HOW ARE YOU SUPPORTING EDUCATION THIS SCHOOL YEAR?

Being ready for reading, ready for writing and even ready for focusing on the day’s curriculum involves key brain connections established from an early age. A few weeks in, if you’ve noticed a child who struggles to sit at their desk or pay attention to their teacher, there may be primitive reflexes that require strengthening, or integration.

Thrive hosts a two-day School Readiness workshop that not only digs into the fundamentals of reflex integration, but also unpacks those brain connections critical to learning. Rhythmic movement training, which strengthens and supports those pathways in the body, can help improve stress release, empower speech and social-emotional skill building and address behavioral challenges. 

The course, open to therapists, teachers and caretakers alike, explores specific reflexes applied in a classroom setting. Connections that impact posture, positioning of hands and feet in gross and fine motor activities as well as reflexes for emotional stability will be explored in detail. Importantly, we will also explore why unintegrated reflexes are often a major factor in students experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties, including sensory processing disorders, dyslexia, ADHD and autism.

The workshop will also focus on the role of rhythmic movement exercises on the senses and the importance of play in practicing reflex integration with young children. Throughout the session, participants will model therapeutic exercises and learn how to put key movement patterns into practice through classroom games and activities. Through an interactive, hands-on approach, the Thrive team will also share techniques for bringing movement-based therapy into a family’s daily routine for successful development, during the school year and beyond.

Participants will leave the workshop with a solid understanding of reflex integration, brain connections critical to classroom learning and core exercises to address physical and emotional behavioral challenges. They will learn how to implement therapeutic movement into a child’s routine and how to recognize the positive impact of the process.