Kathy S. Luppe. East Tennessee State University, August 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2008
Click Here for a copy of: The Effects of Movement on Literacy

Barrett (2000) theorizes that students who fail to experience sufficient movement, or who experience developmental delays in visual perception, tracking, balance, and gross-motor skills, and fall behind in school need sensory-motor remediation, not content remediation. Content assimilation can only happen when basic sensory-motor skills have developed, when the ability to use both sides of the brain-body in an integrated fashion for efficient action has developed (Jones, 2005).

Fadigan (as cited by Barrett, 2000) has extensively reviewed the research of educational, neuroscience, and psychology experts. His findings reveal the brain develops its ability to process information first at level one (conception to 2 years), when various sensory-motor skills are developed; then level two, when cognitive skills or multiple intelligences are acquired; then finally to level three, after enhancement of levels one and two, when content assimilation occurs. He offers an interesting consideration: most public and private schools teach exclusively at level three, and when a student exhibits problems assimilating content at this level, he or she is given remediation (usually in the form of additional content either in one-on-one tutoring or small group instruction), which doesn’t adequately address the root of the problem. These students need experience at the sensory motor level to create neurological pathways, and only then can content assimilation occur.

Kokot (2003) reveals similar findings. For a child to experience success in learning areas, a number of underlying sensory-motor systems have to be functioning as well. If the vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile, visual, and auditory systems are malfunctioning, they will fail to support the child’s attempts to learn academic work, sit still, pay attention, complete tasks, and learn appropriate social behaviors.

Furthermore, she states these sensory systems develop according to a hierarchy. Success on one level is necessary for success on the next. If any of these developmental steps have been interrupted or skipped, it is likely to affect the degree to which the child experiences academic success.