In my view: Published in “Nursery World” 18.6.09. http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/913607/Opinion-view—Reading-shared/
By Sally Goddard Blythe, freelance consultant in neuro-developmental education and director of the pioneering Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester
The recent poll commissioned to mark National Family Week showing that just under half of all children are missing out on a traditional bedtime story is a travesty of our times.
Reading to your child involves more than simply telling a story. Long before children learn to read they learn to love the music of language, the tonal, rhythmic and dynamic aspects of speech, which are exaggerated when read out loud. Listening to stories, often repeated many times, helps develop memory, including a memory for the phonological components of the written word. As children listen to stories, they also learn to match sounds to pictures and word shapes. This prepares the brain for the formal aspects of learning to read.
Desire to read begins with a love of stories – the colour and familiarity of characters, excited anticipation, the shape of the story line, and the pictures that the story creates in the mind’s eye - the stirrings of imagination. Story time is also important because it involves one-to-one time between parent and child when both share in the same activity. Sharing the same experiences have been shown to increase the level of a powerful hormone involved in securing attachment and strengthening close social bonds. Being read to also increases a child’s vocabulary and reading comprehension, which has benefits in childhood through to old age.
In my practice and in schools around the country I regularly come across parents who have never read to their child. Although we live in difficult times, it is important to remember that some of the most essential ingredients for a happy childhood are free – fresh air, space, friends, family, reliability and time spent together. Just 10 minutes a day spent reading to your child will help them not only at school in the years to come but may also give them a long, happy and active life. Surely, this is what we all want for our children.
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Future dates in 2009 are:
Thursday, 18th June - Full
Friday 25th September.
For further information telephone 01244 311414
Filed under: Latest News — inpp @ 1:32 pm
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Published at: www.abetterducationblogspot.com
Sally Goddard Blythe is the author of several books on child development, including “The Well Balanced Child”, “What Babies and Children REALLY Need” and “Attention, Balance and Co-ordination – the A,B,C of Learning Success.” She is also a consultant in neuro-developmental education and Director of the pioneering Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester, England (INPP). Her work and the work of the INPP has shown a connection between the retained primitive reflexes we are born with and neuro-developmental delays that affect reading, writing, hearing, and attention issues among others.
What I loved about the title of your book, “The Well Balanced Child” is that it had more than one meaning: not only balance in a literal, physical way, but balance in the sense of harmony of the whole child. In all senses of the word, this is lacking more and more in the lives of today’s children. How does balance help a child?
Balance is about much more than the ability to stand on leg or walk across a tight rope. It is the first of the sensory systems to mature and in an essential player in how the brain interprets information from the other senses. How a child sees, hears and feels the world around him is all intimately connected to the functioning of balance. This is because balance is the only one of the sensory systems that does not have a special sensation of its own. We only become consciously aware of balance when faced with a particular challenge or when something goes wrong; motion sickness, dizziness, disorientation, visual disturbances and ringing in the ears are all examples of symptoms of disturbed balance. In other words, feelings associated with balance are hidden from view and “speak” through the other senses.
Balance provides the platform for the development of coordination, stable eye movements and visual perception – or how a child “sees” the world. These abilities are crucial to all aspects of learning, from being able to control the body at sports to being able to sit still, track a moving object at speed such as catching a ball, or more slowly to control the eye movements needed to follow along a line of print when reading. “Without balance we could not stand, walk nor run. We couldn’t see images in sharp detail as we move, or navigate without visual landmarks, or perhaps even think clearly” 1
Both physical security and emotional security begin with a child knowing his position in space. Ray Barsch wrote about this in the 1960’s when he described the young child as being a “terranaut” or, explorer of space on terra firma. He said that one of the first skills a young child must master is control of upright balance and posture, establishing a sense of “internal stability”. When the internal milieu is secure the external senses of vision, hearing and touch are free to process information from the external environment. If balance is insecure “thinking” parts of the brain remain over-involved in simply trying to control balance.
Balance is also important for emotional stability in order to feel secure, perceive the outside world as it is and to be in control of oneself. Disturbances of balance result in physical and psychological feelings of anxiety with no obvious external cause. Just as the balance mechanism itself is hidden from view, so the origins of anxiety, avoidance and depression can also have a hidden cause.
It seems that we focus almost exclusively on the cognitive and academic parts of our children, but in doing so we cause problems in that very arena and others as well. How can balance improve cognitive and academic achievement?
