Brain Gym

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Brain Gym is a training program that makes various claims about the benefits of certain exercises and postures in learning. It is widely used in British state schools. It is also offered to both children and adults in parts of the United States and Canada.

The programme is billed as an introductory level program in Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K), a form of applied kinesiology previously known as Edu-Kinesthetics. It was presented by Paul E. Dennison and Gail E. Dennison in their booklets Switching On: A Guide to Edu-Kinesthetics (1980) and Brain Gym – Simple Activities for Whole Brain Learning (1986).^[1] It is based on the premise that all learning begins with movement, also supporting the idea that any learning challenges can be overcome by finding the right movements, to subsequently create new pathways in the brain.

Brain Gym has been particularly criticized by Ben Goldacre of The Guardian's Bad Science pages. He found no supporting evidence for the assertions put forward by Brain Gym proponents in any of the main public research databases.^[2] Upon learning that the program was used at hundreds of UK state schools, he called it a "vast empire of pseudoscience" and went on to dissect parts of their teaching materials, refuting for instance claims that rubbing the chest would stimulate the carotid arteries, that "[p]rocessed foods do not contain water", or that liquids other than water "are processed in the body as food, and do not serve the body's water needs."^[3] Many teachers responded by writing letters in support of Brain Gym. Goldacre reiterated his point that exercises and breaks were good for students, and that he was merely attacking the "the stupid underlying science of Brain Gym".^[4] In a separate column, Philip Beadle sided with him, adding that Goldacre's "argument is with what Dr Barry Beyerstein, a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, describes as 'commercial ventures promoted by hucksters who mislead consumers into thinking that their products are sound applications of scientific knowledge'." ^[5]