Research Related to Ready Bodies, Learning Minds Motor Labs

In October of 2002, Athena Oden, Ready Bodies, Learning Minds, and Dr. Denise Kern, Comal Independent School District, began a controlled research project into the effectiveness of the motor lab developed by Athena Oden, physical therapist.  The motor lab, nicknamed “Function Junction”, is a prescriptive motor development program that focuses on helping children to integrate tactile, proprioceptive, reflexive, and vestibular input.  The program hypothesis is centered on the idea that reflex and sensory integration are keys to academic success.  The basic question to be answered by this research was: Do specific experiences in the Ready Bodies motor lab affect reading performance in pre-first grade students?

Two different groups of children were included in the study: those from one elementary school who use Function Junction on a bi-weekly basis, and those from a control group of elementary school students who do not.  Each group was tested during October 2002, and re-tested under the same parameters in May of 2003.  The results were then tabulated and analyzed by Dr. Denise Kern.  Her conclusions were presented in a doctoral thesis for University of Texas at San Antonio.

Data was collected through the use of five different tests:
1) VMI ( Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration); pre and post tests
2) Ready Bodies, Learning Minds Screening Report; pre and post tests
3) DRA  (Developmental Reading Inventories )  (Quarterly)
4) TPRI  (Texas Primary Reading Inventory)  (August and May)
5) Comal ISD Benchmark Reading tests (Quarterly)

While test results are too extensive to present in this forum, some conclusions can be described that show dramatic increase in reading performance.  Specifically, in a portion of the research project which included only pre-first students of both campuses, there was an average 70% increase in reading profiency in the research group when compared to the control group (according to the DRA test results) over the 7 month period.

The research group (with the motor lab) also exhibited marked improvement in reflex integration based upon the Ready Bodies, Learning Minds Screening Report.  Conversely, the pre-first students of the control group (without the motor lab) demonstrated , on average, a decline in reflex integration over the same 7 month period.

Ready Bodies, Learning Minds performed extensive studies involving more students and more grade levels than were analyzed in Dr. Kern’s thesis.  Overall, we see similar results: for example, phonemic awareness of the kindergarten children appears to have been improved by the presence of the motor lab. Still, further data analysis needs to made to document the correlation of improvement in academic and motor performance.  We hope to be able to do this in the near future.