Exercise your Brain

Nia Thomas

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Did you know that there are some physical activities that can support both children and adults to improve their brain function?

Poi Spinning and Juggling

Poi Spinning is a pastime whereby you swing balls on the end of strings into a variety of circles and twists. You may have seen fire poi swinging on holiday or TV. Poi spinning originated with the Maori people of New Zealand (the word poi means "ball" in Maori) as a means of promoting increased flexibility, strength and co-ordination.

The word juggling derives from the Middle English jogelen to entertain by performing tricks, in turn from the French jongleur and the Old French jogler. There is also the Late Latin form joculare of Latin joculari, meaning to jest. Today, ‘juggling' has come to mean, any activity, which requires a constant refocusing of one's attention from one thing to another.

Learning to spin poi or juggle can help co-ordination by accessing those same parts of the brain that Dennison sought to access through the Brain Gym movements. The figure-eight poi spinning patterns helps connect the right and left hemispheres of the brain, thereby increasing whole brain function.

A three-month study of juggling, whereby the subjects had to achieve 1 minute's worth of sustained juggling, yielded interesting results. The juggling increased the volume of "grey matter" in the mid-temporal area and left posterior intra-parietal sulcus by about 3%. These areas of the brain are the parts that process data from visual motion. The research also showed that once the juggling study ceases, the area of grey matter reduced slightly.

In 2003, the BBC reported that a pioneering method to treat dyslexia sufferers was piloted in Solihull. Children took part in daily hand-eye co-ordination tests for two years, involving exercises such as catching beanbags and balancing on "wobble boards". The positive effects on the academic attainment of the children were hugely encouraging.

So, there is definitely evidence out there worth testing and exploring as a means of supporting people with dyslexia manage and learn to work with their condition. The evidence also suggests that the physical and the mental are inextricably linked.

Juggling and poi spinning are very simple activities and the poi and juggling balls can be easily bought or made. Maybe we should all do more to give our brain a work out to support our mental capacity to do, to be and to achieve.

The Brain Gym

(www.braingym.org.uk)

Paul Dennison, PhD, remedial educational specialist and founder of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, developed the Brain Gym programme. Dennison focused his studies on causes and treatment of learning disabilities and drew from more than 80 years of research conducted by educational therapists, developmental optometrists and other specialists in the fields of movement, education and child development.

Originally created to help children and adults with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD, Brain Gym® is now used to improve functioning and life quality by people from all walks of life from education to the arts, business, healthcare, sport and personal development. People of almost any age and mobility, from babies to the elderly, can safely use the movements.

Brain Gym is a series of simple movements similar to those that young children progressively learn to do as they develop and grow. The movements of the Brain Gym have been researched and evidence suggests that the movements support learners, whether they are old or young with the physical skills they need to read, write, concentrate, organise and generally function effectively.

The improvement in whole brain function that can result from using Brain Gym techniques yield a variety of benefits, such as