Teacher's Stories
I can’t get my class to pay attention! My students constantly move,
and I find I’m exhausted by the end
of the day just trying to get them to listen!
Children come into kindergarten often without basic printing,
reading or attention skills... and having just watched 2 hours of TV!
My administration wants individualized programming...it’s impossible!
Classrooms are crowded, special needs students are increasing, and gym
and recess time is decreasing. What can I do?
www.zonein.ca
The Zone'in Solution
Sunshine Coast Occupational Therapist Cris Rowan saw first hand
the escalating difficulties facing teachers and students today, and
created Zone’in
programs to help. Cris used her 8 years experience
as a school based OT, as well as her training in Sensory Integration
and Fine Motor Development, to design two educational programs that
improve attention, printing and reading skill.
Why Choose Zone'in?
Zone'in
optimizes attention by helping children to understand more about their
body energy. If their energy is charged and hyper, or sleepy and
zoned out, they can’t do their work. By watching
Zone’in DVD, and using Zone-O-Meters, posters, tools and techniques,
children learn to Switch On
to get Zone’in and Learn!
Click here to watch the film trailer!
Why Choose Move'in?
Move'in
improves printing and reading by first determining each child’s
specific problem, and then providing a solution. Move’in takes
children on a Printing Adventure! By playing Ready, Set,
Move’in board game, and using Play’in the Lines computer
program, children can help themselves on the path to easier
printing and reading.
Click here to try Play'in the Lines Computer Program!
Benefits
Schools need only buy one of each Zone’in
and Move’in kit to provide a
yearly individualized assessment and intervention for every child grades K-6!
Move’in
comes with a database that produces individual progress reports for
education plans.
Zone’in and Move’in
programs are student led, and come with fun
DVD’s that contain informative workshops for teachers and parents.
www.zonein.ca
Zone’in: MYTHS AND FACTS
Printing
Myth: Children don’t need to print or spell...we have
computers!
Fact: Printing precedes spelling, and spelling is
necessary for sentence production.
Ponder this: A child with poor printing skill,
yet good sentence
composition is a rarity!
TV, Attention and Learning
Myth: Watching TV and playing video games doesn’t
affect learning ability.
Fact:
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Children watch an average of 4 hours of TV per day,
EXCLUDING video games.
Watching TV and video games correlate with an
increase in aggression, addiction and obesity.
Children under the age of 4 who watch TV
have delayed brain development.
Children spend more time watching TV than any
other activity except sleeping, and by 18 a child has
spent more time in front of a TV than at school.
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Ponder this: What effect does watching TV
before school, have on a child’s behaviour and ability to learn?
Movement and Exercise
Myth: Exercise doesn’t affect learning ability.
Fact:
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Sedentary home life along with the reduction of school recess
and gym time contributes to poor motor skill development.
Sensory over-stimulation (TV and video games),
in combination with sensory under-stimulation in the
sensory channels for balance, movement, touch, smell
and taste, result in attention and concentration
difficulties.
Children need repetitive and rhythmical movement
experiences, to ensure adequate sensory and motor
development.
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Family Relationships
Myth: TV hasn't changed family relationships,
we all watch it together!
Fact:
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Parents spend an average of 3.5 minutes per
week in meaningful conversation with their children.
Connection to technology has resulted in a
“disconnect” from family, friends and teachers.
Brain size is 20-30% smaller in children who are not touched,
played or talked to.
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Ponder this: Where will we be in 25 years if we
continue to de-value the human connection?
Technology and Health Risks
Myth: While cell phones, TV, video games and computers
emit magnetic fields and radio waves, use doesn't adversely
affect our health.
Fact:
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The International Agency for Research on Cancer has
classified extremely low magnetic fields (ELF) as a
“possible human carcinogen” regarding childhood
leukemia and brain cancer, 2 of the most common
cancers found in children.
Young children’s brains are especially
vulnerable to radio frequency (RF) emission from
cell phones.
