27 children in 4th Grade (9 - 10 yrs), all considered academically "at risk".

 

Brain Gym movements used throughout the school year.

 

Gates MacGinitie Reading test was used. In this test, there are 3 sets of test papers for each academic year (or Grade year), one to be taken in August at the start of the school Year, one to be taken in December in the middle of the year, and one to be taken in April towards the end of the year. These tests increase in difficulty, so that an "average" student will score 4.5 on all three of the tests taken in their 4th Grade year, a below average student will score 4.0 or less, and an above average student will score 4.9 or above.

 

The initial Group Grade Score was 3.7 , giving a Mean Reading Age which was 9 months behind calendar age at start of year (as the score expected for an average student is 4.5)

 

At the end of the year, after 10 months of Brain Gym exercises, the group Grade score had increased to 5.3, giving a Group Mean Reading Age which was 9 months ahead of calendar age at end of academic year (as the score expected for an average student was still 4.5)

 

improvement of 1 ½ years ABOVE AND BEYOND calendar age change of 10 months

 

Passes 2-tailed T-tests so this represents a statistically significant improvement in reading skills.

 

2.5 months of reading age improvement per month of intervention. This needs to be seen in the context of typical changes in reading age of 0.5 - 0.8 months per month of intervention for poor readers. This emphasises the significant impact the Brain Gym programme had on the reading abilities of these children.

 

Carmel Dodson reports that the children had learned to love reading and had gained in social skills.

Data from Dodson, 2006