Children learn with their bodies before they learn with their minds. In my view, a healthy mind is the product of the brain and the body working together in perfect harmony. Brain and body learn to work together through physical experience. Movement is the primary medium through which this process takes place.
Movement is a child’s first language. Children express themselves through a combination of movement, gesture and alteration of posture long before they learn to speak. Everyone knows that children spontaneously jump for joy, crouch back in fear or stretch forward in expectancy. These simple gestures, which become more eloquent with time and practice, form the basis of non-verbal communication, which is estimated to contribute up to 90% of effective communication later on. They also help to train the pathways involved in control of the visual system (for reading), eye-hand coordination (writing) and postural control needed for sitting still and maintaining attention. This physical A,B,C – Attention, Balance and Coordination – is but the beginning of physical readiness for formal education.2
What kinds of programs or features can parents look for when choosing a school (from pre-school to high school) that shows evidence of balance?
Willingness to look at children’s physical development in terms of balance, eye movements, listening skills and coordination and if necessary provide relevant support if required. These tend to be schools that provide a wide range of activities to develop the “whole” child.
Children who are poorly coordinated will not necessarily embrace or respond well to physical education that is directly aimed at improving performance on the sports field because this is the very area in which the child feels inadequate. However, balance and coordination can be improved in a variety of different ways, through guided physical play with the very young child, developmental movement programmes in schools such as the INPP programme or through music and dance. One of the problems with the current education system (in the UK) is there tends to be an assumption that “one size fits all”, instead of looking at the developmental needs and abilities of the child and starting intervention from the point in development where the child is now.
Kids seem to like doing many of the exercises that promote balance. It not only gives them time to move, but it involves stories and pretending, like Bertie the Beetle swimming on his back or the Standing Statue. They don’t seem to realize the cognitive and physical benefits they are getting from doing it. How is balance therapy presented to students?
One imaginative teacher at a school in the north of England described the programme as “learning to move and moving to learn” explaining that movement helps to train the brain. In a short DVD produced by the Youth Sports Trust in Britain, children describe how “movement has helped me with my music by enabling me to spread my fingers out further on the saxophone”, “movement has helped me with writing as my fingers don’t get so tired and I can write for longer without stopping”. With older students (teenagers) they are told that it will make them look taller, improve their sporting prowess and help them in examinations.
All schools have commented that children’s concentration is improved in the lessons following the exercises, children’s behaviour towards one another is more considerate – they don’t bump into each other all the time, or get into fights in the playground as often - and “there is a dignity to these children that was not there before.”3
What kind of children benefit the most from this type of therapy?
Research to date4 indicates that the children who benefit most are those who show evidence of more than one primitive reflex still being active and who are also under-achieving at school.
Can you explain what you mean by primitive reflexes that are still active?
As the infant brain develops during the first year of life connections to higher centres in the brain become stronger and increasingly take over the functions of primitive reflexes. As this occurs, early survival patterns are inhibited or controlled to allow more mature patterns of response to develop in their place. Some children fail to gain this control fully in the first year of life and continue to grow up with traces of the primitive reflexes, which interfere with their development. These children continue to experience difficulty with control of movement affecting coordination, balance, fine motor skills, motor development and associated aspects of learning such as reading, writing and physical education. Retained primitive reflexes can also affect a child’s sensory perceptions, causing hypersensitivity in some areas and hyposensitivity in others.
How can schools or organizations provide training for their staff to implement such programs for movement and balance?
Teachers attend a one day training course led by an approved INPP trainer. Details of approved trainers in different countries can be obtained by contacting mail@inpp.org.uk
How can parents help their children? How can they identify the reflex abnormalities and remedy them?
Parents can observe signs and symptoms of immature reflexes in their child by reading any of the relevant literature. If they suspect that aberrant reflexes are a problem for their child I would recommend contacting a qualified practitioner for advice and not attempting to “treat” reflexes by themselves.
With younger children, simply providing an environment with plenty of opportunity for free physical play, “tummy time” while awake in the first 9 months of life, opportunity to crawl and creep, rough and tumble, song and games, can help to minimise the risk of reflex related problems developing. Additionally, engaging in conversation with your baby and reading to your child every day, do more to set the scene for reading than any amount of stimulation provided by expensive toys or electronic media. The good news is that some of the most important ingredients for a healthy childhood are free and a baby delights in the fact that engaged parents are its first teachers.
