Movement Based Learning

Movement Based Learning: Building Block Activities is a workshop which addresses the foundational pieces of learning so that children of all abilities, as well as their elders, therapists and caregivers, can learn how to learn. The program is taught in a functional, practical way so that any information is directly applicable and usable.

Brain Gym® for Special Needs Providers (BG 170) offers excellent applications for a variety of mental and physical challenges including: autism, cerebral palsy, attention deficit disorders (ADD and ADHD), dyslexia, Angelman’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome, speech impairments, brain injuries, blindness, deafness and impairments caused by strokes.

Participants taking either course will leave with new skills that optimize learning and performance in all areas of life. And they will find that these tools are immediately applicable in home, school and therapeutic settings.

Movement-based learning has come to be known in the neurobiological field as any brain-based learning that stimulates the growth of neural pathways through movement of the body. Movement-based learning grew out of research revolving around kinesiology. Kinesiology is the study of human movement that encompasses biological components of movement including anatomical, physiological, neurological, biochemical and biomechanical. Theoretical knowledge of kinesiology is applied in many areas including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and vision training. The approach of these applications can be therapeutic, preventive, or high-performance.

The Movement Based Learning program is geared for use in the educational realm rather than the developmental kinesiology realm. The program teaches adults to work with differently-abled children and adults (through workshops and private consultations) by showing how to observe postural and behavioral cues. Once this information is gathered, a movement program is developed that will enhance a more integrated way of learning. This will allow for the child or the elder to accomplish his goals in life with greater ease – the goal may be walking, talking, self-feeding, reading with ease, organizing classroom tasks, relating to peers or learning to self-regulate behaviors.

Kinesiology is also studied in the relationship between the quality of human movement and the overall health and/or quality of life of a human being. This application is at the core of the books, workshops and programs developed by the founder, Cecilia Koester.

​​Babies and young children naturally perform what experts in early childhood education call developmental movements. These movements develop the neural connections in the brain, which are essential to learning.

The foundational pieces of learning, the infant reflexes and developmental movement patterns, all play a part in the physical and mental growth of a human being. The Movement Based Learning program assists the adults in the child’s world – general and special education teachers, occupational therapists, physical therapists and parents, to come to a preliminary understanding of these reflexes and developmental movement patterns. A change in the functioning level of a child or elder is assessed, developed, evaluated for effectiveness and then modified as the need arises. Through the use of the tenets of movement-based learning, the child or elder is better able to grasp the methods and techniques.

There is a difference between movement-based learning that the founder, Cecilia Koester, discusses in her book (Movement Based Learning for Children of All Abilities, 2006, 2012) and Developmental Kinesiology. Cecilia’s approach to movement-based learning put emphasis on observation and guided information to establish a learning program that is filled with specific movements and activities. Developmental Kinesiology generally uses muscle checking to determine the specific activities needed to promote the natural development of an infant, child or adult. Oftentimes the approach that Movement Based Learning takes in working with a child or elder, is a precursor to working more in-depth with Developmental Kinesiology, Rhythmic Movement Training and childhood reflexes.