ALOHA Mind Math is conducting a free Abacus based Math workshop for children 5 to 12 years old on Sunday, January 10, 2010, at 2:00 pm. ALOHA is an after school Math program to increase Focus, Concentration, Visualization and Attention Span. visit
108 Straube Center Boulevard, Suite I-20, Pennington, NJ 08534
Email: pennington@aloha-usa.com or Call 1-732-821-0240
PREFACE TO UP-COMING BOOK: EARLY INTERVENTION GAMES
Attitudes toward autism have gone through many changes. In my first twenty years as an occupation therapist, I had two clients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They were considered exotic birds, their rocking, spinning and hand flapping were called “self-stimming,” and their behavior was blamed squarely on the coldness of their “refrigerator moms.”
Now, these once atypical children are common in my caseload, and self-stimulating behavior is more accurately acknowledged as self-calming. Instead of being blamed, their moms are honored for their ability to cope with their sensitive children.
The jury is still out on the cause of autism, but what is apparent is that the brains of these children process information differently. Now that we understand the plasticity of the brain, modern therapies are aimed towards helping these children connect the dots in ways that other children do so they can better fit into our world.
There are even people nowadays who propose that children in the spectrum and with sensory processing disorders (SPD) are more advanced rather than less than their peers. A growing awareness of autistic savants, with genius mixed into their social differences, adds some muscle to that theory.
It’s an interesting thought. I think of Reggie, one of “my” kids. I was watching him blow bubbles recently and saw him mesmerized by the way the light refracted off the iridescent bubbles. If you really pay attention, bubbles are amazingly beautiful and Reggie was just as delighted and appreciative of the fortieth bubble blown as he was of the first. (Talk about being in the present moment!) Reggie’s ability to notice details also makes him the only one in his pre-school class to know the names and sounds of every letter in the alphabet. I envy his contentment in solitary play and not seeming to care or notice what others think of him.
What would it be like if kids like Reggie were just seen as one in a variety of human possibilities? I won’t be surprised if sometime in the not too distant future, it might be considered "cool" to be autistic or to have unique ways of processing the world. Terms such as Sensory Processing Differences will be used instead of Disorders and we all will learn to be sensitive to our needs and how to regulate and calm our systems.
Meanwhile, we parents and therapist and friends who love these children can make them feel welcomed and find ways to help them acquire needed skills. One way will always be playing. Play is the brain’s way of learning and our way to enjoy our lives and to give love to each other. Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant whose skills may make "Rainman" look like he had memory problems, points out in his book, Born on a Blue Day, that what made his childhood miserable were the children who couldn’t accept him as he was, but what made his development flourish was his parents who did.
www.gameslady.com
Not all education in comes from books or computers. Preschool education, I believe, is jeopardized by too much paper and not enough people. What children learn about interacting with people, in the early years, will determine their success as adults. Savvy parents -- if they can assemble a peer group for their child -- can create a community for their 2's, 3's, and 4's, but an organized community like a nursery school is the more likely option. All three of my children had the opportunity to attend progressive nursery schools. The two youngest ones went to the School in Rose Valley, based on John Dewey's ideas, founded in 1929 by Margaret Rawson, a pioneer in the Orton technique for dyslexic readers. It has classes for 3-year-olds through sixth grade. We were not able to keep them at SRV beyond age 4, but the children -- and I -- treasure the SRV experience. If you are not familiar with the John Dewey concepts, see below. Waldorf Schools have similar values. Here is a link to how SRV builds community. Those early years are so important. "Who takes the child by the hand, takes the mother by the heart." ******below an excerpt from an SRV newsletter The School in Rose Valley in Moylan, Pa, is built on the Progressive philosophy. The principles that are used in planning curriculum were first named by John Dewey, a founder of the Progressive Education movement in the early 20th century. These principles are as relevant for 21st century learning as they were in their founding. There are seven:
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Play is a powerful learning tool. When children are playing and enjoying themselves, they naturally pay attention. It's easy to focus when you're having fun. That's why I use games when I want children to learn something. If I'm teaching a young child to recognize colors, for example, instead of pointing to colors on a chart, it is so much easier for her to remember colors if she throws a ball at all the red boxes and knocks them down. And, next, at all the yellow boxes. And, to make life simple, the boxes are just milk cartons covered in colored paper.
Or if I want an older child to learn how to spell the words on his spelling test, I lay down a shower curtain on which I have written all the letters of the alphabet and have him hop to the letters in his words. It's easier to remember that a word ends in a silent "e" if he has to leap all the way from the letter "n" to get to it. Muscles have memory, too.
Besides using games to develop cognitive and attention skills, I also use lots of games to teach motor skills. It matters if a child is good at recess so I want children to have good motoric skills such as balance, eye-hand coordination and muscle control so they can play all the games the other kids play. Social skills are learned through play.
