Advocate for Recess!

“RECESS!!”
I remember being in school and the teacher calling this out to us in the lunchroom or class.  It meant (hooray!) it was time to get outside and get all our wiggles out.  Recess means a break from having to sit in one place, use our brains intensely and not having to listen closely to a teacher.  It meant fun, movement and a sort of freedom from the monotony of the school day.  What we didn’t know at the time was that our brains and bodies needed a reset button.  Recess was not a reward, but rather a reserved time just like art, math or lunch.  In our current test-driven educational environment, not only is recess in jeopardy, but it’s value has been called into question.  Recess is not a privilege for kids who are well behaved or get good grades.  Research has shown it to be essential to your child’s development.

Recess in recent years has been limited and even cancelled.  Schools are feeling stress to improve kids’ grades and test scores and the more time spent in the classroom, in their opinion, the better.  Leading educators have been calling this into question more and more in recent years, citing many studies that say that by doing so, we are putting the health of kids at risk.

Research has yet to prove that removing recess with raise test scores, but the following benefits have been proven for kids.  Kids who have recess:

• Are less fidgety and more on task
• Have improved memory and more focused attention
• Develop more brain connections
• Learn negotiation skills
• Exercise leadership, teach games, take turns, and learn to resolve conflicts

The American Academy of Pediatrics put out a policy statement in 2013 advocating for the “Crucial Role of Recess” in the development of children.  It is required reading for parents and educators alike.  The paper discusses the cognitive, physical and social benefits of recess in great detail.  In addition, it states that the removal of recess should NEVER be used as punishment.

What can you as a parent do?  The excellent website Peaceful Playgrounds provides handouts, guides and presentations which are easy to download and offer lots of other resources too.  Together, we can take back recess!

Jeanne

from an article I wrote for kidsmoveandtalk.com.

Sensory Processing 101: What does it mean?

What does it mean when people refer to “sensory processing” or “sensory integration”?  It sounds pretty medical. Put simply, it means that your body creates a behavioral response as a result of the way your nervous system interprets sensory information.  It’s how your body uses the information it receives from it’s senses in a meaningful and organized way.  Developing naturally, sensory integration begins in the womb and progresses as the child grows from infant to adult.  As the nervous system within you matures, so does sensory processing.  How you interpret the information you gain from your senses becomes more and more skilled through the art of prediction.  The best way to explain this very complex, very beautiful and very individual interplay is with a few examples. An infant hears their mother’s voice and sweetly coos at this sound.  The infant knows the voice and thereby feels comforted.  However, a loud crash from a broken dish will likely result in crying as the infant has not heard this sound before and so is not able to interpret it. A toddler delights in hanging upside down on a swing, rolling in the grass and practicing somersaults with his mom.  This child is enjoying the sensations of the vestibular system (more coming on this and the other sensory systems in upcoming posts) which primes the nervous system to feel where the body is in space.  Learning through doing is one of the ways the sensory information gets processed. A 4 year old boy tastes a slice of lemon for the first time.  He puckers and says “wow!” indicating that the flavor is much stronger than anything he has tasted before.  He starts crying and immediately grabs for his water cup to wash the flavor from his mouth. A ten year old boy rides a roller coaster, bombarding him with sounds, sights from high off the ground and a jarring ride. He screams with joy throughout the ride and begs his mom to go on the ride again. A teenager goes into the cafeteria at her middle school and can smell right away they are having pizza that day.  She sprints to the line because she is so hungry and pizza is her favorite. A weary mom pulls into her driveway after a long day at work.  Although it is dark outside, she sees her family buzzing about inside, talking to each other and she can hear loud music playing.  She closes her eyes, turns off the car and sits in the quiet for 5 minutes so she can gather herself before she goes inside. All of these experiences involve the introduction of a sensory input, followed by a behavioral response. The response is generated as a result of the person determining whether the input is something that feels good or something that may not feel as good.  Sensory experiences are very tied to our emotions, or in neuroscience terms, our limbic system.  The limbic system has an excellent “memory” and can recall our preferences very readily.   For example, although the ten year old boy did not ever have the experience of riding a roller coaster, he probably has had some very positive experiences on the playground, in the climbing gym or at gymnastics class which have told his nervous system that this type of movement and noise is fun.  Conversely, the mom in the last example knows exactly how loud and bright her house will be when she walks in.  She chooses to get herself in a calm state through a brief respite in the car so she feels recharged before entering. Sensory experiences also spark learning.  In any of these examples, the person is learning as a result of the sensation they are encoding.  Why is the lemon so strong, Mommy?  Where did that noise come from?  Maybe if I move quickly enough I’ll be first in line for that pizza. Perhaps a moment of quiet will help me transition from work to home better.   Kids are learning not only the “why’s” of the senses, but their own preferences.  We all have preferences for the types of sensory experiences, or “input” that we prefer.  But only by experiencing a wide variety of sensory input do we achieve the fundamentals of learning, adapting and preferring. Do we experience only one sense at a time?  Rarely. Our senses can work together in order to help us best understand what is happening.  In the first example, when the infant hears her mother’s voice, she is also likely being held (proprioception or “touch” sense) and also maybe rocked (vestibular sense) which are also both very comforting.  We are likely experiencing many different senses at once at any given time.  While you are asleep, your senses are not as heightened as when you are awake, but any of your senses can cause you to wake up.  All moms know that their hearing becomes more acute after they bring a new baby home.  So, your senses never really “shut off.”  Even so-called sensory deprivation tanks make use of some of your senses! This article is excerpted from an article I wrote on kidsmoveandtalk.com.  The site is a resource for parents for information about childhood development.