Customer Reviews

Physical Activities for Improving Children's Learning and Behavior

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An absolute must for anyone involved in pre- and foundation phase education. Cheatum gives a concise and clear understanding of how the human mind is formed though movement and how easy to do activities can help the child attain optimal learning readiness.

I really enjoyed this book. The authors know how to explain their material without using a lot of technical jargon. If you have read and enjoyed "The Out of Sync Child", I would recommend this as Part 2. It goes a little more in-depth and has lots of great ideas for activities. Very Smart!

This book has many MANY practical ideas for improving a child's balance and coordination and body awareness and, well, you can "Look Inside!" and read the table of contents.

I just got the book from the library and am reading it. It is very accessible for people like me who know nothing about physical therapy. I haven't tried any of the activities on my kids yet. Nor have I tried them on myself, for that matter... Lord knows I could use some balance and coordination therapy. I don't know if this stuff works, but I can assume it does since the authors are experts with years of experience. Their premise seems a little bogus to me: that some kids haven't grown out of infantile reflexes, so they have to get down in infantile stances and start all over. But again, I don't know anything about it.

I give the book four stars because it is very accessible and has many practical, inexpensive activities.

I give it only four stars because the second chapter came very close to offending me. The author implies (and sometimes overtly states) that poor motor development is the result of parental neglect or a lack of stimulating opportunities. Sometimes, or even often, that is probably true. But I would guess there are plenty of people who are just genetically klutzy. And then there autistic children who are likely to find one repetitive activity that stimulates them and fixate on that--poor motor skills there are not a result of parental neglect, but of the child's disinterest in trying whatever opportunities the parent provides. In short, I didn't find it helpful to be blamed for the problem. But since most of the book focuses on remedying the problem, I think it will be a useful resource.

This is an extremely dry wandering text. There is no conciseness and very little "How To" material in this book. The book wanders through a laundry list of what-ifs and anecdotes without offering actionable ideas. I was very disappointed by this book. Anyone who is busy will want to look for a different book, reserving this one as a library reference.

This book gives practical rehabilitation exercises that parents or teachers can use to help rehabilitate kids with retained primitive reflexes and developmental delays. It's excellent for anyone - medical or otherwise. This is a good one for teachers in fact, to help them to understand how motor skills and learning are linked.