Mindfulness is helpful to developing children because of these effects вЂ¦. these are the effects on the mind/brain and these are the benefitsвЂ¦ It works with children more/less/the same as in adults because вЂ¦. It works in adults because вЂ¦ these are the effects on the mind/brain and these are the benefitsвЂ¦ What we are trying to achieve with Mindfulness in schools is a), b) and c)вЂ¦ And these 92,000 (IвЂ™ll just polish them off later today) boil down to what exactly? Watson and Kelso (2014) found Brain Gym вЂњdoes not produce clear and substantial differences in academic engagementвЂќ but вЂњeven with the inadequacy of empirical support, Brain Gym is still an often promoted interventionвЂќ and вЂњthose who buy into the program are either children who naively assume their teachers know what they are doing or teachers who are bamboozled by the pseudoscientific jargon or seduced by charismatic and enthusiastic believers.вЂќ ( Carroll 2009) Verdict: There is no evidence that Brain Gym improves academic skills, listening and thinking skills, or learning disability deficits ( Hyatt, 2007 ) Of the few published studies one involved four participants, one of whom was the author of the study and the others were published in a journal that required the authors to pay for publication.ДЄnother study had severeВ methodological failings. The founders claim that laying brain-training games can help improve your memory, concentration or intelligence and the Brain Gym website makes lots of grand statements but these are backed by zero evidence.Д«rain Gym do cite evidence on their site but the research they drew on has been widely discredited. Brain Gym is a movement based programme based on the idea that moving leads to optimal learning and вЂњwe empower all ages to reclaim the joy of living.вЂќ

It has вЂњbad scienceвЂќ written all over it вЂњwithВ a scientific explanatory framework that is barkingly out to lunch.вЂќД¬reated by Paul and Gail Dennison in the 1980s, Brain Gym is the shop-front name for what they call Education Kinesiology or Edu-K. In a brilliant article, Charlie Brooker once warned us to, вЂњ Man the lifeboats, the idiots are winning.вЂќ Brain Gym is a classic piece of snake oil in education that has been mis-sold to thousands of schools and has been peddled by many in order to cash in on the neuroscience gold rush. In between teaching jobs, I worked as an Ofsted inspector (no hate mail please!), national in-service provider, project.

John DabellI trained as a primary school teacher 25 years ago, starting my career in London and then I taught in a range of schools in the Midlands.

Brain gym program