thinkythink

Exercise Balls replace Chairs at One Elementary School

I recently read that one elementary school has opted to replace regular chairs with exercise balls. It seems that the school has figured out what a lot of us already knew (especially those of us working from home): the active nature of sitting on the ball helps posture, gives us that added work in our bodies that helps us focus our minds.

I'm kind of amazed that this insight has made it this far. (Team it up with research that chewing gum helps learning and it's like a whole frontier of reality has opened up.)

While it's amazing to see people figuring out that kids are actually helping themselves by wiggling and chewing and the like, I myself am torn. While I work with people to figure out the strategies that help them focus best, I am quite sensitive to noise and motion around me. The right cocktail of background stimulation is great for me... but quiet, occasional noise pulls me off task and thought. And when a friend sits on an exercise ball while we're chatting, their mild background bouncing makes it impossible for me to focus on what they're saying. It can even make me feel queasy- especially when I see it in my peripheral vision like I would if it were the kid sitting next to me. If they were to sit without bouncing, that would be ok. The ironic thing is it is a friend with adult ADHD (with hyperactivity!) who is most likely to constantly bounce on the thing. How would I do in that classroom?

A Word On Not Finishing Reading That Book

Just a word about reading today, because SO many people with ADHD beat up on themselves about not reading a lot, or reading books from start to finish.

I find it intensely weird, but ever true that some things are so easy to read, and I fly through them, but others are like pulling fingernails out (and I still can't remember what I read) . I have come to believe that this is one of those things I have to have faith in; this is just the way things are. It isn't something you did or chose or tried to make happen that way. I think that's what we all get ourselves in a bind and worried about; we think we made it up, because it is so very odd, or that we made it happen, because it doesn't seem to make sense, or that we're just not trying hard enough to read. Reality is, trying harder to read doesn't make reading work any differently.
I'm ripping right through a book of short stories right now because I do like it, but even a fairly short article on something I'm not so into can be painful.

It's okay not to read everything. It doesn't make you a better person. It's just hard for some of us to read things that don't fascinate us. And we might get what we need out of it from just one chapter or a quick skim, because again, it seems to be how we're built. In that case, why bother wasting the agony on it?

Learning styles aren't just for kids.

I just found this post over at the about.com ADD blog. It gives a good summary of some basics about learning styles from Rory Stern. Here's my gut reaction/rant: why is this information framed as being about kids?

I know kids are the ones in school. But we all have learning styles and it gives a lot of leverage to understand them. Making it just about kids must push some button for me- I do know that a lot of clients learn a lot (as do I) when they think about what worked when they were students. So rather than go off about that- let me just recommend that anyone think about the way they learn. The post in question talks about auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles. Do you learn by hearing, by seeing, or by doing/feeling physically?

But let me ask it a different way:
Which classes worked for you? Which didn't?
What aspects of those classes' material/teaching style worked or didn't?
When you studied, how did you study best?

And at that point I want you to drop the notion of having one style. The post does say these aren't the only learning styles... so let me broaden it for you. To be fair, this isn't just learning style, but also learning environment, but I think that's equally important.

For example, I read theory best while listening to loud music.
I listen best while doodling.

I learn well kinesthetically, like learning a dance step by doing it, but only in conjunction with reading about it or hearing it described several times. Showing me does nothing.

And not learning- but more a concentration style - I cook best while listening to good radio programs (NPR et al)

Now consider this: if you understand that YOU learn best in certain ways, you'll understand this in your kid, too.