In general, are pediatricians aware of your work and do they specifically address these issues with therapies?
Yes and No:
Medically it is accepted that if primitive reflexes persist beyond the first 6 months of life they are sign of immaturity in the functioning of the central nervous system and indicative of underlying pathology. If primitive reflexes are fully retained, the child will usually be referred on for further investigations, diagnosis and if relevant to other medically trained therapists such as Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists etc.
However, if only traces of primitive reflexes remain, the child’s symptoms may not be severe enough to warrant medical investigation. This is what we describe as being a “grey area” where medicine has neither investigated nor identified pathology, and there seems to be a degree of “plasticity” in terms of helping the system to mature. These are the children we see at INPP – children who would otherwise “slip through the net” of professional services which should have identified any underlying problems. These are children who “good enough” to by-pass medical investigations but whose difficulties often go undetected.
What brought you to this kind of work?
A combination of factors: My original area of undergraduate study was History and Fine Arts. Part of the Fine Arts course concentrated on how the artist sees the world and how individual visual-perceptions can be different. I found this fascinating. My father was a classical musician and I had grown up with music being an essential part of life and learning but only started to understand how these things came together when I had my own children.
When I met Peter Blythe, the pieces of the jigsaw started to come together – two Psychology degrees later and I haven’t stopped since!
For more on the work of Sally Goddard Blythe and the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, go to www.inpp.org.uk
1 McCredie, S, 2007. Balance. In Search of the Lost Sense. Little, Brown and Company. New York.
2 Goddard Blythe SA. 2009. Attention, Balance and Coordination – the A,B,C of Learning Success. Wiley-Blackwell. Chichester.
3 Silvester E, 2004. Personal communication based on the use of the INPP Programme for Schools at St Margaret Mary RC School in Carlisle.
4 Goddard Blythe SA, 2005. Releasing educational potential through movement. Child Care in Practice. 11/4:415-432.
To read this interview in full, posted on the 20th May 2009, go to website: www.abettereducation.blogspot.com
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Forthcoming events from 1st May 2009:
14th May 2009 Lecture to Chester PATOSS group at Caldy Valley Community Centre, Chester. 7.30 pm
17th May 2009, Baby Brains Workshop hosted by The Institute of Infant Mental Health, 3, Bedford Square, London.
1st June 2009, One Day Training Course in the use of the INPP Programme for Schools organised by Wildslodge School, Oakham. Rutland.
18th June 2009, One Day Training Course in the use of the INPP Programme for Schools at INPP, 1, Stanley Street, Chester.
22nd - 24th June 2009, Module 4 of the INPP Training Course for Therapists in Chester
2nd September 2009, One Day Training Course in the use of the INPP Programme for Schools organised by Cherry Tree School, Bury St Edmunds. Suffolk.
10th September 2009, One Day Training Course in the use of the INPP Programme for Schools organised by St Edmunds School, Isle of Dogs, London.
18th September 2009, One Day Training Course in the use of the INPP Programme for Schools organised by Lancashire LEA, to be held in Chorley. Lancs.
25th September 2009, One Day Training Course in the use of the INPP Programme for Schools to be held at INPP Chester.
October 2nd and 3rd 2009, Supervision for students who have completed the INPP training course for therapists in the Netherlands.
October 10th and 11th 2009, Introductory training days “Screening for NDD” for therapists in Greece
19th October to 5th November 2009, Modules 1 - 3 of the INPP training course for therapists for overseas students from outside the
20th November 2009, Workshop for Post Adoptive Society, Exeter
3rd and 4th December 2009, Supervision days for INPP practitioners
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This letter may be read by following the link below:
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6013466
A similar letter “Special Needs and the Legacy of Virtual Playtime” was also published in the Daily Mail on Thursday, 14th May 2009
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Attention, Balance and Coordination
published by Wiley-Blackwell April 2009
This book explores the physical basis for learning. It explains the importance of early reflexes, their functions in early development and their effects on learning and behaviour if retained in later childhood. The author also investigates the possible effects that these early reflexes have on other aspects of development such as posture, balance, motor skills and susceptibility to stress and anxiety in later life.
