Revisit the Effectiveness of Educational Kinesiology on Stress and Anxiety Amelioration in Kindergarteners With Special Needs Using Biological Measures

Background: Educational kinesiology is a popular intervention that aims to improve brain functioning via physical movements. Yet, it lacks supporting scientific evidence and is regarded as pseudoscience. Given the popularity of educational kinesiology in school settings, it is important to revisit its effectiveness through scientific research. Previous studies that evaluated the effectiveness of educational kinesiology relied mainly on subjective measures, in which subjective bias is inevitable. Cortisol and oxytocin levels in saliva have been reported to be reliable stress and anxiety markers that provide unbiased objective data. This study explores the effect of educational kinesiology on the changes in salivary cortisol and oxytocin levels in kindergarteners with special needs.Methods: A quasi-experimental design was adopted in this study. Thirty-seven kindergarteners (3.5–6.5 years old) who were either diagnosed with one type of special needs or referred by school principals due to the requirement of special supports at school were assigned to either the intervention group, which received 1-h educational kinesiology intervention weekly for a total of 10 weeks, or the wait-list control group. Saliva samples were collected at baseline and after the completion of intervention programme for the measurement of cortisol and oxytocin levels. Scores of Parent-rated Preschool Anxiety Scale (PAS-TC) were also collected at pre- and post-intervention. Because of the small samples, non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney U test, Quade test, and Fisher's exact tests were used in this study where appropriate.Results: After controlled for the effect at baseline, gender and types of special needs, the changes in oxytocin levels were significantly higher in the intervention group compared with control [F(1, 35) = 4.747, p = 0.036, eta2 = 0.119], whereas no significant between-group difference in changes of cortisol levels was observed [F(1, 35) = 0.306, p = 0.584, eta2 = 0.009]. Results from PAS-TC showed significant improvement in anxiety levels after the intervention in the intervention group (p = 0.048, ϕ = 0.344, p = 0.037).Conclusions: Our findings suggest a plausible anti-anxiety effect of educational kinesiology in kindergarteners with special needs by elevating the oxytocin levels. Future studies are warranted to further confirm our findings with a larger sample.

Revisit the Effectiveness of Educational Kinesiology on Stress and Anxiety Amelioration in Kindergarteners With Special Needs: A Nonrandomized Trial

Although educational kinesiology is a popular intervention aims to improve brain functioning via physical movements, it lacks supporting scientific evidence. This study explores the effect of educational kinesiology on the changes in stress and anxiety markers in kindergarteners with special needs using psychometrics and biological measures. This open label non-randomized clinical trial was registered retrospectively in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: ChiCTR2000036305, url: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=58067, registration date: 22/08/2020). Thirty-seven kindergarteners with special needs (3.5-6.5 years old) were assigned to either the intervention group, which received one-hour educational kinesiology intervention weekly for a total of 10 weeks, or the wait-list control group. Scores of Parent-rated Preschool Anxiety Scale (PAS-TC), salivary cortisol and oxytocin levels were obtained pre- and post-intervention. After controlling baseline, the changes in oxytocin levels remained significantly different between groups (F1,35 = 5.590, p = 0.020, eta2 = 0.145), but not in cortisol levels (F1,35 = 0.364, p = 0.550, eta2 = 0.01). PAS-TC showed significant improvement in anxiety levels after the intervention in the intervention group (X2 = 4.367, p = 0.037, φ = 0.344, p = 0.037). Findings from both subjective and objective measures indicate a plausible anti-stress and anxiety effect in kindergarteners with special needs.

Importance of Brain gym as exercise in physiotherapy and rehabilitation

This is not unprecedented that a whole industry, effectively promoted, has grown to promote the notion of 'brain-based' learning among other ideas. Much attention has been put on connecting advances in neuroscience research with educational approaches to boost learning. Brain Gym is a curriculum basically focused on theories of neuroscience and educational kinesiology. Intervention of brain gym consists of integrated, cross-lateral, balance-requiring movements that mechanically activate both hemispheres of the brain through the motor and sensory cortexes. The study describes the importance of brain gym exercise in physiotherapy. Exercise can stimulate the brain in such a way that neurons are often in a condition to handle the different data from outside and are capable of responding to a "corporate member" of their duty in compliance with parts of brain activity by means of the principle of "brain-body link". Brain Gym is a great source of personal development, enabling individuals to obtain rapid transformations and also improve quality of life in different age group.

Psychological and Pedagogical Helping to Preschoolers Using the Methods of Psychotechnics Based on the Movements

The article describes the conditions for the active development of psychological and pedagogical assistance to children 3–7 years old in Russian preschool institutions, the beginning of the using of movement-based psychotechnics in working with preschool children. The problem is formulated as the need to search and develop methods of psychological and pedagogical assistance to preschool children, which use motor tasks that “work” to identify and overcome difficulties in developing communication, arbitrariness, the emotional sphere, etc. A literature review of domestic scientific and practical research is given, which describe the possibilities of different technologies based on movement: emotional and motor psychotechnics (E.V. Gorshkova, E.V. Chernigina, Yu.V. Antipova, E.G. Zhabina), the technique of creating a spatial image of oneself in children on the age from 1,5 to 4 (E.O. Smirnova, E.A. Abdulaeva), the technique of “educational kinesiology” (A.L. Diterikhs). The research results showed the effectiveness of these techniques in the development and correction of emotional-personal sphere and behavior among preschoolers, however, these researches do not cover the whole range of psychological and pedagogical problems encountered in preschoolers of different ages. This review allows us to outline the problems of future research.

The Effect of Brain Gym Exercises on Self- Esteem and Sensory Processing Speed on High School Hearing Impaired Students

Sensory integration is one of the most important types of sensory processing which requires left and right hemispheric coordination. It is a challenge especially in the case of differently-abled children. One way to help differently-abled students achieve academic success is to have positive self-esteem. The present research paper has tried to use Brain Gym exercises on hearing impaired children. The results of the educational kinesiology exercises have been ascertained using Stroop test and self-esteem questionnaire. The subjects who are selected for the study were hearing impaired students (N=30) between the age group of 15-20 who were given practices on 10 different types of Educational Kinesiology exercises for 45 days continuously. The results of the pre and post intervention were assessed using paired sample t-test and significant difference in terms of improvements were found in the hearing impaired students on both the sensory processing speed and self-esteem.

Educational Kinesiology with Learning Disabled Children: An Efficacy Study

Educational Kinesiology is a treatment using specific movements to access different parts of the brain in maximizing learning potential. It has been recommended for use with learning disabled children; however, studies validating its effects are limited. The school records of 25 students each with a diagnosis of specific learning disability were examined for pre- and posttest scores on academic and perceptual motor skill measures following an Educational Kinesiology program. Analysis indicated significant improvement in perceptual motor skills following the Educational Kinesiology program. The change in academic skills was not significant. Educational Kinesiology is recommended as a treatment to improve perceptual motor function of learning disabled children. Other variables affecting this study as well as clinical and research implications are discussed.