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The Learning Doctor has Brain-based Learning Strategies
for Teachers and Parents |
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Listen here to this month's feature article with
Dr. MaryJo Wagner, The Learning Doctor.
The article's called
"What to do When Kids Go off their
Meds: Brain-based Learning
Strategies
for ADD/ADHD (and Everybody Else too)
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A Newsletter that
Helps You Help Your Children
Brain-based Learning Resources
for Teachers, Parents and Anyone who Works
with Kids
Vol.
1. No. 2 September 2006
"The Back-to-School Issue"
published and edited by Dr. MaryJo Wagner
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Happy Back
to School! |
Workshop and TeleChat
Schedule:
Brain Gym Basics, Brain Gym 101, and a one-day Intro to
Brain Gym for Parents and Teachers
Feature Article:
What to do When Kids Go off their
Meds:
Brain-based Learning Strategies for ADD/ADHD (and Everybody Else
too)
Just for Grownups: Do What the Kids Do
Brain Quiz: You could win the prize this
month
Readers tips and Questions: "How can I get
Brandon to Set a Learning Goal?"
Resources You Can use: Additude Magazine
Web Site Not to Miss: ADDitude on-line
Don't Forget:
Brain Gym Basics TeleChats Coming in September
Please add
mjw@mjwagner.com to your white list or address book in your
e-mail program so you won't have trouble getting future issues
of Brain Boosters for Your Kids.
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Note from The Learning Doctor |
Hi:
My summer flurry of
teaching Brain Gym®
classes is over. I'm back home high
in the Colorado Rockies. From my office
window I'm watching the aspen begin to turn
golden and wondering how soon we'll see snow
on top of Chair Mountain. It's right in my back
yard.
Last week when I was in town, all the
school buses were lined up
for that first day
of school.  I
ventured into
the office supply store for a new printer cartridge and
found cartridges buried behind
stacks of crayons and markers,
notebooks, pencils, fun things for lockers,
and all the other things
kids need for success in school.
My son, Stephen, used to tease me that he
could talk me into
anything in the way of school supplies, even
though I usually said "no"
to buying other stuff he thought he needed.
I always love the beginning and
opportunities of a new school year. Time for a
fresh start and trying new learning strategies.
I suggest planning ahead and starting to use
brain-based learning strategies that you'll
need when kids are taken off their ADD/ADHD
medications. The tips I'm offering you in
this month's newsletter work for kids
labeled ADD/ADHD and for everybody else
too--even you and me. And you'll find out
why I'm predicting that some kids may not be
taking Ritalin much longer.
And I also suggest learning Brain
Gym®. It's simply
the best way I know for kids to learn anything
quickly and easily. It's my favorite brain-based
learning strategy.
Works for teachers and parents
all the time. I've used a couple of Brain
Gym activities this afternoon just writing
your newsletter.
You probably already know that Brain Gym
raises tests scores, improves reading and
math skills, even helps with behavior
challenges. Maybe you've wanted to take a
class but can't find the time in your
schedule or money in your budget.
Now there's a
solution. It's the Brain Gym Basics TeleChat.
No, it doesn't take the place of the 3-day
Brain Gym 101 or a one day teacher
in-service. But when you just can't get to a
class, you probably can get to a telephone.
That's right.
All you need is a phone to take Brain Gym
Basics. Starts September 19.
You'll learn enough Brain Gym to get
immediate results after just the first hour
of the TeleChats.
Register today.
Enrollment is limited.
Teachers, get a free audio recording of
one Brain Gym activity that you can use
in your class today and more information
about the Brain Gym Basics TeleChats at
www.brain-based-learning.com/BrainGymTeleChatforTeachers.htm
Parents, get a free audio recording
of one Brain Gym activity that you can
use
at home with your kids, even your spouse,
and more information about the Brain
Gym Basics TeleChats at
www.brain-based-learning.com/BrainGymTeleChatforParents.htm
Now check out this
month's feature article:
"What to
do When Kids Go Off Their Meds"
MaryJo
P.S. Teachers,
you can get graduate professional
development credit from the University of
Colorado for salary upgrade and
recertification with the Brain Gym Basics
TeleChats.
You don't have to live in Colorado to get
this credit.
