Dr Paul Dennison and his wife Gail co-founded the Brain Gym activities. The movements, exercises or activities evoke natural movements that take place in the early childhood years when a child is learning to coordinate their ears, eyes and hands.

Activities such as the ‘Owl,’ ‘Lazy 8s,’ ‘Hook Ups,’ ‘Brain Buttons’ and ‘The Elephant’ (which can be found online or taught by kinesiologists and other registered practitioners) can help improve memory, concentration, coordination, organisation and academic work. These can be very useful exercises for ‘switching on’ the brain, especially before a test or performance (my mother would get my brother and I to do these in the bathroom at school before a major exam). The exercises only take a few minutes, so can easily be incorporated into everyday life. They are accessible to all: students at some low-decile primary schools that I trained at performed Brain Gym exercises for 5 minutes at the beginning of each school day. They loved it and one lucky (well-behaved) child was allowed to choose the activities each day. Most children enjoy doing Brain Gym and there are enough exercises to avoid performing the same ones each time.

There is a huge range of activities that can stimulate the vestibular system (therefore improving balance and spatial awareness).

Some examples are:

• Swinging on a swing
• Handstands, cartwheels or any upside down yoga poses
• Spinning in a circle (either standing or in a chair)
• Rolling over big fit balls (I roll very little children over fit balls asking them to pick up a toy from the floor with each roll)
• Jumping on a trampoline
• Standing on wobble boards
• Being rolled up in a yoga mat or blanket