ACTIVATE 5,7,9 and 11
"In-classroom exercise programmes and music that improve
agility, balance and co-ordination "
by Val Sabin 2005
Activate 5, 7, 9 and 11 are new programmes from Val Sabin Publications and Training. During several years of research and development Val Sabin has worked with others to produce programmes that children at different levels in Primary Schools can cope with and enjoy.
The Activate with music programmes take whole classes of children through 3-dimensional repetitive movement activities within their personal space. Each activities is to music which enables tempo and rhythm in the movements of the children to be varied through changes in the music.
The children are also having practice in the "active listening" skills of "filtering", "analysing" and "responding" as they move to the music. Activate is best used for approximately 10 minutes first thing in the morning before lessons start formally and for approximately 5 minutes after lunch before afternoon lessons start. The activities and music change progressively every two weeks.
As teachers go through the “Start of Morning” programmes they will notice that the activities are repeated and developed within progressive modules utilising the best movement principles that are possible in the restricted space of a classroom.
The activities are designed to help children become more agile, better co-ordinated, better balanced, and more confident and controlled in movement as their neurological systems also become better, fitter and faster.
Acknowledged influences inspiring the development and direction of the Activate schemes:-
- the pioneering research work of Harold Levinson who in 1973 reported on the significance of deficiencies in the cerebella and vestibular systems found in people with dyslexia.
- the effectiveness of sound therapies arranged by Alfred Tomatis has been kept in mind during the design and selection of our activities to music.
- the pioneering work carried out by Peter Blythe and Sally Goddard-Blythe and the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology on the primitive and postural reflexes, neurological developmental delay and its remediation.
- Winford Dore and the DDAT organization for widely publicising the benefits of a repetitive physical movement therapy in “helping the systems of Dyxlexia, Dyxpraxia, Attention Deficit Disorder, ADHD, learning and behavioural difficulties and under achieving at school”.
- ideas and elements in the Dennison’s “brain gym” approach, various martial arts training movements and other approaches have also been found to be useful.
With around 200 patterns of movement to music carefully placed in progressive and developmental schemes, the Activate programmes go further down the paths pointed to by various researchers. So far the Activate benefits have been excellent but at this time we acknowledge that the benefits are not reported in objective enough ways. We hope that in years to come the very low-cost and, so far, very effective Activate programmes will be objectively and independently researched and reported following social science best practices.
In the meantime the very low entry and maintenance costs of this programme can be commended to schools in line with the other big value for money manuals and training from Val Sabin Physical Education Publications and Training.
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