SCHOOLS in Cheshire have not adopted a successful nationwide exercise programme which has benefited hundreds of primary school children – despite its creator living and working in Chester.
Sally Goddard-Blythe, director of the Institute for Neuro-Physical Psychology (INPP) in Stanley Street, Chester, devised a programme that concentrates on children’s physical development in learning.
She is to give a talk about her work at an event in the city this month.
The INPP Developmental Test Battery was used in schools across the country on 810 pupils and results suggested physical immaturity lay behind learning difficulties in reading and writing.
Subsequently, the Test Battery and Developmental Exercise Programme, which trains teachers to provide daily exercise programmes to improve physical development, has been implemented in many schools.
Ms Goddard-Blythe said: “The results of this programme have demonstrated learning difficulties caused by visual and auditory problems can be improved by exercises that improve balance and motor skills.
“For example, exercises that target posture can improve attention and exercises working on reflexes in the arm and neck can aid handwriting.
‘The results also contribute to the debate that four-year-olds do not always have the physical maturity to read and write at this age and this can sometimes be misdiagnosed as a learning difficulty.”
Ms Goddard-Blythe has recently trained 50 teachers in Northumberland and more than 90 in Cumbria to provide children with exercises for ten minutes a day to improve physical movement.
She added: ‘I hope many parents, teachers and childcare professionals will attend the talk, not least because the treatments are non-invasive proven techniques.
‘I would also like to take the opportunity to question why Cheshire has not taken up the training schemes for teachers, which have proven successful in many other areas, and encourage the schools to do so.’
The talk will take place on Wednesday, January 30, at 7.15pm in the Egerton Room at The Blossoms Hotel, St John Street, and anybody interested in attending should ring INPP on 01244 311414.