Attention, Balance and Coordination also includes:
- A review of relevant literature in the field
- A review of the origins of the modern vestibular-cerebellar theory
- The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology’s Developmental Screening Questionnaire together with an explanation of its use and interpretation
- The effects of neuro-developmental immaturity in adolescents and young adults by Dr Lawrence Beuret
- The relationship between vestibular dysfunction and anxiety
- A chapter by Dr Peter Blythe chronicling the history of the development of the INPP Method from its inception in 1969 to the present day.
“Attention, Balance and Coordination is the most up-to-date handbook for professionals involved in education and child development, providing a new understanding of the source of specific educational and behavioural problems.This book is a competent, comprehensive and innovative contribution to the problem of learning disabilities and associated behavioral disorders. The author attempts to clarify this complex and multidimensional issue by pinpointing the core of the pathology - ignored until thirty years ago - which is a specific immaturity of the nervous system, consisting in the failure of the higher integrative centers of the brain to control the “lower” but not less complex mechanisms of postural reflexes and sensory-motor response systems located in the spine, cerebellum and the sub-cortical areas. This basically new approach is skillfully presented and high-lightened from different aspects: A well-documented historical description of the research which has led to the discovery of the said source of the disability. A systematic interdisciplinary analysis the neurological, auditory, visual, somato-sensory, motor, skeletal and hormonal factors involved in the dynamics of the dysfunction. A pragmatic presentation of assessment methods yielding a reliable diagnosis of the individual handicap and last but not least a detailed description of the rehabilitation procedures leading to the restoration of normality [In this context the author stresses the fact that the disability is reversible , but its cure may require the formation of a new specialist, the "neuro-educator".] By virtue of the extensive and fundamental treatment of the topic, this is book is a rich source of innovative information not only to the scientist engaged in basic research, but mainly to the practitioner in the fields of developmental neurology and pediatrics, clinical psychology and special education.”
Prof. Reuven Kohen-Raz, Ph.D. (Emeritus) Former Head, Dep. of Special Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)
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The recent report published by the Child Poverty Action group sadly comes as no surprise following on the heels of the UNICEF and Good Childhood Enquiry reports. While these reports rightly highlight failings in Britain,they do not seem to be able to effect positive change.
As long as successive governments continue to pursue policies which view children from the perspective of the selfish adult rather than the biological and developmental needs of the child, I fear that the state of childhood for many (not all) in this country will continue to be a dismal one.
Child well being begins before conception with the health and social stability of both parents. Events in pregnancy, the manner of birth, feeding choices, opportunity for free physical play and conversation in the first 2 years of life all have a significant influence on a child’s social and emotional development.
Physical interaction with the environment and social engagement with parents on a daily basis are as important to a child’s social development as nutrition is for physical growth and well being, but increasingly in the UK we live in society where stressed parents struggle to hold family finances together and “virtual” relationships replace real relationships for several hours of the day. Little wonder that children feel socially and emotionally isolated and are increasingly inept at reading social cues.
Research suggests that regular and prolonged exposure to electronic media affects children’s brain waves, attention, ability to separate fantasy from reality and even levels of neurotransmitters - chemical substances through which the nervous system communicates - as well as affecting the quality of real relationships. While the electronic media can entertain and provide a basic medium of communication, it lacks all of the nuances of non-verbal language - facial expression, tone of voice,gesture eye contact etc. Up to 90% of effective communication is based on non-verbal signals.
While child protection seems to be woefully inadequate at one extreme, at the other, a culture which prevents teachers from having sufficient powers to discipline children effectively, makes heroes of celebrities rather than those who have contributed to society through service and which discourages healthy competition in the pursuit of difficult goals, also does children a disservice. Children need secure boundaries to feel safe; they need to learn through experience that bad behaviour has negative consequences if they are to have the motivation to change. This is just one way in which the weak and timid and society can feel safe and the strong and adventurous learn how to temper and regulate their behaviour. Children need examples of extraordinary achievemen and service in order to believe that maybe, one day they can achieve the same, and contribute something useful to society.
The needs of children and adults are not the same. Children need stable adults to lead them into the world and they need a society that welcomes them and takes them up into their culture and which teaches by example. This means that adults from parents to politicians have a responsibility to teach by example.
Parents are one of the most important ingredients in this process and if we want to start effecting change in the experience of childhood in this country, we can begin by valuing the role of parenting above material well being.
Whether we like it or not, a happy childhood begins with parents and ends as members of the state, not the other way round.