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Workshop and
TeleChat Schedule |
Brain
Gym Basics TeleChats begin Sept. 19 at 6 pm
(Mountain time)
Information about the TeleChats for teachers
is at
www.brain-based-learning.com/BrainGymTeleChatforTeachers.htm
Information for
parents at
www.brain-based-learning.com/BrainGymTeleChatforParents.htm
Brain Gym
101, Kremmling, Colorado, October 20-22
Introduction to Brain Gym for Teachers
and Parents, Manitou Springs, CO, Nov. 4
Brain Gym 101, Fort Collins, Colorado (Oct.
or Nov. date to be announced)
To register for a Brain Gym class and get
more information, go to
www.BrainGymClasses.com.
Or take a Brain Gym class
FREE. For more
information, go to
http://www.braingymclasses.com/FreeBrainGym.htm
It's not too early to
plan ahead for next summer. Come on out to
Colorado for your vacation and take in a
Brain Gym class while you're here
Brain Gym
101, Evergreen, Colorado, June 25-27, 2007
Brain Gym 101, Basalt, Colorado, July 16-18,
2007
Brain Gym 101, Estes Park, Colorado, July
24-26, 2007
Brain Gym 101, Castle Rock, Colorado, August
7-9
Get more information on these classes and
ideas for fun things to do in Colorado during the summer at
www.BrainGymClasses.com
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What to do When Kids Go off their Meds:
Brain-based Learning Strategies for ADD/ADHD
(and Everybody Else too)
Dr.
MaryJo Wagner
Summary:
Check out strategies to
help hyperactive kids when parents and doctors take
children off
stimulant drugs used to control ADD/ADHD. (A likely
scenario given the recent publicity about
heart-related problems linked to Ritalin.) And these
strategies work for everybody.
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Steven Nissen, M.D, a prominent Cleveland Ohio
Cardiologist recently prodded the
FDA’s Advisory committee to put a black box warning
on Ritalin. Warning of
potential heart danger. Why? From 1999 to 2003,
81deaths and 54 nonfatal
cardiovascular events such as heart attacks have
possible links to Ritalin and
similar drugs. During the same period 78 million
prescriptions were written for
children up to the age of 18. Today two million
kids a month take these drugs.
These are startling statistics to put it mildly!
Now before I go any further with this story, please
do not take a child off
their ADD medication or suggest to a parent that
such should be done. I am
not a medical doctor. I do not prescribe. If you
want to look into lowering
a dosage or stopping a child’s medications, you must
talk to a doctor.
What does this story mean in terms of ADD behavior
at home and in the
classroom? I predict that anxious parents and
doctors are going to start taking
kids off their meds. Now what are we going do with 2
million hyperactive kids!
For years, we haven’t had to take
responsibility for helping these kids
or keeping ourselves from going crazy trying to keep
some kind of order
in the classroom and at home. The drugs did it for
us. Now we may be
on our own.
Here are ten brain-based learning suggestions to
help you and your kids cope
(and you don't have to being going off stimulant
medication to benefit):
1. Stop eating sugar including
drinking fruit juice. Cut down on bread
and pasta, esp. that made with white, processed
flour.
2. Limit TV and video games,
especially TV and games that have lots of
flashing lights.
3. Help them get organized. Keep a
schedule and be consistent.
4. Stop telling them to sit
still. Their ability to do so is limited.
Furthermore,
movement is essential to learning. It’s a major
brain-based learning
strategy. Sitting still for
long periods of time is not a brain-based learning
strategy.
5. Practice deep breathing. Kids
can even be taught a simple form of
meditation which is nothing more than watching
one’s breath. Even
getting more oxygen to the brain is a
brain-based learning technique.
6. Cross right ankle over left and
then give yourself a hug by crossing
arms across the body, left over right. Sit in this
position for 2-3 minutes.
Reduces the stress in the central nervous system.
Try it yourself.
7. Decrease visual distractions in
children’s rooms and at school. Fewer
pictures and mobiles. Less stuff.
8. Exercise, play, run, skip,
insist on recess, esp. “free” recess where kids
choose what to do versus a structured game.
9. Do Brain Gym® (See
www.braingymclasses.com) Not a few kids have
gone
off their meds or at least had doses reduced by
doing Brain Gym. Another
very effective brain-based learning strategy.
10. Eat
more foods with Omega-3 fatty acids like wild
salmon, sardines,
tuna flaxseed, flaxseed oil. Take fish-oil
supplements. (Find tuna without
mercury. Check your health food store.)
Omega-3 fatty acids increase
the production of dopamine just as Ritalin and
other stimulant drugs do.
Brain-based learning includes what we feed our
brains and how that food
affects the brain's neurotransmitters.
That's it. Nothing very complicated or difficult.
