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New Secondary School Research 2007 |
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New Secondary School Research 2007 |
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click here to return to main Research Page Preliminary research results of study on effects of Brain Gym ® movements on Reading Age in Secondary School students. By Grace Archer and Buffy McClelland This is a preliminary report on a large research study in a UK Secondary School, providing evidence for the positive benefits of using Brain Gym for poor readers. More information will be forthcoming when the results are published in an international journal.
The study focused mainly on Reading Ages assessed using Standardised tests (more details of the tests used will be included in published results). 50 poor readers received 3 months intervention for 20 minutes per day, one half received a Brain Gym ® movement programme which included a total of 10 Brain Gym movements (the BG group), the other half received another movement programme (the PR group). A further 25 poor readers only received the usual school interventions for poor readers (the baseline control (BC) group). Reading ages were measured before the intervention, immediately after, and then again a further 6 months after the interventions ceased.
The movement programmes and Reading Age
assessments were carried out by an independent researcher.
All three groups had very similar Reading Standard Scores
and Reading Ages at the start of the experiment.
Data was analysed by parametric T-tests and non-parametric Wilcoxon
and Mann-Whitney tests at 95% confidence levels.
Preliminary Results:
The Brain Gym group was the only group to show statistically
significant improvements in reading age immediately after the 3
month intervention period (average increase of nearly 6 months above
the baseline control group), and neither the baseline control group
or the PR group showed significant increases in reading age.
After the 3 month intervention period, the reading age increases for
the Brain Gym group were statistically significantly greater than
the small increase in reading age seen for the PR movement group.
This means that the PR group act as a MOVEMENT PLACEBO GROUP,
indicating that the improvements seen for the Brain Gym group are
NOT just because the group were receiving extra attention, nor are
the improvements because the students were doing more movement. It
seems that the Brain Gym programme had a real effect on the ability
of the students to read.
6 months after the intervention had ceased, the Brain Gym group
continued to improve their reading abilities, and the average
reading age of this group increased to nearly a year greater than
the baseline control group average reading age.
Full results and data will be published in due course.
Conclusions:
This study is the first statistically analysed movement placebo-controlled study of the
effects of Brain Gym
Most reading interventions require either the input of many special
needs teachers, or are only available to those with the worst
problems. The Brain Gym technique is easily used with large groups
of students at a time, so is a quick and simple additional option to
help all children who have problems with reading.
click here to return to top of page The Oxford Brain Gym Tel: 01865 776578 Brain Gym ® is a registered trademark of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation/ Brain Gym International. Text and Layout, Copyright © Dr Buffy McClelland, 2007. All rights reserved. Navigate around this site by using these links: Home І About Brain Gym І Brain Gym for adults І Brain Gym for children І Brain Gym for schools І About me І Contact me І Brain Gym Research І Case Studies І Useful Links І Brain Gym Courses This site was last updated 04/16/08 |