• Turn head to left. – Notice how it feels. – Notice range of peripheral vision.
• Turn head to right. – Notice sensation and vision.
• Fold from hips into forward bend – Notice sensation and range of motion, touch your
fingers lightly on your knees or shins to mark ROM • Snap Test
– Notice ease or difficulty.
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A B C D E F G
l r t r l r t
H I J K L M N l l r l r r t
O P Q R S T U l t r l t r r
V W X Y Z l t t l r
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• Adventure Skilll # 1
• Adventure Skill # 2
• Adventure Skill # 3
• Adventure Skill # 4
*Ordered to coincide with Brain Gym®’s PACE 7
A B C D E F G l r t r l r t
H I J K L M N l l r l r r t
O P Q R S T U l t r l t r r
V W X Y Z l t t l r
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Post-Activity
• Turn head to left. – Notice how it feels. – Notice range of peripheral vision.
• Turn head to right. – Notice sensation and vision.
• Fold from hips into forward bend – Notice sensation and range of motion, touch your
fingers lightly on your knees or shins to mark ROM • Snap Test
– Notice ease or difficulty.
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Results After those simple activities, most experience: • Greater range of motion • Greater ease with cognitive tasks • Greater enjoyment, confidence, relaxation
Notice what’s true for you. Why? • When you play more, you stress less. • When you move more, you learn more!
Playful mind-body activities are natural self-regulators and support an emotionally stable and learning-able state = access to neocortex and executive function. Your “state” dictates what is possible for you and your children.
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Physiological Benefits of Play and Movement • Over-rides the body’s physiological response to stress.
• Organizes whole-brain function for optimal learning. (Dennison and Hannaford).
• Fuels the brain and body with oxygen and glucose.
• Raises chemical messengers levels that balance mind/ body.
• Triggers BDNF, a neuro-tropic factor required for thinking. BDNF decreases after 20 minutes of sitting and is triggered again with movement.
• Strengthens key areas of the brain – basal ganglia, cerebellum and corpus callosum by building brain cells and connections. Improves mental focus and concentration (Caterino and Polk, 1999)
Physiological Benefits of Play and Movement
• Enhances memory, creativity and academic achievement. (Michund and Wild 1991), (Brink, 1995), (Vanves and Blanchard).
• Develops eye muscle fitness and helps with reading.
• Helps 85% of students who are kinesthetic learners (Hannaford). Learning through body is more powerful than learning through listening and recalling facts (Jensen). If it’s not in your body, you really haven’t learned it.
• Creates a fun, harmonious and safe environment for learning and developing social skills.
• Develops self-awareness and the ability to self-regulate.
• Builds self-confidence and strengthens the connection to inner resources and healthy choices.
Adventure Skill #1
Drink water regularly to sustain feeling well, thinking clearly and being friendly.
Enhances:
• Electro-chemical activity in Central Nervous System
• Processing speed
• Stress release
Drink Water
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Adventure Skill #2
Rub spots under collarbone with thumb and one finger while holding other hand over navel and tracking eyes horizontally. Deep breath and HUMMMMMMM to calm and focus.
Stimulates: • Flow of oxygen to the brain • Hemispheric integration • Binocular vision - eye teaming • Reticular Activating System –filter sensory info
*Similar to Brain Buttons in Brain Gym®
Humming Breath*
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Humming Breath Chant
One hand on my belly, I let it rest
The other, I bring up to my chest
I find a pair of buttons beneath the shelf
And Huuuuuummmmmm
To calm myself
I move my eyes slowly
From the left to the right
Heart calm, mind clear
Body strong, eyes bright!
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Humming Breath Video
http://vimeo.com/68339890
Adventure Skill #3
March in place, alternately touching hands to opposite knees to energize body and wake up brain.
