If getting the hands involved grows the brain, what kind of growth is it, exactly? Aside from the sensory experience - the touch and feel of something - what ‘knowings’ are grown when we use our hands?
One way to answer that is to consider the role of the cerebellum. This part of your brain is at the back of your head, above and behind your spinal cord, and is associated with movement. Scientists have also found it plays a role in emotions and other cognitive processes.
Wei-Chung Allen Lee, from Harvard Medical School, says of the cerebellum:
“One of the things the cerebellum is thought to do is make fine-scale error corrections in movement by comparing patterns from intended and executed actions. For example, if you try to touch your nose and you miss, there is information coming from your motor system that tells your cerebellum what the intended action was, and there is sensory information coming from your finger about what actually happened, including the location of your finger in space. The cerebellum is thought to compute the difference between the intended action and the actual action, and to help correct the error.”
Sounds like essential learning to me.
Could it be that play, with its continual physicality and movement, helps the cerebellum develop increasingly accurate ‘movement models’ which grow our confidence in what we can do physically, and this confidence creates an associated positive emotional landscape that encourages us to do more and go further?
The Plutophobic* world we’ve created, where kids are on devices day after day after day in high-stakes, performance-focused contexts, is robbing our kids of opportunities to learn how to move in the world.
* Plutophobic: a person, place or institution that is discouraging of play.
Today’s message from Pluto:
“Everywhere is interesting because I’ve got confidence in my ability to explore. Woof!!!”
Something to try that might make a difference
We know that moving makes us feel better, and while in a busy and pressured school day it can be hard to find time, you’ve got a moral obligation to find the time, so
Include a movement snack in your lesson plan.
+ Dance?
+ Some stretches?
+ A catching game?
Doing something physical together at the start of the lesson is a great way to build a positive class culture. Whatever it is, keep it short - it’s a snack, not a meal.