Society for Research in Child Development

Developmental Science Teaching Institute

Presenters Catherine Rosasco-Mitchell and Carolyn Palmer

CLICK HERE: EMBODIED DEVELOPMENT PRESENTATION SRCD Posters and Handout

(Note, people interested in this link were also interested in the presentation, Six Body-to-Brain Strategies 2018, at the Movementis Movement and Cognition conference is on this link. The studies with ADHD children and movement would benefit the most from the strategies. Strategies were tested and proven effective for children with behavioral challenges, attention deficits, and general well-being.)

Wellness Through Movement ran for eight years as a physical education program based on developmental movements, psychology, and the Feldenkrais® Method. The movement taught awareness of kinesthesia. Kinesthesia is a bodily sense of space involving movement and organization of body parts. The strategies taught participants how to find the uniqueness in each individual’s perception through kinesthesia (and the Feldenkrais Method). Procedures were tested and revised over the eight years between 2006-2014, three years in private and five years in public elementary schools. The 500 children from the island of Hawaii who applied these lessons came from multicultural backgrounds, and 57% of them were below poverty levels. Class sizes were in groups of six to twenty participants, ages five to ten.

The interest of SRCD was sparked by the results with children with attention disorders. When neuromuscular motor patterning was reeducated in these children, attention and character changed .Improved behavior sustained for six years after the program was over. (See Testimony, Principal Danny Garcia)