Fit 2 Learn Programme How motor skills,

sound processing and vision are necessary to be an efficient learner

Charlotte Davies, Director, Fit 2 Learn

Charlotte Davies Fit 2 Learn CIC

Daleen Smith Cognitive Visual Therapy Ltd

Mel Healy Sports Physiotherapist and Lecturer, Bedfordshire University

Fit 2 Learn Consultants

Social Enterprise based in CroydonCommitted to: • identifying the root causes of learning and behavioural

difficulties• providing effective solutions for children and adultsFunded by: • Self-investment• Community investment• Social Enterprise loan• Sales of services

Fit 2 Learn CIC

• Suppression of primary reflexes • Control of large muscles• Mid-line crossing• Bi-lateral integration• Core strength• Co-ordination

Motor Skills

Crawling is a good training for:• Developing bones, joints, ligaments, muscles

and nervous system for a good posture when standing (McEwan et al)

• Visual perception, eye hand coordination, body scheming (Visser & Franzen)

• Pencil grip (Visser & Franzen) • Suppression of primary reflexes

Missing Development

Without the key development that would be expected from crawling or equivalent alternative activities, the following may occur: • unable to achieve good postural control at ages 4 to 6

years• do not reach the point where they can integrate

visual, proprioceptive and vestibular input necessary for postural control

• lack of postural control impacts their ability to develop binocular vision

Secondary Missing Development

• Feet – flat, inflexible, poor ankle movement• Hips and legs - out of place• Hands – fine motor skills necessary to control

tools• Knowing where their own limbs are in order to

move them Gavin Sandercock et al, Essex University http://www.ukactive.com/downloads/managed/Start_Young_Stay_Active.pdf

Other issues picked up while working on correcting motor skills

• Many children have good hearing • But they experience problems with making

sense of what they are hearing• Particularly in a classroom where they find it

difficult to follow a teacher’s voice

Sound Processing

Tomatis® Sound Processing Assessment

• Blue = Air conduction of sound – human’s main method of sound processing

• Red = Bone conduction of soundIn order for a human to process sound well: • air conduction lies about 10 decibels above bone

conduction (at the level of the green curve)• there are no clashes between the two curves • the person is right ear dominant

Tomatis® Sound Processing

Other Issues on a Tomatis® Profile

• The student struggles to identify the source of sounds: – on Air marked by X – on Bone marked by /

• It is distressing as they tend to be very anxious in busy, enclosed environments

• It can get worse because the student becomes traumatised and closes down further

Problems with Directionality

• Child struggles to follow teacher’s speech in a classroom, especially if they move about

• Child struggles to read silently and prefers to read aloud

• Child struggles to read for meaning – they decode but struggle to understand what they have read

Implications of Poor Sound Processing

• Speech is directly affected by the quality of a person’s sound processing (Tomatis)

• Lack of auditory processing hinders understanding of serial order and time (Conway et al)

Sound Processing Continued

• Vestibular integration is the interface between sound, vision, balance and motor skills.

• The vestibular system is located in the inner ear – the cochlear and the labyrinth.

• It matures early in utero and is completely mature in fourth year of life.

• Human labyrinth is significantly different from other primates – linked to bipedalism and language skills (Brown & Hecaen)

Vestibular Integration

• Laterality allows for specialisation to develop finely sequenced motor skills for tool making and hand gestures.

• The vestibular and gross motor skills are the foundation for visual-spatial-manipulative perceptions which underlie linguistic functions (Daniels).

Vestibular System and Laterality

The brain needs two eyes to work together in order to send equal messages to the brain. The brain can then process and use to see patterns, distinguish relevant from irrelevant etc.

Binocular Vision

Necessary in order to hold the head upright and still, so that a child can develop good binocular vision A child needs good core strength and should not lean over habitually Vestibular integration also supports control of eye muscles

Core Strength and Vestibular Integration and Vision

Compevo Readalyzer® TechnologyLeft eye movements

Right eye movements

ReadAlyzer® Graph of a Good Reader

Right and left eyes are clearly working together in order to read and process the text.

It is a very clear distinctive pattern.

In the UK we do not check binocular vision when a person has an eye test.

Example: Eyes move reasonably well when reading numbers, but are more erratic when reading text.

Example: Eyes struggle to work together whatever they read

• Education underpinned by an understanding of whole child development

• Curriculum for children up to 8 years of age that focuses on the fundamental skills that they need in order to be efficient learners: Motor Skills; Sound Processing; Rhythm; Speech and Language; Binocular Vision; Pattern Recognition

Recommendations

The PE curriculum in particular to provide:• Systematic development of the kinetic chain• Postural assessment • Gross motor skills taught before fine motor

skills• Music and movement & Drama to be

integrated to allow for whole body learning

Recommendations cont’d

Charlotte DaviesDirector

Fit 2 Learn CICwww.fit-2-learn.com

Charlotte.Davies@fit-2-learn.com

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