By Dr. Jennifer Dustow, PHD
In 2005 Jennifer Dustow conducted her doctorial thesis on specific intentional movement in a special needs pre-school classroom. Nine special-needs students attending a public elementary school participated and all showed a significant decrease in off-task behaviors on the days 5 minutes of bilateral exercises were conducted vs the days they were not.
The study was repeated with 20 public preschool classrooms in March/April of 2007. A total of 88 students participated; all diagnosed in the Autism Spectrum. Off task behaviors include: aggression; eloping; flopping; inappropriate talking; non-focus; and noncompliance. A strong statistical significance in the decrease of off task behaviors was found for all six hypotheses with 5 minutes of bilateral Brain Gym exercises.
