Dear Julia,
The Brain Gym(R) program is an educational program that has some use in the area of mental health when utilized in conjunction with proper medical and psychological professional services. It is a sensory-motor development program that some of us have found to be helpful with populations identified as exhibiting traits that might be classified as gifted and talented, typical, learning disability, and MR/DD among others. Many students in all of these populations experience sensory-motor integration challenges. When these challenges are addressed students appear to exhibit some improvements in many areas including sensory-motor skills necessary for academic activities. The students are not cured of anything and usually remain in the same classification. I have known of some students who were classified as high DH who were reclassified as ld after doing Brain Gym activities, though this happens in this population sometimes anyway.
I believe the most common interface of the Brain Gym work with the public is probably in the regular classroom where a teacher may use a few of the very basic exercises with their students that they learned at a short inservice. I have no statistics on this only experience and my perception. Some special ed. teachers and regular ed. teachers have sought out further training. The more advanced work including the balance and repatterning educational processes are usually done one on one so these teachers work with their students in free time or it is done in private sessions.
I only know of one school system that promotes itself as providing Brain Gym activites, that is Summit Academy, a charter school system that started here in Ohio. There may be more. I know of other Brain Gym instructors who have done extensive inservices for similar programs. Some school districts have provided Brain Gym inservices for their teachers, just as they do with many other programs, and some have paid for teachers to take further training, just as they have done with many other programs. I have had administrators tell me and other persons when asked if there are some teachers utilizing some of the work in their classrooms and sometimes say if they think it is useful in those situations. However with many programs that may or may not have peer reviewed journal articles about their research, school districts provide training to their teachers in programs the teachers find useful without necessarily endorsing the program.
I have emailed a friend in California who might know whether Brain Gym activities are being used with California's Regional Center clients anywhere. I have not heard back from him yet. I will keep you posted on this. If you have further questions please ask.
Best Wishes,
Dave Saunders