Filed under: Latest News — inpp @ 9:35 am
Future dates in 2009 are:
Thursday, 18th June
Friday 25th September.
For further details contact 01244 311414 during normal office hours or mail@inpp.org.uk.
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/871295/Motor-skills-exercises-show-benefits/
Motor skills exercises show benefits
By Catherine Gaunt, Nursery World, 7 January 2009
A study of primary schools in Northumberland has found that supporting children’s physical development has positive benefits for their behaviour and learning.
The group of five- to nine-year-olds were evaluated on the effects of exercises designed to improve their posture and boost their physical development.
Ruth Marlee, behaviour support teacher for Northumberland County Council, said the initial findings also suggest that as children become more aware of balance and co-ordination, their behaviour improves.
She said, ‘They seem more able to sit still and hold pens with more accuracy and a better grip.’
Ms Marlee said the Behaviour Support Service had seen a rise in referrals for children as young as four. ‘It may be coincidental, but no children have been referred from these groups in the study.’
Children in the groups spend ten minutes every day doing exercises to classical music or the beat of a metronome, such as the finger exercise.
The county council has trained 75 classroom assistants and practitioners in the programme by the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester.
The Institute’s director, Sally Goddard Blythe, has also carried out research on 800 four- to nine-year olds, which found that many children have delays in their physical development.
She found that out of 339 children aged four and five, 48 per cent had immature physical skills at the age of five.
Ms Goddard Blythe questioned whether young children were ready for some of the early learning goals in the Early Years Foundation Stage, including those for reading, writing and numeracy.
She said, ‘We don’t take physical development into account. There’s an emphasis on the fine motor and cognitive skills, without asking if children have the physical development in place for these skills. Children need free, physical movement in lots of different environments.’
She added that children, especially some boys, could have a two-year gap in their expected development at age six or seven.
In her book, What babies and children really need, Ms Goddard Blythe looks at the science of early childhood development ‘from the perspective of what the child needs’. The book argues that if babies are strapped into car seats and buggies for too long it affects their development because their movement is limited.
She said, ‘When children’s movement is restrained, it changes their movement experience in the first year. If you limit movement, children don’t develop the same “vocabulary” of movement which supports co-ordination and posture later on.’
She said babies needed ‘tummy time’ when awake and the opportunity to ‘crawl and creep’ because this helped them learn to hold their head up and develop upper body strength and integration between balance, posture and hand-eye co-ordination skills needed for reading and writing.
- Further information: ‘What Babies and Children Really Need’ by Sally Goddard Blythe is published by Hawthorn Press, £16.99
Filed under: Latest News — inpp @ 2:39 pm
Available to listen again at the following link…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/moralmaze.shtml
The Moral Maze
Listen again to the latest edition of the Moral Maze Wednesday 8.00-8.45pm
Rpt Saturday at 22.15-23.00
Michael Buerk chairs a live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week’s news stories: combative, provocative and engaging.
Programme Details
Wednesday 4 February 2008
Filed under: Latest News — inpp @ 3:09 pm
The comments made by Graham Stringer MP (14.1.09) that dyslexia is a myth supported by a dyslexia industry illustrates the confusion that surrounds poor literacy achievement in the UK and the inaccurate use of diagnostic labels for specific learning difficulties.
It is certainly true that a percentage of children fail to read and write as a result of poor or inappropriate teaching methods, and that the teaching of phonics is an essential part of teaching children to read.
However, there are a number of other reasons why an otherwise intelligent child might fail to achieve reading, writing and spelling levels commensurate with chronological age.
In a series of small scale independent studies carried out across the UK between 2001 and 2005, it was found that the balance and coordination abilities of 38% of 7 - 8 year olds and 45% of 4 - 5 year olds were immature. Problems with balance, posture and coordination can affect the development of the eye movements necessary for reading and writing (Child Care in Practice. Vol 11/4 pp 415-432, 2005). Not all of these children have dyslexia, but the lack of oculo-motor control can interfere with the acquisition of literacy skills. These studies found a corellation between immature physical abilities and lower educational performance.
Children diagnosed with dyslexia can have a mixture of phonological deficit with or without additional visual processing and motor-perceptual problems. These children, need a combination of therapy aimed at improving the underlying deficit and specialist teaching to support the weaker skills. It is unlikely that a single method of teaching as suggested by Graham Stringer would eliminate the clinically identifiable features of true dyslexia.
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