Enhances: • Crossing the visual/auditory/
kinesthetic/tactile midlines • Hemispheric integration • Binocular vision • Binaural hearing • Left right coordination • Stability in the walking gait
*Cross Crawl in Brain Gym®
Monkey Wisdom*
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Monkey Wisdom Chant I am healthy
I play every day
I drink lots of water
I don’t float away
I rest when I’m tired
I breathe when I’m mad
I eat fruits & veggies
‘Cause they are rad
Red, orange, yellow, green
At every meal and in between!
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Monkey Wisdom Video
http://vimeo.com/68339892
Adventure Skill #4
1. Cross your ankles and wrists. Clasp hands and rest them at your sternum.
2. Breathe and think of something or someone you love.
Supports:
• Emotional centering • Grounding • Respiration • Self-control and boundaries
*Hook ups in Brain Gym®
Deep Down Wisdom*
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4 Ways to Nurture Executive Function
• Teach & Practice Embodied Self-Care Techniques – so kids have actions to take to help themselves
• Model Mindfulness & Practice Mirroring
• Play, Games, Yoga Poses – active fun is natural self-regulator and teacher
• Movement Stories – build focus, coordination, self-control & brain cells
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What is Mindfulness?
• Maintaining inner-awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensations, AND outer awareness of environment, others, activities.
• Cultivating presence in relationship
• Observing without interpretation
• Mirroring not Managing
• Coming from clear intention: support, kindness, empowerment Ex: Is your intention to control behavior or support development of self-control?
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BE-DO-HAVE
• BE – your mind-body state/ vibration
• DO – “how” you think / act as a result
• HAVE- your experience = your beingness
According to brain /educational researchers, including Eric Jensen, Carla Hannaford, and HeartMath, our mind-body state dictates the quality of our choices and the intentions of our actions.
• When you are stressed, what kinds of foods do you choose?
• When you are tired or frustrated, how present or kind are you?
• When you are worried, how careful or caring can you be?
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Entrainment • Quantum physics – everything is a vibration / wave
• The principle of entrainment - tendency for two oscillating bodies to shift to vibrate in harmony – Universal - appearing in music, chemistry, biology, medicine,
psychology, sociology, education – You influence everyone around you – children, students, employees
– non-verbally – Heart reads vibration – sends messages to your brain – you react
• Coherent Waves & Incoherent Waves – Even, smooth, organized, regular = relaxed & able – Uneven, static, chaotic, irregular = stressed & less able
.
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Model & Mirror
• You are the model & the music in the room. Self-regulation is essential to maintaining your coherence = executive function
• Entrainment is the basis for naturally occurring social-emotional learning and self-regulation, which happen in the BODY.
• When you sustain coherence, children magically learn to as well.
• Prioritize your WELL-BEING over your TO DO List. Well-being is in the BODY.
• When you take time to help children grow their self-awareness and practice self-care, they learn how to consciously manage their emotions and impulses. Takes mirroring, practice, reflection
• The ability to self-regulate increases empathy and resilience , and improves behavior and academic achievement.
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Manage Stress
• Stress blocks access to higher levels of thinking / executive function.
• Children need to be well / in coherent state to do well.
• Teach them to notice the sensations of stress & self-care.
• Stressors: o Dehydration
o Poor nutrition
o Lack of exercise, play, movement
o Inability to self-soothe or regulate
o Developmentally inappropriate activities / expectations
o Your stress
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Games
Inner Mountain – embody how to feel strong and stable by
grounding oneself.
• Stand like a soldier – tense, stiff, straight. Test for stability.
• Stand like a MT – test for stability. What the difference?
• When trying hard or tense – energy moves up. When relaxed or “well-being” – energy moves down.
• Once the distinction is embodied, invite kids to practice dropping into Mt quickly, solidly. Play upbeat music and have kids dance around the space. When music stops, kids stand immediately in MT (not freeze!). Test them and help kids who need coaching. Play several rounds, and revisit regularly.