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Ponder this:What health risks will our children face in their future,
if we continue to ignore the negative effects of technology?
www.zonein.ca
What Can Teachers and Parents Do?
Let Children Be Children!
Cover your TV with a blanket
and attach notes with suggestions
for alternate activities. When the TV is on, watch selected
programs and movies with your children, and go for a walk
outside afterward.
Increase duration and frequency of
whole body movement through
increased organized gym and recess time, balance TV watching with
movement based activities such as jumping rope, running, climbing
trees, biking, skateboarding, family household, yard and garden
chore day.
Limit ELF and RF exposure by reducing TV,
video game,
cell phone, microwave and computer use, and position oneself as
far a away as possible from device. Sit at least 3 metres from TV’s
(the larger the TV, the further away you should sit)
and an arm’s length from computer monitors.
Value the human connection to
children by reading books,
conversation, storytelling, playing “pretend”, indoor and
outdoor games, or exploring nature.
Increase and challenge your
children’s sensation of balance,
movement, touch, smell and taste through rough play, couch cushion
fort, obstacle course, high arc swings, family cooking night,
lap time and lots of hugs!
University of British Columbia Graduate Students Join
Team Zone’in
In the fall of 2006, four University of British Columbia Occupational
Therapy students will be researching the effectiveness of the Move’in
printing program in the classroom. These major research projects will
be part of their thesis to obtain their Masters degree in Occupational
Therapy. We are thrilled to welcome Zoe Brown, Marie Rolfing, Kelly
Fletcher and Lea Harper. This research project will be in 2 stages.
First, the research students will evaluate the feasibility of printing
assessments, and then perform a Single Subject Multiple Baseline Across
Subjects design to determine effectiveness of the Move’in program
in improving printing quality and quantity. This information will be
particularly useful in the ongoing revision of Move’in to ultimately
create an effective and efficient way of helping children learn to
print, both in classrooms and at home.
www.zonein.ca
A Message from Cris Rowan, Occupational Therapist &
Creator of Zone’in Products
We’ve had an exciting few months at Zone’in! We introduced an
awesome new website www.zonein.ca (check out our commercial) and
have added more handouts, weblinks, articles and research to our
Resource Section. A literature review
yielded new Myths and Facts section to the Zone’in website; see
below for a taste. Zone’in articles were published in BC Teachers
Federation Cross Currents Journal and The Autism Perspective.
I’ll be presenting workshops in 2006/7 at numerous school districts,
as well as both BC and Alberta Special Education Conferences.
Cris Rowan
Where in the World is Cris?
Check out the summer 2006 issue of The Autism Perspective for Cris’s
article titled “Autism and Evolution”.
Watch local Coast Cable TV show Insideout,
on Channel 11 for recent interview with Cris.
Cris will be presenting:
October 12-14, 2006 Special Education Council of the
Alberta Teachers Association Conference. Edmonton, AB
October 19/20, 2006 Burnaby Special Education Teachers workshop.
November 20, 2006 Burnaby School District Teachers and
Parents. Burnaby, BC
Febuary 16-17 2007 Chilliwack School District Teachers and
Parents. Chilliwack, BC
March 15-16, 2007 Special Education
Association of BC, Crosscurrents Conference, Vancouver, BC.
Would you like to schedule a workshop or conference with Cris?
Give us a call at 1-888-896-6346 or email at
info@zonein.ca
CLICK IT OUT!
In each issue of Zone’in and Learn we will highlight
organizations, websites, books or articles that we think
you will find interesting.
Johnson SR. Strangers in Our Homes: TV and Our Children’s Minds.
http://home.datacomm.ch/rezamusic/tv_johnson.html.
A mother and Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics,
Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, UCSF,
describes how children’s developing nervous systems are adversely
affected by watching TV and playing video games.
Healy J.
Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do About It.
1990 New York: Simon and Schuster. Check out the chapter titled
“Sesame Street and the Death of Reading” which states that TV
anesthetizes our higher brain function by producing slow wave
activity, and disrupts balance between the right and left hemispheres,
thus adversely affecting reading ability.
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