Mission, Goals, & Values
Moving with Intention for Optimal Living and Learning
Brain Gym® Mission
The Brain Gym® program is committed to the principle that moving with intention leads to optimal learning. Through our outstanding instructors and movement-based programs, we empower all ages to reclaim the joy of living.
Mission Goals
We utilize an educational model to:
- Promote learning through play
- Draw out and honor innate intelligence
- Build awareness regarding the value of movement in daily life
- Emphasize the ability to notice and respond to movement-based needs
- Encourage self-responsibility
- Leave each participant appreciated and valued
- Empower each participant to better take charge of her own learning
- Encourage creativity and self-expression
Core Values
- Integrity
- Joy
- Movement
- Growth
- Openness
- Responsibility
Brain Gym® History
Moving with Intention for Optimal Living and Learning
Brain Gym® History
Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D., is a professional educator, an authority on the attainment of cognitive and academic skills, and a pioneer in the field of Educational Kinesiology. In the 1960s, he began the research into reading achievement and its relation to brain development that would eventually form the basis for the Brain Gym® program. Paul received the Phi Delta Kappa award for Outstanding Research at the University of Southern California; and was granted a Doctorate in Education for his research in beginning reading and its relationship to cognitive development and silent speech (thinking) skills. Using his discoveries of the interdependence of physical development, language acquisition, and academic achievement, he began to develop the basis of Educational Kinesiology. Eventually, Paul joined forces with Gail, an artist and movement educator, who later became his wife and collaborator.
The Dennisons gathered some of their favorite activities for learning and moving, gave them playful names, and organized them according to three dimensions of movement, publishing them in a little orange book called Brain Gym: Simple Activities for Whole-Brain Learning. This series of activities is known today as the Brain Gym® movements, and are and integral part of the Brain Gym® program.
Many of the Brain Gym activities were developed from Paul’s understanding of the impact of movement and perception on fine-motor and academic skills. Others were learned during his training as a marathon runner, his work with developmental optometrists doing vision training, and his study of Jin Shin Jitsu (a form of acupressure). Dennison Laterality Repatterning and Three Dimension Repatterning are Paul’s original contributions to the field of education, while Gail contributed movements from her background in dance, natural vision training, acupressure, and Touch for Health.
With a group of dedicated educators, the Dennisons founded the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, now doing business as Breakthroughs International. Their goal was to train professionals around the world in Brain Gym® fundamentals. Breakthroughs International has since expanded its program-base and mission to include other kinesiologies.
The Brain Gym® Courses
Duration: 24 hrs
- Experience whole brain integration through whole body movement.
- Learn twenty-six Brain Gym® exercises, the Edu-K Balance process, and the Dennison Laterality Repatterning.
- Discover a permanent tool for reaching personal goals.
- Applications for children, students, teachers, parents, artists, athletes, health care practitioners, and business professionals.
Duration: 16 hrs
Dive deep into the 26 Brain gym® activities. Experience them in your body. Gain a better understanding of each movement, the philosophy behind the Brain Gym ® program and how this knowledge can support can support your daily life routine.
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Notice: The effects after each of the “26 brain Gym movements”
- Identify: Life events as part of a learning loop or as an “out of the loop” stress response.
- Learn: The language of Educational Kinesiology as it relates to the dimensions of learning
- Discover: How these movements can support one’s and others’ development of physical skills.
Duration: 8 hrs
- Double Doodle Play workshop includes movement, drawing and painting activities done solo, with a partner and as a group.
- It serves as a fun introduction to Brain Gym® – with tools for maintaining and improving everyday visual and movement skills.
- People often make gains in their visual responsiveness as they play together in ways that engage seeing, tactility or tool holding abilities, while learning to notice both one sided and whole body habits of moving.
Pre-requisite: Brain Gym 101, Brain Gym 104, Case Studies
- This course prepares one to teach the 16 hour Brain Gym® 104 course and create customized workshops upto 6 hours.
- Participants practice teaching concepts as well as giving and receiving feedback.
- The course covers administrative details for Movement facilitators .
- This course has 16 contact hours as well as an 8 hour independent study.
- The 8 hours involve the case studies, review of Assessment Tool with instructor, creating marketing materials (flier) and drafting a 30 minute segment of teaching to be evaluated.
Duration: 16 hrs
- Discover the concepts of hemispheric specialization, identification, and balancing to facilitate whole-brain learning.
- Learn how to assess for Learning Style Profiles.
- Open to students who have taken Brain Gym® 101.
Duration: 24 hrs
- As we travel the developmental road of vision as a way of thinking, we visit eight intersecting spheres each representing a integral skill of information processing.
- Noticing, moving, listening, seeing and the skills of using our hands and language for self-expression and communication with others are explored using the Brain Gym® 5 – step learning process. Along the way, new Vision Gym® movements are learned with applications for personal and work settings, including the classroom.
Pre-requisite: Brain Gym 101 | Duration: 32 hrs
Explore Integrated brain body learning. Re discover the joy, ease and wholeness of learning.
Course Objectives:
- Deepen your understanding of the Focus, Centering and Laterality Dimension
- Develop skills that draw out potential excellence & realiation of goals
- Expand your learning menu with new techniques in acupressure, movement, emotional balancing, vision training and a lot more.
- Learn new Dimensions
- Motivation & Self image – describes the relationship between motivation & language intention
- Cranial & Rhythm – looks at structural intelligence
- Breathing & Expression – notices the body’s tendencies regarding breath
- Body Regulation & Management – observes the balance between input and output.
- The Teacher Practicum provides the skills to support the emergence of the authentic teacher in each participant.
- Completion of this class licenses the graduates to teach Brain Gym® classes and present themselves as Brain Gym consultants.
- The Teacher Practicum is a thorough training for successful facilitation and is highly transformational on the personal level.
- This class will give you a deeper understanding and broaden your base with Brain Gym®, both personally and professionally.
Licensure is through the Breakthroughs Int. Foundation.