I’m sitting in a classroom
of ten and eleven year olds and I can
immediately see why the teacher has
called me in six kids are tilting so far
back in their chairs they’re dangerously
close to cracking their heads open
several are slumped over their desks
while others find any excuse to get up
and out of their chairs then there’s one
child hitting his head with a plastic
water bottle no one could sit still and
as a result the teacher couldn’t teach
and she’s not alone veteran teachers
everywhere are reporting changes in the
development of children in the past 30
years
here are three alarming trends number
one issue children are having trouble
paying attention in school one teacher
reports that in the past she was able to
teach the whole classroom as a whole and
Mamie had one or two kids that had
difficulty paying attention now on a
good day at least eight out of those 26
kids are having trouble spatial
awareness is being affected a director
of a preschool for over 40 years tells
me I don’t remember this being an issue
in the past but kids are literally
running into each other and into the
walls at least three times a day a child
will fall out of the chair and onto the
ground kids are getting much more easily
frustrated crying at the drop of the Hat
even in the upper grades so what is
going on why the rise and sensory and
motor issues in the past thirty years as
a pediatric occupational therapists it
is my job to study these trends and try
to make sense of them we did a study in
an elementary school and looked at core
strength and compared this to
standardized norms from nineteen eighty
four my generation then we looked at
normal balanced reactions when we
combined the two scores we found only
one
out of every 12 children today can meet
the averages from the kids of the 1980s
only one out of every 12 why because we
are seriously reducing and restricting
children’s movement opportunities and is
wrecking havoc on their neurological
systems they are going to school with
the bodies less prepared to learn than
ever before in history is becoming
increasingly rare to find children
playing outdoors rolling down hills
spinning in circles just for fun and
climbing trees we’ve taken away Mary
grounds and Teeter totters we shorten
the length of recess from full hour
sessions to a mere 20 minutes if kids
are lucky all of this is affecting their
development to make matters worse we are
further containing children by having
them sit in chairs for hours on end
both in the home and in the school
environment this is due to an
overemphasis on highly structured
activities and academics and don’t get
me started on screen time we need to
allow them to move in all different
directions rapidly and frequently
throughout the day they need to move
that fluid back and forth in the inner
ear to stimulate the hair cells in there
this develops our vestibular system or
our balanced sense this sense is key to
all the other senses if we’re not
stimulating it enough through frequent
movement opportunities it can affect
everything the sense help us helps us to
know where our body is in space to get
from point A to point B safely to stay
in our seat without falling out to
regulate our emotions back down
in and our activity level to support all
six eye muscles to track for reading and
for writing and it turns a reticular
activating system on in the brain to
tune in most children are walking around
with underdeveloped vestibular systems
due to our sedentary lifestyles this is
becoming a big problem for attention how
do we rectify this issue how do we get
more movement opportunities for children
here are three ways to get started we
need to lengthen rhesus times to a full
hour 20 minute recess sessions don’t
work if kids are sitting for too long
they get antsy then we let them outdoors
what happens is when they first start
moving their activity levels actually go
up so now if you let them in in 20
minutes
they’re more hyper than before we need
to allow for a full 45 minutes to an
hour for that to regulate back down
again we need to allow children to move
they need to swing it daringly high they
need to go upside down they need to spin
in circles and fall on the ground they
need to jump off things and yes we do
need to let them climb trees to new
heights now if we consistently keep them
from stimulating the senses and more
extreme ways we become the barrier to
child development we must get them
outdoors the natural environment
challenges yet calms the senses it
organizes the brain this lays the
foundation for learning we need to allow
children to play outdoors at least three
hours every single day this is an order
to reap the many developmental benefits
but also to maintain them so let us
always remember this in order for
children to learn they need to be able
to pay attention in order to pay
attention we must let them move thank
you [Applause]
of ten and eleven year olds and I can
immediately see why the teacher has
called me in six kids are tilting so far
back in their chairs they’re dangerously
close to cracking their heads open
several are slumped over their desks
while others find any excuse to get up
and out of their chairs then there’s one
child hitting his head with a plastic
water bottle no one could sit still and
as a result the teacher couldn’t teach
and she’s not alone veteran teachers
everywhere are reporting changes in the
development of children in the past 30
years
here are three alarming trends number
one issue children are having trouble
paying attention in school one teacher
reports that in the past she was able to
teach the whole classroom as a whole and
Mamie had one or two kids that had
difficulty paying attention now on a
good day at least eight out of those 26
kids are having trouble spatial
awareness is being affected a director
of a preschool for over 40 years tells
me I don’t remember this being an issue
in the past but kids are literally
running into each other and into the
walls at least three times a day a child
will fall out of the chair and onto the
ground kids are getting much more easily
frustrated crying at the drop of the Hat
even in the upper grades so what is
going on why the rise and sensory and
motor issues in the past thirty years as
a pediatric occupational therapists it
is my job to study these trends and try
to make sense of them we did a study in
an elementary school and looked at core
strength and compared this to
standardized norms from nineteen eighty
four my generation then we looked at
normal balanced reactions when we
combined the two scores we found only
one
out of every 12 children today can meet
the averages from the kids of the 1980s
only one out of every 12 why because we
are seriously reducing and restricting
children’s movement opportunities and is
wrecking havoc on their neurological
systems they are going to school with
the bodies less prepared to learn than
ever before in history is becoming
increasingly rare to find children
playing outdoors rolling down hills
spinning in circles just for fun and
climbing trees we’ve taken away Mary
grounds and Teeter totters we shorten
the length of recess from full hour
sessions to a mere 20 minutes if kids
are lucky all of this is affecting their
development to make matters worse we are
further containing children by having
them sit in chairs for hours on end
both in the home and in the school
environment this is due to an
overemphasis on highly structured
activities and academics and don’t get
me started on screen time we need to
allow them to move in all different
directions rapidly and frequently
throughout the day they need to move
that fluid back and forth in the inner
ear to stimulate the hair cells in there
this develops our vestibular system or
our balanced sense this sense is key to
all the other senses if we’re not
stimulating it enough through frequent
movement opportunities it can affect
everything the sense help us helps us to
know where our body is in space to get
from point A to point B safely to stay
in our seat without falling out to
regulate our emotions back down
in and our activity level to support all
six eye muscles to track for reading and
for writing and it turns a reticular
activating system on in the brain to
tune in most children are walking around
with underdeveloped vestibular systems
due to our sedentary lifestyles this is
becoming a big problem for attention how
do we rectify this issue how do we get
more movement opportunities for children
here are three ways to get started we
need to lengthen rhesus times to a full
hour 20 minute recess sessions don’t
work if kids are sitting for too long
they get antsy then we let them outdoors
what happens is when they first start
moving their activity levels actually go
up so now if you let them in in 20
minutes
they’re more hyper than before we need
to allow for a full 45 minutes to an
hour for that to regulate back down
again we need to allow children to move
they need to swing it daringly high they
need to go upside down they need to spin
in circles and fall on the ground they
need to jump off things and yes we do
need to let them climb trees to new
heights now if we consistently keep them
from stimulating the senses and more
extreme ways we become the barrier to
child development we must get them
outdoors the natural environment
challenges yet calms the senses it
organizes the brain this lays the
foundation for learning we need to allow
children to play outdoors at least three
hours every single day this is an order
to reap the many developmental benefits
but also to maintain them so let us
always remember this in order for
children to learn they need to be able
to pay attention in order to pay
attention we must let them move thank
you [Applause]
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