In 2011 Dr Pillai conducted an informal pilot study with an ESY ( Extended school year) teacher to study the impact of daily prescriptive activities lasting for 10 minutes on ability to stay on task, quality of work and ability to follow directions. The teacher chose to do it every morning before table top activities. Every student showed improved in all 3 items except one student who had joined the district during the summer and was having a challenging time with the transition. Seeing the positive outcomes of this study, Dr Pillai was invited to increase awareness about using prescriptive movement breaks in her school district.
Student C
Student C has no improvements as she had joined the district 5 days prior to the pilot study and was still adjusting to her new environment. She was only 5 years old with a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome.
Application of Motor Learning
Ideas for practice: Increase opportunities during the day.
Feedback
Implicit : Kinesthetic, self generated
Explicit: Propriocetive more effective than visual
Applications in sensory modulation
Strategies done to the student in the initial stages.
All adults aware of strategies, thereby increasing opportunities
Gradually the student identifies the strategies (verbal/non verbal communication) and communicates needs for sensory breaks to adults.
Key Questions
for the Decision Making Process for Recommending Activities during the school day.
In what ways can we support the student’s learning needs and goals/objectives within the general education classroom/program?
In what ways can we support the staff to address the student’s needs within the general education classroom/program?
Physical Activity and Executive functions
Aerobic exercise is a “friend to the heart” and a “friend to the brain”.
Movement enriched environment stimulates cognitive skills.
Dosage of exercises makes a big difference to the “training effect” and therefore “learning effect”.
Experiencing mistakes and problem solving facilitates executive functioning skills.