Inner Mountain Video
https://vimeo.com/35411794 27
Games
Nature Kids – embody & express various aspects of nature found in weather such as rain, wind, storms, snow, sun, rainbows – as a way to move, play, energize, and integrate body and mind.
Be a Rainbow – embody the colors and qualities of a rainbow in order to connect with “coherence” = feeling balanced, alert, clear, kind, caring, open, and creative. (“Incoherence”= stressed, out of sorts, angry, sad, shut down, scattered, tired, etc.)
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Rainbow Poem
Red – I’m strong
Orange – I’m happy
Yellow – I know I can
Green – I’m caring
Blue – I tell the truth
Indigo – I’m smart
Violet – Understanding and loving of ….
All my parts!
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Rainbow Body Video
https://vimeo.com/33815681
How to make an origami rainbow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz
F8jqik8FE
Movement Stories
• Make up your own – Favorite characters, family events, pets, problems
• Use yoga cards/poses – create a story – Yoga Pretzel/Planet Decks (barefootbooks.com) – Yoga Kit for Kids (Imaginazium.com)
• Use storybook – Choreograph poses and movements first – Kids act out the story as you read – Read a section, then invite creative movement:
• Can you be a worm, mouse, cat? How do you move? • If you were a turtle/beetle, stuck on your back, show what
would you do to get unstuck?
Ideal Books for Movement Stories
• Opposites by Eric Carle
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear by Eric Carle
• The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
• The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle
• Animals, Animals by Eric Carle
• The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
• Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
• My Daddy is a Pretzel by Baron Baptiste
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
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• Promotes creative problem solving - apply to conflicts
• Facilitates better language skills and communication
• Improves memory and learning – apply thru-out the day
• Improves focus, attention and sustained concentration
• Improves impulse control & self-regulation
• Improves balance & coordination = confidence
• Regulates body weight = well-being
• Calms, sooths and reduces self-reported anxiety
Benefits of Play Summary
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Drink Water every 20-30 min throughout the day
Humming Breath – to calm and focus after outside time, before or after transitions Monkey Wisdom – to energize as well as prepare for gross and fine motor skill activities and reading Deep Down Wisdom – to ground and center when upset, angry, frightened
Self-Care Review
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Resources • Move-with-Me.com
• Imaginazium.com: Yoga Kit for Kids:
• Barefootbooks.com: Yoga Pretzel/Planet Decks
• Yogaed.com: Yoga Tools for Preschool Teachers
• Omazingkids.com
• Braingym.org
• Shambala.com – Sitting Still Like a Frog
• MindfulKids.wordpress.com
• MindfulSchools.org
• Thich Nhat Hanh – Planting Seeds and A Pebble in my Pocket
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• Brain Gym® 101: Balance for Daily Life, Paul Dennison, Ph.D. & Gail Dennison, Brain Gym® and Me: Reclaiming the Pleasure of Learning. Ventura, CA: Edu-Kinesthetics, Inc, 2006. Teacher’s Edition Revised. Ventura, CA: Edu-Kinesthetics, Inc, 1994 www.braingym.com
• Ratey, John. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. http://sparkinglife.org/
• Healy, Jane. The Growing Mind. http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/future/creating_the_future/crfut_healy.cfm
• Goldberg, Elkhonon. The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. 2001.
• Hannaford, Carla. The Dominance Factor: How Knowing Your Dominant Eye, Ear, Brain, Hand & Foot Can Improve Your Learning. Salt Lake City, Utah: Great River Books, 1997, Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in Your Head. Salt Lake City, Utah: Great River Books, 2005. http://www.greatriverbooks.com/PlayingInTheUnifiedFieldPage.htm
• Pearce, Joseph C. Evolution’s End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992. http://ttfuture.org/jcp/front
• Sally Goddard Blythe - http://www.sallygoddardblythe.co.uk/index.php
• Dr. John Medina - http://www.brainrules.net/
Bibliography move-with-me.com
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