A motor skill is simply an action that involves your kids using his muscles. They are divided into two groups: gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Both types of motor skills usually develop together, because many activities depend on the coordination of gross and fine motor skills.
Gross and Fine motor skills have become an important parameter for assessing the development of the child. So it’s important to develop these skills in them which will in turn help them to perform better academically and physically too. Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body involving physical movement of the child like running, jumping, hopping etc. These require balance and coordination skills. Fine motor skills are the collective skills and activities that involve the small muscle movements using the hands, fingers with vision. Today we are learning about 'fine motor skills', and its importance. Moreover what tasks your kids can perform if he/she has developed fine motor skills properly. Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscle movements especially the coordination of finger movement with vision to perform precise and refinded movements. These skills are acquired as children, and humans secure and perfect them throughout life.
I am adopting brain gym exercises before starting my class and noticed that these simple body movements help students become more focused for the learning. Brain gym is most effective when used in the classroom as part of the learning process. These physical activities help the chemical and electrical processes which take place during mental and physical efforts.
Brain gym is the easiest and fastest way to shift students from scattered to focused, from confused to clear, and from tense to relaxed. A typical classroom experience lacks the quantity of movement required for healthy physiological development. Brain gym can be effective in changing attitudes and the classroom atmosphere;
To be successful, it is important
* that the teacher is confident with the Brain Gym exercises and has an understanding of underlying concepts on which Brain Gym is based;
* any initial resistance to using the exercises by students feeling embarrassed is recognised.
When to apply brain gym?
These and other brain training exercises are especially effective for children with learning difficulties. A good time to perform them is right before learning activities.
It seems your students are too lethargic and need a bit of revitalization to be ready for learning Or when you see they are too nervous and restless so that they can calm down... and you as well!
Centralization: These are mostly relaxation exercises which help to reestablish the neural networks between brain and body and, this way, facilitating the passage of electromagnetic flow through the body.
Brain buttons: One hand massages two spots below the clavicle while the other rests on the navel. The movements stimulates the carotid artery and this way enhances the blood flow to the brain.
It activates the brain for:
• reading skills
• memorization. Earth buttons: One hand fingers rest on the lower lip while the others stay on the pubic bone. While having the sensation of a better connection between the upper and lower parts of the body the students feels more stable and centered.
It improves:
• reading skills. Balance buttons:
These buttons reestablish balance in every dimension: left-right, above-under, behind-before. The student massages the spot where the skull is attached to the neck and, at the same time, the navel.
It improves the next learning skills:
• critical and decisional capacities
• spelling accurateness
• Maths calculations. Space buttons: One hand rests on the upper lip while the other lays on the back-bone.
It activates the brain for:
• relaxation and concentration
• eye-contact in communication with people
It improves these learning skills:
• focusing during a test
• reading
• motivation and interest. The thinking cap: This activity helps the student to focus attention on hearing. It also lessens tension in skull bones. The student gently pulls ears backwards and unrolls them with fingers. They start from the top of the ear, massage them delicately and end on the lobe.
It activates brain for:
• hearing one's voice
• short-term memory
• inner dialogue and thinking . Hook-ups: The exercise can be done while standing, sitting or lying down. Students cross the left ankle on the right one. Then they intertwine fingers and bring them near the chest. They close their eyes, breathe deeply for a few minutes and relax. Then students free hands and legs and finger tips touch gently while they keep on breathing deeply.
Hook-ups help:
• mind and body relaxation The energetic yawn : Don't get angry at your students if they yawn during English classrooms! Not now that you know that scientific research has proved yawing to be a perfect exercise which brings oxygen to the brain and so enhances learning performances!
As parents or guardians we needs to educate ourselves and our kids about the purpose of ads.
We need to train them to become wise consumers to make healthy choices. We can help your kids get better at assessing ad messages by
encouraging them to talk with you about what the ads are really trying
to say.
A Stanford University study had kids taste food in McDonald packaging and unmarked packaging and asked which they preferred. The kids preferred the McDonald packaged food not realizing that they went for it because they were conditioned to believe "it must taste good."
Advertising campaign can affect a child's social, emotional and physical health, in various ways like:
Advertising can encourage a child to believe that his/her personality and likeability can be expressed in things.
Excessive materialism can affect the development of children's self-image and values.
Aggressive marketing of fast food commercials featuring candy and soft drinks contributes to overweight.
Advertising is powerful – that’s why companies pay millions for it – and it is especially effective on kids.
Troubling about all this advertising exposure is that young kids are not so good at telling fact from fiction. They don’t understand that the ad’s purpose is to sell, and they often accept advertising claims and images as the truth.
Teaching kids how to look at advertisements with a critical eye for the truth can be very effective in reducing some of the negative effects of advertising.
