Improve learning outcomes with critical insights from OT

Teaching the Moving Child
OT Insights That Will Transform Your K–3 Classroom
By Sybil M. Berkey, M.S., OTR, LOT

Because sensorimotor and environmental factors have a profound effect on children's learning, every teacher should know how to weave strategies from occupational therapy into their everyday instruction. This is the guidebook K–3 teachers need to "think like an OT"—and form effective partnerships with OTs in their schools—so all students can achieve their full potential.

A clear and reader-friendly guide from an OT with nearly 35 years of classroom experience, Teaching the Moving Child gives elementary educators the solid foundation of knowledge they need to

• maximize the link between movement and learning
  
  
• meet the needs of students with sensory processing issues by modifying the classroom environment and task demands
  
  
• improve students' writing skills (includes an easy-to-use, five-step process for handwriting instruction)
  
  
• facilitate children's fine motor ability, including using pencils and scissors and drawing lines and shapes
  
  
• optimize learning through strategic use of classroom seating, space, lighting, and visual and auditory stimuli
  
  
• promote imaginative play as essential to every part of the learning process
  
  
• recognize and minimize students' stress, especially during transitions and waiting times
  
  
• decrease restlessness and increase attention through environmental planning strategies
  
  
• collaborate skillfully with OTs to address sensorimotor issues before they become a barrier to learning

To help inform their instruction, teachers will find thorough, research-based explanations of the movement-learning link and the effect of sensory processing issues on school performance and outcomes. Plus they'll get a wide range of simple tips and strategies they can use to support their students' motor skills, task engagement, and management of sensory issues.

As this eye-opening book puts the wisdom of OTs in their teaching toolbox, educators will expand their perspective on how children learn—and break down the preventable obstacles to positive academic and social outcomes.

About the Author
Preface
Acknowledgements

1. Crossing Paths - Foundations of a Collaborative Prevention Model

The Collaborative Framework: Student, Environment, and Task
Theory in Context: Education
Constructivism
Occupational Therapy Theory
School Readiness and Developmentally Appropriate Practice
The Brain: Lab to Classroom
Dynamic Assessment and Dynamic Performance Analysis
Policy: In the Driver's Seat
Caution: Kids and Stress
Final Thoughts

2. Movement, Occupation, and Learning

Investigating the Movement–Learning Link
Confirmation in Neuroscience
Functional Implications
Music and Rhythm: Movement Partners in Learning
Why We Let Them Play
Recess: Is It Still There?
Boys in the Link
Movement and the Classroom Environment
Neurobehavioral Disorders and the Movement–Learning Link
The Observations of an OT
Final Thoughts

3. Little Hands in School

The Motor-Sensory Hand
In-Hand Manipulation
Which Little Hand?
The Pencil in Hand
The Use of Scissors
The Sensory-Motor Hand
When Little Hands Draw
The Nuts and Bolts of Lines and Shapes
When Shapes Come to Life
The Role of Private Speech
Step-by-Step Drawing and Other Strategies
Final Thoughts

4. When Little Hands Write

The Reading-Writing Connection
Shared Linguistic Processes of Reading and Writing
Handwriting in the Writing Process
Handwriting and the Shared Linguistic Processes
Self-Regulation as Defined in the Writing Process
Handwriting and Spelling: Transcription Partners
Handwriting in the Spelling Task
Motor Proficiency and Handwriting
Influence of Grasp Style and Hand Preference on Handwriting
Visual-Motor Integration
The Drawing–Writing Link
Ready for Instruction: Where Do We Start?
A Word About Cursive and Keyboarding
Planning For Success
Final Thoughts: The Prevention Frame of Mind

5. Seven Senses In School

Organizational Strategies of the Brain
Movement, Learning, and the Far and Near Senses
Sensory Processing and the Adaptive Response
Theory, Terminology, and Confirmation of Sensory Processing Disorder
Assessment of Suspected Sensory Processing Disorder
Patterns of Sensory Processing Disorder
The Sensory Diet
Designing a Sensory Diet
The Paraeducator in the Classroom
Final Thoughts

Appendix: Common Classroom Modifications for Sensory Modulation Disorder (SMD): Rationale and Effect on Adaptive Response

6. The Knowledge-Sharing Team in Action

The Changing Relationship Between Teachers and Occupational Therapists
Collaboration at All Levels
Restructuring the Collaborations of the Education Team
Student–Environment–Task and the Movement–Learning Link
"Writing" Without Writing
Assessment and Student–Environment–Task Conclusion

References
Study Guide
Index