| Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Carla Hannaford |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Psychology; Learning |
| Publisher | Great River Books |
| Publication date | 2nd edition, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 237 p. |
| ISBN | 0-915556-37-5 |
| OCLC Number | 32820701 |
| Dewey Decimal | 612.8 20 |
| LC Classification | QP408 .H36 1995 |
The book Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head was written in 1995 by neurophysiologist and educator Carla Hannaford (revised and enlarged second edition published 2005), and includes an introduction by internationally recognized scientist Candace Pert, whose work on neuropeptides has revolutionized the scientific view of the mind/body connection.[1]
In Smart Moves, Dr. Hannaford looks at the body's role in thinking and learning, supporting her views with scientific research from child development, physiology, and neuroscience.[2][3] Hannaford examines the ways that sensorimotor experiences effect short- and long-term memory, from infancy through adulthood, and presents the mounting scientific evidence that movement is crucial to learning.
In her book, Hannaford offers clear alternatives to enhance learning ability. Included in the list are: de-emphasizing rote learning; more experiential, active instruction; less labeling of learning disabilities; more physical movement; more personal expression through arts, sports and music; less prescribing of Ritalin and other drugs whose long term effects are unknown. She also details the roles in learning played by various areas of the brain, and examines the interplay of brain, body, and environment.
Hannaford is an advocate of movement and play in learning, discussing the importance of sensorimotor development (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic readiness) to the learning process. She provides several case examples of children whose learning improved remarkably through use of the Brain Gym(R) activities, as well as including her own research done with Brain Gym.[4][5]
In Smart Moves, Carla Hannaford describes in depth how emotions and the physiological stress reaction can affect the normal everyday lives of both children and adults. She invents the term SOSOH (Stressed Out, Survival-Oriented Humans) for people with learning disabilities or attention difficulties. She argues that ADD, ADHD, and all other learning problems are related to stress, as stress produces survival-oriented behavior while inhibiting the learning process.
Smart Moves puts forward simple and common sense approaches to support learning, including:
Carla Hannaford is also the author of The Dominance Factor: How Knowing Your Dominant Eye, Ear, Brain, Hand, & Foot Can Improve Your Learning (1997), Awakening the Child Heart: Handbook for the Global Parenting (2002), and Playing in the Unified Field: Raising and Becoming Conscious, Creative Human Beings (2010). An award winning science teacher and an internationally recognized educational consultant, Hannaford has presented more than seven hundred lectures and workshops in thirty countries over the past seventeen years. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages.