Alternative Seating Brain Research

Why Does My Child’s Classroom Look Like It Does?

Brain Research on Using Stability Balls in the Classroom

What does your child sit on in school?  For most parents, the answer would be, “A chair” and in some cases, “A hard uncomfortable chair that he or she can’t help but rock and slouch and wiggle in.”  The following article, Teachers Ditching Class Chairs for Stability Balls, is taken from Citizen-Times.com, Associated Press in Fort Collins, Colorado.

All teachers have to do is ditch the classroom chair. A growing number are replacing them with exercise stability balls more associated with pilates classes than schoolroom lectures as an innovative way to improve student posture and attention.

"They're awesome," gushed 10-year-old James Howell, a fourth grader at Bauder Elementary School whose class switched to purple stability balls in January. "They help you focus, they help you keep your structure. And sometimes you get to bounce on them, get the wiggles out."

"The whole theory with the brain is that when your body's engaged, your brain's engaged," Miller said. "I call it actively sitting. They're maybe moving their legs a little, wiggling some. But their upper body, they're focused on writing, on the teacher. It really works."

Research is starting to back up that theory. John Kilbourne, a professor inthe Department of Movement Science at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., switched to stability balls in his college courses last semester and surveyed 52 students on the change.  Nearly all said they preferred sitting on the balls. Students mentioned improvement in their ability to pay attention, concentrate, take notes, engage in classroom discussions and take exams.  "They said the balls improved their focus and their attention, that just everything was better," said Kilbourne, whose research is published in February's Chronicle of Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education. "I think it could revolutionize the way we design classrooms."

Some scientists warn the balls aren't a miracle cure for bad posture. When people sit on them for long periods of time, bad habits can reappear. And because they don't have backs, the balls don't allow sitters to lean back and take pressure off the tailbone, said Fabio Camana, an exercise physiologist at the American Council on Exercise.

Camana said the balls have been used for two decades but news reports of classroom teachers using them instead of chairs show a dramatic uptick in the last five years or so. Kids as young as 5 or 6 are using the balls, Camana said.

Perhaps the biggest problem, teachers say, is persuading administrators or parents to go for the change. At L.D. Williams Elementary School in Mitchell, S.D., students who want to use the balls have to bring their own, at a cost of about $30. Fourth-grade teacher Amanda Chada introduced the balls last fall - but she has only three for children to share if they don't have their own.

"More kids all the time are bringing balls," says Chada, who rotates the three classroom balls during the day for students without one. "They like that they can move a little bit. They say they're more comfortable."Adults are slowly catching on, said Dottie Powell, who received a county grant this year to put stability balls in her fifth grade class at Orchard View Intermediate School in Martinsburg, W.Va.  "We had a Valentine's Day party and a grandma came, and she was definitely skeptical and wanted to know why they were sitting on these balls. And then she sat in one and stayed the whole party and loved it," Powell said.

The best ambassadors for the balls are the pupils themselves.  Teachers who use the balls say it's impractical to expect kids to sit still for hours at a stretch.  "It helps especially for active boys. It gives them an active outlet without taking away from learning," said Jenny Borovsky, a teacher at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minn., who has used stability balls in her seventh and eighth grade math classes for three years.

Recently, exercise balls have been replacing standard seating in classrooms
in Europe and North America. What are the results?
· Students enjoy sitting on them
· Concentration improves
· Excess energy is burned off
· Students become more physically fit
· Builds abs
· Less noise

Mayo Clinic Study

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota is known as one of the top medical centers in the world. Mayo Clinic is always looking for ways to decrease obesity in school children. Bob Nellis of the clinic conducted a study on the benefits of chair less classrooms. "Kids move around. They’re supposed to be active." [Heron Marquez Estrada, Star Tribune, startribune.com, Oct. 27, 2007]  The study showed that students with attention problems could focus better using the exercise balls for chairs. The balls allowed movement without making noise and disturbing others. The children that require extra movement get the opportunity to do so silently.

Zion Lutheran School

A private, parochial school in Carver County, Minnesota, found the exercise balls so successful that the school has replaced all classroom chairs with the balls. Principal Deb Kelzer states, "The kids were really excited to come back to school and sit on those balls. I was hesitant at first but I thought, ‘Why not?’ There’s too much sitting around that goes on." [Heron Marquez Estrada, Star Tribune, startribune.com, Oct. 27, 2007]

Other Chairless Classrooms

This is not the first example of classrooms without chairs. During the 2005-2006 school year, teacher Phil Rynearson tried an experiment in his 4th grade classroom in Rochester, Minnesota. Working with the Mayo Clinic, Rynearson replaced traditional desks with podium-like furniture in his classroom at Elton Hills Elementary School. Instead of sitting in chairs and working on computers, students stand and move. Traditional desks are available for students that don’t want to stand. However, many just sit on the carpet. The students in this 4th grade classroom wore sensors on their legs to measure how many calories are being burned during a school day. The data was monitored by The Mayo Clinic. [msnbs.msn.com, March 28, 2006]

Recess Time Reduced

Since many schools are reducing recess time to increase reading and math instructional time, using exercise balls or podium-like desks could make up for some of the activity lost. Small children need to move. Boys, especially, need to be active to learn. Schools could select one classroom and try the stability balls or podium tables for one year and monitor any changes. Children who struggle with concentration and excess energy could very well benefit tremendously.

Movement and Learning

There is a strong relationship between movement and attention.  They share overlapping pathways, which probably why activities like martial arts work well for ADHD kids – they have to pay attention while learning new movements, which engages and trains both systems.  School is an excruciating environment for a child with ADHD, given the need to sit still, face forward, and listen intently to a teacher for the better part of an hour.  It’s impossible for some, and it’s the reason for a lot of disruptive behavior among schoolchildren.

Just how important is movement to learning?  Neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford says the vestibular (inner ear) and cerebral system (motor activity) is the first sensory system to mature.  In this system, the inner ear’s semicircular canals and the vestibular nuclei are an information gathering and feedback source for movement.  Those impulses travel through nerve tracts back and forth from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain, including the visual system and the sensory cortex.  The vestibular nuclei are closely modulated by the cerebellum and also activate the reticular activating system, near the top of the brain stem.  This area is critical to our attention system, since it regulates incoming sensory data.  This interaction helps us keep our balance, turn thinking into actions, and coordinate moves.  That’s why there is value in playground games that stimulate inner ear motion like swinging, rolling, and jumping.  Novel movements shift focus in the brain because it has no memories to rely on for execution.  Suddenly we engage the prefrontal cortex and the rear two-thirds of the frontal lobes, particularly the dorsolateral frontal lobes.  This is an area of the brain often used for problem solving, planning, and sequencing new things to do and learn.  Research suggests the relationship between movement and learning continues throughout life.  We know that exercise (movement) fuels the brain with oxygen, but it also feds it neurotropins (high-nutrient food) to enhance growth and greater connections between neurons.  Students who tip back on two legs of their chairs in class often
are stimulating their brain with a rocking, vestibular-activating motion.  While it’s an unsafe activity, it happens to be good for the brain.  We ought to give students activities that let them move safely more often like role-plays, skits, stretching, or even games like musical chairs.

Today’s brain, mind and body research establishes significant links between movement and learning.  Educators ought to be purposeful about integrating movement activities into everyday learning.  This includes more than hands-on activities.  While it’s counterproductive to make it more important than
school itself, movement must become as honorable and important as so-called “book work.”  We need to better allocate our resources in ways that harness the hidden power of movement, activities, and sports.