You and your kids can do these
brain-based learning activities at school and at
home.
© MaryJo Wagner, 2006
MaryJo
Wagner, Ph.D.
The Learning Doctor
"Helping You Help Kids Learn"
mjw@mjwagner.com
www.BrainGymClasses.com
www.brain-based-learning.com
Sign up today for the Brain Boosters newsletter to
help your kids learn
faster and easier and at
www.BrainBoostersForYourKids.com
* * *
Duplicate the article. Distribute the article to
parents. Pass it around to teachers.
Got a school or PTA newsletter or e-zine? Your own
parent, teacher, or learning Web site? A community
publication? You're welcome to reprint this article.
Just print the whole article with my name under the
title and my contact information at the bottom. When
the report is published, please send me a copy or
the url to find it on the Web.
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What works for
kids, works for grownups. Just reread the ten tips
in the feature article above and do them all. Do them with your
kids. Do them with your
honey.
Do them by yourself. Just do them!
That's right. Stop eating sugar. Start eating Salmon. Limit TV.
Get
organized. Practice deep breathing. Get up and move around.
Cross your right ankle over left while giving yourself a big
hug.
Get rid of all that junk--a gazillion pictures and
dozens of doodads
Friends Do Brain Gym
everywhere are confusing to the brain.
Play.
Move. Do Brain Gym.
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 Congratulations
to Bev Day of Littleton, Colorado who
correctly answered last month's Brain Quiz.
She's right that of all the exercises
listed, hula hoops do the most for the brain
because they help kids cross the center
mid-line to access both the left and right
sides of the brain.
September Quiz:
Which of the
following drinks is best for the brain and
why? Whole milk, orange juice, water, 2
percent milk, or soy milk.
The first reader who e-mails me the correct
answer can take any 3-hour
brain-based-learning TeleChat FREE from now
through December 31. The e-mail
address for your answer to the Brain Quiz is
mjw@mjwagner.com
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Readers Tips
and Questions |
Judy, a Mom
in Des Moines, wants to know if setting
goals is good for the brain and how to set a
learning goal for her son Brandon because
the only goal he wants to set is for soccer.
Yes, setting a goal and repeating it helps
the brain learn a pattern. But you can't set
a goal for a child or a class and you can't
make that child or class set a goal if they
aren't interested.
Teachers and parents can suggest goals but
kids must have an internal motivation for
their goal. They must set their own goals.
You might want to work on finding ways to
motivate Brandon toward a learning goal.
Let's say you'd like him to improve his
reading skills but he could care less.
Perhaps you can work on a reading goal by
motivating him with books about soccer and
famous soccer players.
Find something a child is passionate about
and link that to a learning goal. Works at
home and works in the classroom.
Got a tip or a
a brain-based learning success story? A Question? E-mail them to me at
mjw@mjwagner.com Maybe your
question or tip will be in the next issue. I love to hear
from you.
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Sometimes I
find a resource that I like a lot even
though I don't agree with all of it. That's
the case with the magazine ADDitude.
I just gave you ten tips in the newsletter.
And ADDitude has lots more terrific quick
tips for managing ADD/ADHD at home, at
school, with kids, and even with adults. Most of the strategies are effective with all kids,
whether they're labeled ADD or not.
As you know, I'm always pushing movement as
one of the best
brain-based learning
strategies out there, especially for
hyperactive
kids who have trouble
concentrating and staying on task.
One of the articles in this month's issue of ADDitude
talks about the importance of
movement in helping children calm down and
focus. I just love it when the "experts" agree
with me! :)
I usually find several juicy tidbits in
every issue even though the emphasis on
drugs like Ritalin as a first choice for
managing behavior is annoying. Not
something I agree with at all. If you've got
doubts about stimulant drugs, go back and
read this month's feature article.
ADDitude has an informative, down-to-earth
monthly feature by Ned Hallowell, M.D. who
has written some of the best books on ADD,
including "Driven to Distraction."
So take a look
at this magazine the next time you're at the
library or a good book store.
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ADDitude
has a comprehensive Web site that includes
back issues. Lots of useable information
here for parents and teachers.
As I said
before, just ignore the in-your-face drug
ads and assumptions that everybody is on or
needs to be on stimulant drugs. You'll find ADDitude on-line at
http://www.additudemag.com/
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© 2006 MaryJo Wagner, Ph.D.
the mjwagner company * 970-963-4077
334 Meadow Lane * Marble, Colorado 81623
Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of
the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, Ventura, CA
www.BrainGym.org
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