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A Study of Assessments of Children’s Physiological Development
Implications for learning
Charlotte Davies
Year of posting: 2014
Article
Charlotte Davies, Consultant and Director, Fit 2 Learn CIC, Charlotte.Davies@fit-2-learn.com
Daleen Smith, Consultant and Director, Fit 2 Learn CIC, Daleen.Smith@fit-2-learn.com
May 2014
A Study of Assessments of Children’s Physiological Development: implications for learning
Summary
Between December 2013 and May 2014, Fit 2 Learn carried out assessments of 76 children in three schools in order to determine individual levels of physical and cognitive development. This paper describes the findings of those assessments.
The assessments consisted of a variety of exercises to test students’ gross motor skills, mid-line crossing and cognitive skills.
74 of the children were selected by their schools because they were having learning difficulties and were potential participants in the Fit 2 Learn school programme.
One school was asked to select an additional two children that they considered to be progressing well, in order to provide a contrast with the rest of the cohort and to help with staff training.
The assessments revealed that:
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all the children, including the two able ones, were found to have problems with at least one of gross motor skills, mid-line crossing and binocular vision.
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most of the children used coping strategies which, in the long term, will not help them to address the fundamental problems of poor cognitive processing.
Assessments are important because:
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Poor physical skills reduce the quality of inputs to the brain and result in lower levels of cognition.
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It is essential to know the level of a child’s cognitive and physical skills in order to understand the impact of other educational interventions.
Fit 2 Learn is now running 12-month pilot programmes in three schools. The aims of these pilots are to:
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help the students overcome their physiological delays and improve cognitive processing;
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train school staff to work with the students on a daily basis and, in the long term, run the programmes themselves; and
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gather evidence to show that running Cognitive Visual Integration Therapy (CVIT) programmes in schools can improve students’ physiology and lead to significant progress in students’ cognitive skills.
Bibliography
[1] S.Goddard-Blythe, (2012) Assessing Neuromotor Readiness for Learning, Wiley-Blackwell, U.K.
[2] Gilmore, Tim (1999). "The Efficacy of the Tomatis Method for Children with Learning and Communication Disorders: A Meta-Analysis". International Journal of Listening Vol. 13:12
[3] M.M.Scheiman and M.W.Rouse, (2006) Optometric Management of Learning-Related Vision Problems, Mosby Elsevier, U.S.A
[4] Cognitive Visual Integration Therapy - An Assessment
http://www.fit-2-learn.com/further-research/cvit-academic-paper
Link to the full paper: http://www.fit-2-learn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/CVIT-Assessments-Study.pdf
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