Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Research Based Self Regulation Strategies

I was just given an awesome list of strategies to help children attain and maintain attention from the program "How Does Your Engine Run?" It is a great list and I'm excited to put them into practice. However, I was recently in a discussion with a coworker who questioned the validity of these practices and wanted to know if they are research based. A quick look on Google Scholar did not find anything.

Does anyone know anything about them?  I have seen research that discredits brain gym, but not these strategies.

Some of the strategies listed:


  • Asking student to erase or wash the board
  • Chair push ups
  • Manipulating playdough
  • sharpening pencils in a non-electric pencil sharpener
  • Carrying heavy objects- returning library books
  • Rearranging desks
  • Emptying the trash cans, carrying the trash cans so others can put their trash in it
  • Thumb wrestling
  • Chewing gum
  • Eating crunchy food
  • Pulling/chewing on a straw
  • Eating chewy food like licorice
  • Sucking on hard candies
  • Drinking cold water in a sport water bottle with a long straw
  • Using a narrow coffee stirrer as a straw for drinking
  • Allow child to sit in a rocking chair
  • Do neck rolls/head rolls
  • Take a stretch break
  • Run in place to a popular song
From "How Does Your Engine Run, The Alert Program for Self Regulation" developed by Mary Sue Williams and Sherry Shellenberger


What other strategies do you use with your kiddos to help get out energy so they can focus?
Posted by at

1 comment:

turtlemama said...

This probably isn't what you are looking for, but just in case...about five years ago after her son who had multiple health issues was born, my friend, Melissa Wiley (the children's book author) shared a fascinating booklet with me. It was all about "suck, swallow, brain synchrony." She talks about it here: http://melissawiley.typepad.com/bonnyglen/2007/08/from-the-archiv.html

The therapy associated with this ?theory? is most often used for feeding issues with infants, but as I recall, and as Lissa talks about in her post, this connection also plays out throughout our lives in areas of focus or concentration. I have searched everything I can think of to look for the booklet, which would have had cited references in it to support some of the applications you are thinking of using, but no luck.

Along the lines of play-dough, we have also used beeswax during reading time with some success. Much more diligence required to get it malleable than play-dough, but doesn't fall apart either.

Good luck!

Sarah

30 May, 2012

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)