Intention and purpose of advertisers:
Advertisers target at children because of their high disposable income, their early establishment of loyalty to certain brands and a conventional wisdom that young adults buy products on impulse. Many parents and critics fear that children are susceptible to commercial appeals because young viewers lack the necessary cognitive skills to process the highly persuasive messages and make appropriate judgements about them.
Educators and researchers have attempted to design programs that will teach children about the intent of advertisements and help children construc defenses from commercial messages. To get more information about it you may search at following sites:
I am a drawing teacher and love to see kids learning and enjoy drawing class. Sometimes teachers want to enhance their own skills in particular area, so there are lots of online sites offering free tutorials to improve at drawing.
These basic drawing tips and tutorials can be adopted in classroom to teach basic drawing process to students.
Tips to help you with practicing drawing:
Prepare the essential drawing tools for drawing which are pencil, eraser and paper. HB pencil is probably the most popular hardness of a pencil, because it
is neither too soft nor too hard. It allows you to draw a large variety
of pencil drawings and sketches and, is excellent for shading.
Sketchbook, notepads, chalkboards, whiteboards, the backs of receipts, you may use anything to practice drawing.
The most common way to hold a pencil is the basic tripod grip. The basic
tripod grip is the same as the one you probably use for writing.
This grip allows the
pencil to be finely controlled by the fingers, so holding a pencil this
way is ideal for drawing fine detail. The upright position of the pencil
allows for accurate shading with the tip, rather than side, of the
pencil.
There are more ways to hold the pencil. You may notice another way of holding pencil for shading in facing picture.
While practicing drawing, don't be so concerned with how the finished
product will look. Instead, be open-minded as to how your drawings may
turn out.
The lines we draw are representative of the thoughts we think. And in realizing this connection, it's important to be able to both think and draw creatively.
Take on a more 'free-flowing' approach with respect to the lines you put down on paper. Instead of fixed, rigid lines — switch over to quick, wispy, sketchy ones, gradually bringing the desired image into view.
You should have less focus on how your drawings will look when they're finished, and more focus on the process at hand — that of being creative.
Learning and improving at drawing is an ever-changing process, one that always has the potential to yield a number of different results and every drawing will be a learning experience for you.
Treat each new drawing as a stone on the pathway to success and with each new creation, you'll be one step closer to your goal.
Draw in the moment!
Free download:
'Learning how to draw' 133 pages of pdf file (2.27 M)
There are many kinds of pencils like common lead pencil, colored pencil, mechanical pencil, etc. And there are many uses of pencil despite of the fact that we are now more attracted to computers, notebooks or hand held devices and use fingers or mouse. Let's learn more about pencil, kind and uses of pencils.
According to wikipedia: A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use.
Now we have a new look of pencils, mechanical pencils which are easier in use.
At the moment you can obtain 3 different varieties:
the traditional one (graphite refill encapsulated inside a wooden wrapper of cedar),
the propelling pencil (pens with very fine refills of graphite) or
the bar pencil (Similar to the propelling pencils but with thicker and more resistant graphite bars. Approx.. 5 mm in diameter).
According to 'Pencilopedia there are many kind of pencils like:
Indelible Pencils
Copying Pencils
Drawing Pencils
Drafting Pencils
Woodless Pencils
Checking Pencils
Colored Pencils
Writing Pencils
China Markers
Hydro Markers
Carpenter Pencils
Penny Pencil
World War II Pencils
Golf Pencils
Sketching Pencils
Highlighter Pencils
How people use pencil?
Writers (drafts of novels, stories, plays)
News reporters and newscasters (interview notes)
Engineers (plans and drawings)
Carpenters (plans and drawings, estimating)
Composers (creating music) Scientists (experiments)
Teachers (lesson books)
Business people (meeting notes and memos)
High school and college students (class notes and homework)
Golfers (scores)
Parents (grocery shopping lists)
"What are Pencils Used for?
Student—Homework
Artist—Sketch Pad
Carpenter—Wood Board
Waiter/Waitress —Order Pad
Make-up Person—Eyes
Sports Scorekeeper—Scorecard
Architect—Blueprint
Teachers can use 'brain gym' activities or exercises to enhance the learning abilities of students. My kids of Nursery class love brain gym exercises and I ask them to do it usually before starting my maths class. I have noticed that when students are introduced to brain gym, kids become more focused and more enthusiastic for learning.
What is Brain Gym? Brain Gym was developed in the 1980s by Dr. Dennison, an American teacher with an interest in the effect of movement on his students’ ability to learn.
Brain gym is an energising program of movement designed to release tense muscles, improve brain and body communication, create a state of active relaxation, and improve concentration, organisation and co-ordination.
Brain Gym movements prepare the brain and nervous system for optimal performance. They are ideal for anyone undertaking a learning activity.
