Last night, I went to a Parents Education Network presentation by John Ratey, author of the recently released Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. I came away quite impressed with the correlation demonstrated by research that connects exercise to cognition, behavor, motivation and focus. I also was inspired to brainstorm ways to incorporate more movement into my sessions with children. Ratey pointed out that human evolution owes a great deal to the need to move, and that the bigger the brain animals have, the more they need to play (not video games, but physical, rough-and-tumble play). Thanks to the internet, a similar presentation can be watched on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmc0ERKfjP0.
Coincidentally, I'm reading Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong's Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education. Vygotky's work really tied in to the importance of play and physical interaction with caregivers and peers to cognitive development. In conjunction with that idea, Ratey mentioned a book which I would like to read: Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown.
Updating this on November 18 to add on "Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Anxious" from The New York Times Well Blog.
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