Activating the Brain’s Starter Motor

A child who can’t stop moving might be trying to get his brain going.

Do you have students who never sit still? Are they constantly turning their heads, moving or wriggling? Do they delight in rocking on the back legs of their chairs? But then, when they’re working, they suddenly droop over their desks?

These children quite often have no appreciation of the space their bodies take up and will invade others’ without realising it. Think of the child who jostles other children when sitting on the mat or joining a line, because he just didn’t realise that he wouldn’t fit into that small space. They might even have been labelled as ADD or ADHD children.

Read the entire article by Marion Miller – Activating the Brain's Starter Motor (379)

The Tiger in Your Classroom

What do you look at when you have a child who is not performing in class?

There are many aspects that can be looked at, yet we could be missing a crucial part of the picture. If this child is stuck in ‘survival mode’, none of these external factors are going to have the impact we would like.

Read the entire article by Marion Miller – The Tiger in Your Classroom (411)

Gripping Issue in the Classroom

Do you have a child in your class who has an unusual grip on his pen or pencil?

His grip is so tight that the whites of his knuckles show; he presses so hard that the indentation goes through three or four sheets of paper? He may even rotate his page by up to 90 degrees. Does the intense concentration he need to simply manipulate his tools hinder his creative process?

This could be the result of the lack of inhibition of the Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR), which is one of the primitive reflexes.

Download the entire article by Marion Miller - Gripping Issue in the Classroom (353)