This movement-based system activates and integrates the brain and body by:
* Enhancing learning ability and academic performance
* Balancing emotion and behavior
* Improving physical coordination and sports performance and
* Developing an overall state of wellness and momentum in any area of life
Those educators who have incorporated the techniques and activities into their classrooms report good results.
How to integrate Brain gym into the classroom?
Many exercises can be performed while sitting at a desk. Children can be taught to engage in them when they feel their attention drifting or when they are feeling fatigued.
These exercises can be done as a group during a lesson break.
Brain gym helps in developing motor coordination and skills to follow directions.
Benefits of brain gym for learning:
* Academic skills - for example, reading, writing, spelling and maths
* Memory, concentration and focus
* Physical co-ordination and balance
* Communication skills and language development
* Self-development and personal stress management
* The achievement of goals - both professional and personal
This movement-based system offers additional assistance to children with learning difficulties and helps them achieve the best of success in their academic paths.
These are some interesting facts about children having learning disabilities.
A Learning Disability may mean you have difficulty with:
spoken language;
written language;
coordination;
self-control;
organizational skills;
attention; or,
memory.
Guardians and teachers can help them learn how to cope with their learning problems better by teaching them applyhing strategies that can minimize their effect
There has been remarkable new research in the field of Learning Disabilities and brain function that show how the brain works. As a result, we are now better able to assist those with Learning Disabilities.
Interesting facts about learning disabilities:
People with Learning Disabilities often excel in their chosen fields.
Those with Learning Disabilities can and do learn, just differently.
Conservatively, 10-15% of the population has Learning Disabilities.
An estimated 25% of the population is considered “at risk” for Learning Disabilities.
Early identification and intervention reduce the risk of school failure to less than 5%.
In 1877 the term “word blindness” (wortblindheit) was coined by Adolf Kussmaul who recognized that there are individuals who can see perfectly well - but are unable to “see” written words.
Dr. Albert Einstein famous for the theory of relativity
and winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics had speech difficulties and never completed high school. Later he wrote, “The spirit of learning and creative thought were lost by strict rote learning”.
No one knows the exact cause of LD but it is believed to be a problem with the Central Nervous System, meaning it is neurological.
LD also tends to run in families. You may discover that one of your guardians or grandparents had trouble at school.
Famous people with learning disabilities!
Do you know that Albert Einstein couldn't read until he was nine?
Walt Disney, General George Patton, and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had trouble reading all their lives.
Whoopi Goldberg and Charles Schwab and many others have learning disabilities which haven't affected their ultimate success.
This post is about resources and online sites which offer useful information about children with learning disabilities. You get some basic information about 'learning disabilities' and at the end of post there are online resources list to get more help about this important issue. Parents should book mark these sites so that in early stages you can figure out what kind of learning disability your child has and how to deal with it?
A learning disability can't be cured or fixed; it is a lifelong issue. With the right support and intervention, however, children with learning disabilities can succeed in school and go on to successful, often distinguished careers later in life. Parents can help children with learning disabilities achieve such success by encouraging their strengths, knowing their weaknesses, understanding the educational system, working with professionals and learning about strategies for dealing with specific difficulties.
If you think your child might have a learning disability, it’s important to face the problem early on. You can start by studying up on learning disabilities and pinpointing the specific learning challenges your child faces. With the right support and training, children with learning disabilities can tackle the obstacles they face in the classroom and thrive in all areas of life.
School teachers can also get help from these resources as they also need to check if any of the student have symptoms of learning disability!
Common learning disabilities: Dyslexia – a language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding written words. It may also be referred to as reading disability or reading disorder. Dyscalculia – a mathematical disability in which a person has a difficult time solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts. Dysgraphia – a writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form letters or write within a defined space. Auditory and Visual Processing Disorders – sensory disabilities in which a person has difficulty understanding language despite normal hearing and vision. Nonverbal Learning Disabilities – a neurological disorder which originates in the right hemisphere of the brain, causing problems with visual-spatial, intuitive, organizational, evaluative and holistic processing functions.
Useful links and online resources for parents and teachers:
* ISER (Internet special education resources) is a directory of professionals, organizations, and schools that serve the learning disabilities and special education communities. They help parents find local special education professionals for learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder assessment, therapy, advocacy, critical teen issues, and other special needs.
* 'Dystalk.com''s motto is "helping your child learn better." It's for parents of children who are looking for information on how to optimise their child's learning. DysTalk provides information on specific learning difficulties that may be undermining a child's performance as well as learning strategies that can potentially be applied to all children of all abilities.
* 'Our Kids.org' work with children with physical and/or mental disabilities and delays.
Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscle movements especially the coordination of finger movement with vision to perform precise and refinded movements. These skills are acquired as children, and humans secure and perfect them throughout life.
