Brain Gym and Me: Reclaiming the Pleasure of Learning

Paul E. Dennison
Edu-Kinesthetics, Inc. (2006)
ISBN 9780942143119
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)


Paul Dennison describes the moment in fourth grade where a teacher grabs his shoulders and yelled, “Why can’t you learn.”  “From my hurt emerged my work, my message, and my mission: to bring to the world community a new way to educate our children so that they can learn without failure.”  Mr. Dennison became “skilled in teaching reading, and opened a chain of eight reading centers.”  “What I came to realize is that, for educators, effective teaching isn’t about presenting the information and letting the student passively take it in, but about connecting the information to the movement of the body in an active way.”

Dennison was amazed with the results of adding movement to his program.  Suddenly he could see students reading more comfortably.   Parents commented they could see changes in their child. 

It takes more than mental skill, but also physical abilities to be a good reader. Good reading can’t happen without a whole set of physical abilities:

  • Binocularity
  • Convergence
  • Tracking
  • Sustained attention and concentration
  • Directionality and motor planning
  • Hearing and matching graphemes and phonemes
  • Thinking
  • Memory of sounds and shapes
  • Visualization of letter patterns and word shapes
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Timing, rhythm, and phrasing of speech patterns

“Brain Gym and Me” by Paul E. Dennison is well written.  The information is presented in an easy-to-understand format.  As a former Reading Coach I’m impressed with his concept.  I had similar experiences in elementary school.  My eyes did not work together.  I became discouraged, my grades were horrible and I quite trying.  Only after years of frustration did I realize I could learn.  My self-confidence increased and I continued on to assist students in their reading abilities.  This book should be mandatory reading for all educators.  I have already contacted several teachers and suggested they add, “Brain Gym and Me” to their reading list.  Mr. Dennison has returned the pleasure to learning.  Well done.

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