Even self-esteem can be nurtured through games.
Imagine this self-esteem game. Say, everyone in the family or in the classroom has to come up with a movement that goes with their name. So, say, Susan comes up with Swaying Susan and everyone has to repeat "Swaying Susan", Swaying Susan" and move just like her. Susan gets to hear everyone saying her name (the most precious sound in the world) and imitating her movements. It can't help but make her feel noticed and feel special. And if Jumping Jessie and Twirling Tommy gets the next turns, everyone gets to feel good about their own unique and individual diversity.
But the hot new news right off the Neuroscience press is that not only does play focus and alert the mind, it also has a significant role in developing the brain. We are all born prematurely, as far as the brain is concerned. Our organs and our muscles are all fully developed at birth but just smaller than they will be. But the newborns brain has mainly the ancient brain stem whose job is to alert us if we are in danger and a cerebellum for movement and balance. The rest of the brain is made up of 100 billion undeveloped nerve cells (neurons) like a jumbled mass of electrical wires that aren't connected. As we have meaningful experience, we begin to connect these neurons to form patterns that let us know, for example, that a certain voice, a certain face and a way of being held means it’s time to nurse or our diaper is being changed.
Other sensory information helps us recognize Dad or the rough older brother or the dog. And each time these connections are made, patterns of understanding and awareness are formed in the brain that increase our complexity and intelligence.
Neuroscientists found out the significance of the role of joyful play through brain imaging. When they took pictures of children's brain right after they were engaged in an enjoyable meaningful multisensory activity, there were actual immediate changes in the brain. New synaptic connections between the neurons were actually visible in the brain scan and the brain had literally become more complex. There were no changes noticed in the brain imaging of children who had not been engaged, who had instead been watching television or not involved in an activity that particularly interested them.
To quote Stuart Brown, M.D., psychiatrist, clinical researcher, and the founder of the National Institute for Play,
"Neuroscientists, developmental biologists, psychologists, social scientists, and researchers from every point of the scientific compass now know that play is a profound biological process. It shapes the brain."
In brain-speak, stimulating experiences activate certain neural synapses and this triggers growth processes that consolidate those connections. Rich experiences, in other words, really do produce rich brains
So, not only is it smart to play games, games make you smarter!
The sad news is that synapses that are not activated progressively wither over time. Those 100 billion cells get pruned away through the "use it or lose it" principle
Even worse, while positive experiences can help brighten a child’s future, negative experiences can do the opposite. Deprived of a positive, stimulating environment, a child’s brain suffers. Stressful experiences also shape a child’s developing brain. When children are faced with physical or emotional stress or trauma, one of the stress-related systems “turns on” by releasing the hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol can cause brain cells to die and reduces the connections between the cells in certain areas of the brain.
Babies with strong, positive emotional bonds to their caregivers and enjoyable playful experiences in their lives show consistently lower levels of cortisol in their brains
Further proof is a study, completed at the Baylor College of Medicine, which showed that babies who had the chance to play often and who were held and touched often as infants, have larger brains with more neural pathways than children who received less playful attention and care when they were babies.
Play is essential to a child's development and children like to play. It is what they do and how they learn.
We parents are in the prime position to continue to enlarge our children’s brains through play. But, with work and other obligations and especially if we weren't played with as children by our parents, it may feel that we don't have the time or knowledge to add "playtime" to our over- burdened schedules.
This article hopes to show you that we don't need a lot of time or special equipment and that we all have within us a sense of play. The suggestions below will feel do-able and can be done with a moment here, a moment there and with no more materials than a good mood.
Try out some of these ideas for a spontaneous game or let them inspire you to do others. Your children will think they are just having fun, but you'll know they are making new synaptic connections!
CLOUD STORIES
For example, the next time you’re outside or are looking out the window together, notice the shapes of the clouds. You know this game. You’ve seen clouds that form dinosaurs and puffy headed crocodiles. Identify shapes together and make up stories about what the dinosaur is saying to the crocodile. If your experience is like mine, children, especially young children, don’t look at you and say “How would I know?” but instead look at you as if to say, “Dummy, why don’t you know—it’s obvious the dinosaur is about to eat the crocodile." At which point you point out the looming bear shape and ask, “So whose side is that bear on?” and the story and fun unfolds.
A SPRITE'S LIFE
Or when you're outside sitting on the grass, pretend there is a little teeny sprite living there and figure out where that sprite would go to eat dinner or what would it use for plates and where would it go if it wanted to slide down something fun.
I NOTICE NEWNESS
When you are going for a walk, even if it’s a walk you’ve done many times, play the game of “I see something new” and notice something you hadn’t noticed before such as the leaf shapes in the rod iron pattern around the neighbor’s mailbox. Or maybe you'll notice that the bush has flowers in different stages. There is a bud, another flower in full bloom and one going to seed. This could lead to a discussion about ages. How old is grandma? How old do you guess Barney or Big Bird. What is the age of that tree? That could lead to finding a tree stump and counting the ring.
