Environmental Enrichment: Interventions and Interpretations

1
Environmental Enrichment Interventions and
Interpretations

• Andrew Brown
• Psy328
• March 15, 2005

2
Aims and Objectives

• Reinforce awareness that environment and biology
  interact in development
• Emphasize the importance of long-term follow-ups
  and scientific controlled investigations
• Consider scientific vs pseudoscientific
  interventions

3
Ramey Ramey (1998)

• Early years programmes must attempt to alter
  rate of cognitive development if genuine catch-up
  is to occur
• little is known about how to accelerate
  cognitive development beyond normative or typical
  rates

4
Seven Principles of Successful Early Intervention
Programs (Ramey Ramey, 1998)

• Timing
• Intensity
• Direct provision of learning experiences
• Breadth
• Recognition of individual differences
• Environmental maintenance of development
• Cultural appropriateness and relevance of
  intervention strategies

5
Science Vs Pseudoscience (Beyerstein, 1995)

• Pseudoscience
• tries to appropriate prestige of
• science
• lacks rigorous controls
• secrecy/role of experts / gurus
• reliance on anecdotal evidence
• Their explanations are usually
• contradicted by well-established
• scientific knowledge
• their own findings rarely, if ever,
• withstand scrutiny by competent
• critics

• Science
• experiments
• controlled conditions
• public accessibility
• peer accountability
• gold standard RCT
• expert opinion a low grade of evidence
• anecdotes not acceptable as evidence the
  plural of anecdote is not data

6

• Pseudotechnology commercial ventures promoted
  by hucksters who mislead consumers into thinking
  that their products are sound applications of
  scientific knowledge any supporting research
  done by these distributors or their associates
  will be found to be seriously flawed
  (Beyerstein, 1995)
• http//www.sfu.ca/beyerste/research/articles/02Sc
  iencevsPseudoscience.pdf
• http//skepdic.com/

7
Brain Gym

• Drinking water
• Simple physical exercises
• Pseudoscientific explanation

8
(No Transcript)
9
www.braingym.org What is Brain Gym ?
Brain Gym is an educational, movement based programme which uses simple movements to integrate the whole brain, senses and body, preparing the person with the physical skills they need to learn effectively. It can be used to improve a wide range of learning, attention and behaviour skills. Educational Kinesiology and Brain Gym are the result of many years of research into learning and brain function by an educationalist, Dr Paul Dennison PhD, from the United States. It is now used in over 45 countries and is recognised as a safe, effective and innovative educational and self-development tool.
10

• www.braingym.org
• Who does it help?
• Originally created to help children and adults
  with learning challenges, for example dyslexia,
  dyspraxia and ADHD, Brain Gym is now used to
  improve functioning and life quality by people
  from all walks of life from education to the
  arts, business, healthcare, sport and personal
  development. The movements can be safely used by
  people of almost any age and mobility, from
  babies upwards.

11
Rationale

• Movement improves learning
• Much of the movement focuses on improving
  communication between hemispheres
• Specific neurophysiological explanations given
• Water consumption also aids this process

12
(No Transcript)
13
Brain Gym in UK schools

• 1700 teachers trained by one body (Osiris)
• Widely in use in Wakefield LEA
• In use in over 40 countries
• 43 Brain Gym consultants in the UK (to complete
  all BG courses costs around 3,000)

14

• Guiding concepts for efficacy trials (Ramey and
  Ramey, 2004)
• Recruitment from prespecified populations
• Random assignment to treatment and control groups
• Application and documentation of a replicable
  compound of services
• Minimization of attrition
• Independent assessment of outcomes by researches
  blinded to participants condition

15

• Guiding concepts for efficacy trials (Ramey and
  Ramey, 2004)
• Pre-planned statistical analysis of hypothesized
  outcomes
• Replication of key findings in independent
  samples
• Publication in peer reviewed journals
• Dissemination of findings to key policy makers
  following peer-reviewed publication

16
Brain Gym research pack

• Summaries of evidence, most in the Brain Gym
  Journal
• 10 expts, 9 from BGJ, 1 from Perceptual and motor
  skills (impact factor 0.3)
• 21 quasi expts (most from BGJ)
• 11 qualitative reports

17
Brain Gym research pack

• Populations included in the research pack
• ADHD
• Simple response times (only peer reviewed paper)
• Improves learning and memory in adults
• learning disabled children
• Emotional handicaps
• Foetal alcohol syndrome
• Improves hearing
• Athletes
• Alzheimers patients
• Insurance salesmen

18
Brain Gym teachers handbook (1989 still in use)

• There are no lazy, withdrawn or aggressive
  children, only children denied the ability to
  learn in a way that is natural to them

19
(No Transcript)
20
Movements to improve laterality
21
(No Transcript)
22
hook-ups shift electrical energy from the
survival centres in the hindbrain to the
reasoning centres in the midbrain and neocortex,
thus activating hemispheric integration the
tongue pressing into the roof of the mouth
stimulates the limbic system for emotional
processing in concert with more refined reasoning
in the frontal lobes
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
Why the popularity ?

• Offers a very quick, relatively cheap, easy fix
  to almost any ailment
• Contains enough (incorrect or inappropriate)
  science to go unquestioned by teachers
• Trappings of scientific respectability Brain
  metaphors, the PhD effect
• Probably works !
• Fun, running around before doing work,
• special components eg being allowed to drink in
  class,
• huge potential for expectancy and placebo effects

26
Conclusions

• Programs like Head Start are based on the
  assumption that it is possible to modify the
  trajectory of a childs intellectual development
• Enrichment programs are most effective when they
  are intensive and start early, but they will only
  be effective within the limits of biology
• Wild claims are likely to surface whenever
  proven empirical techniques offer no quick and
  easy route to a desirable end if something
  sounds too good to be true, it probably is
  (Beyerstein, 1995)
• In an ideal world, we would be teaching children
  enough science in school that they were able to
  stand up to a teacher who was spouting this kind
  of rubbish (Ben Goldacre, the Guardians Bad
  Science column, 2003)