A Sampling of Supporting Research for

The CLIME® Program

EduCLIME, LLC

The CLIME® Program is a systematic collection of interventions for improving motor skill development, including those related to attention, memory and organization. The strategies and activities are effective, research-based interventions which draw upon methods used by professionals in general and special education, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and adapted physical education.

The following is a sampling of the research supporting a variety of The CLIME® Program interventions.

Movement

 Movement activities are essential to learning, attention, organization and motor development. Movement and exercise stimulate brain cell growth, neural connections and brain function. The CLIME® Program provides such movement activities that teachers can structure throughout the school day to maximize learning, attention, organization and motor development.

Supporting Research:

Jean Pierre Changeux, from the Pasteur Institute in Paris and researcher Christopher Henderson, from Developmental Biology Institute in Marseilles discovered that simple muscle movements stimulate axon growth. Thus, they found that more active individuals have more axons. Conversely, less active individuals have less axons. The number of axons relates directly to the level of intelligence. (1997)

In a University of Illinois study, William Greenough found rats, which exercised, had more capillaries around their neurons and greater numbers of neuron connections than sedentary rats. (1991,1992).

"Children experiencing lapses in motor skills may have problems with cursive writing, playing musical instruments, guiding scissors or holding a pencil. These lapses may distract the brain from interpreting new information."-Dr. Mel Levine

Kinesthetic Learning

 Use of multi-sensory, kinesthetic teaching strategies allows for maximum learning for most students. Many of The CLIME® Program's activities utilize kinesthetic learning. EduCLIME's Living Letters® Handwriting Program utilizes this technique by reinforcing letter formation through kinesthetic strategies, color and brain-engaging techniques.

Supporting Research:

"Tseng and Cermak (1993) suggest that visual perception show little relationship to handwriting, whereas kinesthesia, visual-motor integration, and motor planning appear to be more closely related to handwriting."

"Inadequate tactile perception also interferes with the feedback that is normally used to precisely guide motor tasks such as writing with a pencil, manipulating a spoon, or holding a piece of paper with one hand while cutting with the other.

Transitions

The CLIME® Program understands that children, particularly those with attention difficulties, have difficulty with transitions. Transition time is an optimal time to infuse motor activities. Our exercises provide the teacher and students with transition activities that activate the brain, improve motor skills and allow for better classroom organization.

Supporting Research:

Transition time is challenging for students with ADHD (Carbone, 2001), behavior difficulties (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995) and those with autism spectrum disorder (Winterman & Sapina, 2002).

Poorly structured transitions can result in wasted educational time and student misbehavior. (Sprick, Garrison and Howard, 1998).

Attention

The CLIME® Program offers assistance for students with attention difficulties through movement and brain-engaging learning experiences.   

Supporting Research:

Max Vercruyssen, Ph.D. at University of Southern California studied the effect of blood flow and oxygen on learning. He found that having the participants stand, rather than sit, increased their heart rate an average of ten beats per minute. This results in more blood and oxygen (10 to 15%) to the brain, increased neural activity and attention. He deduced that information-processing speed increased 5 to 20 %.

Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., discusses how activation of the vestibular system through cross-lateral movements keeps the brain alert. Smart Moves, Atlanta, Georgia: Great Ocean Publishers.

Three factors that strongly influence attention are meaning, emotion and movement as discussed in Patricia Wolfe's book, Brain Matters, Translating Research into Classroom Practice, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Success and Self Esteem

Children with developed motor skills are better able to succeed in the classroom and, therefore, have higher self-esteem. The CLIME® Program supports the building of important fundamental motor skills in a fun, non-threatening way. Thus, allowing children to be successful in activities and providing the motivation to go further.

Supporting Research:

"...children who master physical skills tend to exhibit high self-esteem." (Short-Degraff, 1988)

"...the stronger the emotion connected with an experience, the stronger the memory of that experience....when we are able to add emotional input into learning experiences to make them more meaningful and exciting. ...if emotion is too strong (for example, the situation is perceived by the learner to be threatening), then learning is decreased." Pat Wolfe, What Do We Know from Brain Research?, Educational Leadership, Nov. 98, Vol. 56, no.3.

educlime@san.rr.com