Photo by Gabby Orcutt on Unsplash
During these times of COVID-19, everyone has become a bit restless. It is tempting to reach for our phones or another distraction when trying to complete our summer classes. Online meetings are less engaging, and it is easy to zone out and let your mind wander to what you will eat for dinner. Just from my own experience and talking with others, it seems like everyone’s attention span is at an all-time low, especially for kids.
I think it is fair to say those most impacted by lowered attention spans are working parents with children. Children are naturally restless and distracted. Being unable to send children to daycare, school, or summer camp has proven to be very stressful for parents trying to work from home.
These stresses can affect every member of the house, making everyone tense and irritable with headaches and poor sleep.
I would like to suggest you and your kids stay focused on the BrainDance.
What is the BrainDance?
The BrainDance is a simple exercise routine developed by Anne Green Gilbert based on the developmental movements of infants. Gilbert’s theory is that by daily or weekly cycling through your earliest physical experiences, of which you built all your later experiences upon, you will strengthen weak or weakening areas in your brain. According to The Creative Dance Center, this strengthening can slow dementia, decrease depression through the release of serotonin and dopamine, aid in motor skills, and improve memory and focus.
For this discussion specifically, there was an empirical study done that found that in a classroom of forty students the BrainDance significantly improved focus, use of senses, multiple senses, and restlessness (Chiang & Griego, 2017). The BrainDance exercise improves focus and restless kids. Hopefully, the BrainDance can help the working parent have fewer interruptions by helping their kids focus on playing with toys for just a few minutes longer.
How Do You Do the BrainDance?
The BrainDance can be done sitting, standing, or lying down, and it can travel, remain stationary, use props or music. The dance is fully customizable to your physical abilities, interests, and space. The Creative Dance Center website has resources on different adaptations you can do. The BrainDance can be as long as you need it to be, but it can be practiced in 5-10 minutes. Although how the dance is done can vary, there are eight components to it:
1. Breath
This is the first physical experience that a baby has outside of the womb that engages the brain. To start, take a few deep breaths, breathing from your belly rather than with your shoulders.
2. Tactile
This stimulation is first felt through skin-to-skin contact in a baby. For the exercise, brush, pat and gently shake your arms, legs, stomach, and face.
3. Core Distal
When a baby stretches out from the fetal position and returns back into position, core distal movement is first engaged. Continuing on, you do just that – you stretch out as far as you can and then come into the smallest position, repeating this a few times.
4. Head Tail
This is first engaged when a baby learns to lift its head. For the exercise, explore the varying directions of the head and pelvis moving together. A great practice for head-tail is to do the yoga position of cat-cow by arching and curving your back.
5. Upper Lower
As a baby learns to push itself up with its arms and legs, this foundational movement is first learned. For the exercise, first, move your upper body without moving your lower body and then move your lower body without moving your upper body. During this stage, babies also develop near and far sight, so explore your focus and reach as you move.
6. Body Side
As a baby learns to crawl, they learn to move one side of their body at a time, which is exactly what this step in the exercise is. Move the right side of your body without moving the left and vice versa.
7. Cross Lateral
If the baby belly-crawls, they will learn the cross-lateral movement. One of the easiest ways to do this is to stand in an ‘X’ then take one hand and bend down to touch your opposite foot. If you are an adult looking to strengthen your obliques, many abdominal exercises could be included in this stage of the BrainDance.
8. Vestibular
This stage is constant throughout the infant’s life through rolling, crawling, walking, and falling. Finally, to complete the BrainDance, try and make yourself dizzy. Shake your head or spin in circles. Let loose! This step is important for us to learn muscular balance when we are thrown off of our center. Working on vestibular movements might help your accident-prone toddlers (or self) injure themselves a bit less.
