How does Brain Gym work?
I’ve just started reading “Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre. An early target of the book is a movement called Brain Gym which is practised in many schools in Britain and various institutions around the world. Goldacre calls it “so obviously, transparently foolish”.
So how does Brain Gym work exactly? Well, let’s go to the official web site for the movement in the UK and study the explanation. We are told “we have considerably greater experience of the effects of the programme than we have certainty as to how it works”. It is said about why it works: “The investigation of the neuroscience that underpins Brain Gym is an eagerly awaited project for the future. We can only at the present time hypothesise about why without actually knowing.”
Now do you understand how it works? No? Neither do its practitioners. Of course, it’s sensible for children to take breaks, do exercises, and drink water – but there’s no reason to invent 26 fanciful exercises and pretend that some special neuroscience is at work.