NATURE BRACELETS
Before you go outside, tape a piece of tape, sticky side out, around your wrists and take a moment to look around and adorn them with whatever you see such petals and leaves and pine needles.When you get home, cut them off and tape them up on the refrigerator to remind you of the fun exploring moments.
PEANUT HUNT
If your child isn't allergic to peanuts, take a second while the child isn't looking or is napping, to hide peanuts in their shells here and there in the house (or yard). Make some hiding places easy to see and some trickier to find to fit your children's skills. Challenge them to find the peanuts and to count how many they find.
Writing invisible letters on a child’s back or palm is a fun way to write a secret message and requires connecting the sense of touch with cognition.
Have your child sit with his back to you and a pad of paper and pencil in front of him. Using your finger “draws” a letter on your child’s back or palm. At the same time, your child draws on the paper what he thinks is being drawn on his back.
Keep writing letter by letter until a whole message is given. The message could be a clue to where a treat is hidden!
Take turns so you both get to experience what it feels like.
Have an older child play this game with a younger sibling as a fun way to help him learn his letters and grow his brain.
MIRROR DRAWING
Sit in front of a mirror with your darlin'. You both have felt tip pens. Trying not to move, draw the lines you see starting with the shape of the head and then tracing the facial features.
WAITING GAME
If you are stuck somewhere waiting, for example, for a ride to arrive or a passenger to debark from a plane, make it more fun by playing a guessing game. Each person guesses how many cars will pass or passengers arrive before the wanted one happens. If you guess 10 and your little partner guesses 15 and you are both wrong. Guess again!
SHOE JUMPING
When the kids are bored but antsy with energy and quibbling with each other, here is a quickie that is guaranteed to direct their energies in a positive fun way while connecting their motor pathways
Take some shoes and lay them out in a straight line, about 6 inches apart (more or less depending on the child's age). Ask the children to start at one end and jump over each shoe. Then ask them to do the same thing in a variety of other ways such as jumping sideways, backwards, hopping on one foot or jumping over two at once. Let the children make up new ways. Maybe they want to jump and twirl in a circle. At the same time!
For a final triumph, pile all the shoes in a pile in a large cleared out space in the room. Tell the kids that this is not a pile of shoes (silly them to think that!) but is actually a huge mountain and they have to start from a distance away and run towards the mountain and then with one gigantic leap, make it over the top of the mountain to the other side.
It adds to the thrill if the others provide a drum roll--slapping their hands on the floor or on a table or on their knees as the next Leaper makes her run and then when that person is in the air, call out her name!
In essence, we parents are in the position to participate in our children's mental growth through the power of play. Let's enjoy!
Bio: Barbara is an pediatric occupational therapist and the author of Attention Games, 101 Fun Easy Games That Help Kids Learn to Focus (Wiley), Smart Play: 101 Fun Easy Games that Enhance Intelligence (Wiley), Self-Esteem Games, 300 Fun Activities that Make Children Feel Good about Themselves (Wiley), Spirit Games, 300 Fun Activities that Bring Children Comfort and Joy (Wiley), Extraordinary Play with Ordinary Things, Motor games with Everyday Stuff (Bright Baby Books) and soon to be released Playful Moments, 50 Spontaneous Games to Play with Your Young (Bright Baby Books) and Early Intervention Play: Joyful Games for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder
Her books have been published in 7 languages.
See www.gameslady.com
The objective of the Straube Foundation is to show how anyone anywhere can obtain quality education at little or no cost. Successful “learning” and the acquisition of knowledge in these tumultuous times are, in many ways, quite different from the way our grandparents and parents learned when they went to school and college. Many old methods of learning are still playing out, but now almost everything is far easier to access ONLINE (not to mention at far lower cost). More practical and effective ways are available now to learn almost anything, and to acquire the knowledge needed for productive work and enjoyable living. The Straube Foundation is at the forefront of this ongoing change, and is showing you how to maximize your online teaching and learning experience. This Education Blog encourages educators, learners, and other interested parties to exchange ideas about how quality, low cost education can best be achieved. Your participation and postings are invited. Request an invitation to become an author for this blog at information@straube.org.
施兆璧基金会的宗旨是帮助人们在任何地方以最少费用或免费得到高质量, 国际水平的教育。本博客(www.straube.blogspot.com) 将讨论与此相关的问题。让我们从讨论美国大学出版社所出版的畅销书QGE=A, 高品质的普及教育是答案开始。我们欢迎您的参与和投稿。如果您希望成为本博客的作者, 请联系 information@straube.org
