Neuro Dynamix of writing and reading^©

This programme (manual and resources) is designed for both those learners who show potential, but are battling, and for the parents and educators who care about them. Neuro Dynamix looks at learning from a physical and neuroscience perspective as embodied cognition.

Embodied cognition

Embodied cognition is an approach to cognition that has roots in motor behavior. This approach emphasizes that cognition involves acting with a physical body on an environment in which that body is immersed.
Sebastian Schneegans

Embodied cognition has two systems at its roots:

• The sensory system (touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight)
• The motor system (gross and fine motor muscles)

It is the misconception that the sensory system only includes the five senses (touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight) that undermines learning and robs many learners from progress in class. Those five senses pick up what happens in the environment and funnels that information to the brain. These five senses are known as the outside senses. Outside senses funnel information from the environment to the brain. Inside senses funnel information from the body to the brain. How does the brain know what is happening in the body? There are receptors in the body that respond to what is happening inside the body and funnel their information to the brain. There are two kinds of senses inside the body: Receptors that sense all the body parts and where they are in relationship to each other (proprioceptors) Receptors that sense the body’s position in relationship to gravity (vestibular system).

Proprioceptors in the skin, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments gather information:
about all the body parts and where they are in relationship to each other.

Receptors in the neck (central vestibular system) and ears (peripheral vestibular system) gather information about the body’s position in relationship to gravity and are jointly called the vestibular system.

Proprioceptors create a map of the body in the brain.

Proprioception is associated with: laterality (left and right) and midline crossing.

The vestibular system adds ‘current location’ to the body map.

The vestibular system is associated with directionality and sequencing. The vestibular system is the place in the body where gravity meets cognition. Oleg Efimov

 

How does a learner write or read without laterality, crossing the midline, directionality and sequencing?

Proprioceptors and the vestibular system are vital to learning and behaviour, but are often ignored because they are unknown senses. Neuro Dynamix of WRITING and READING^© focuses specifically on these two inside senses. Research at the Mind Moves® Institute in South Africa and the Prognosis Clinic in Russia has found that more than 77% of all learners who battle with learning and behaviour, have underdeveloped inside senses.

Underdeveloped proprioceptors and an underdeveloped vestibular system result in the brain having an incomplete map of the body. As the brain can only use what the brain is aware of, an incomplete body map leaves the body unable to do what the brain tells it to do. This may be why you often see the following behaviours in class or when doing homework when a learner seems:

• lost and disorganised
• to battle to concentrate
• slow to respond
• to have a slow tempo of work
• to have poor task completion
• to have failure to progress.

The proprioceptors and the vestibular system are involved with all five the other senses and when these two inside senses do not work well, the following skills and executive functions are compromised:

• sensory integration
• auditory processing
• perception
• perceptual motor skills
• laterality
• crossing the midline
• muscle tone
• motor planning
• speech and language
• writing and reading.

Every physical, emotional, social and cognitive skill a learner needs to be barrier-free and thriving in the classroom is associated with the proprioceptors and the vestibular system.

If they COULD

Sit up
Sit still
Be quiet
Work faster
Work neater
Stop dreaming
Stop shouting out
Pronunciate clearly
CONCENTRATE
they WOULD.

Behaviour is a product and a call for your attention.
Behaviour says:
READ my behaviour.
Please HELP ME!

The cry of an 11 year old girl after a journey through barriers to learning:
why couldn’t you see that the way I was
was telling you what I couldn’t say?
SALLY GODDARD