A TRICKY NEWS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN'S PARENTS

Encouraging young children to spin on the spot can significantly boost their early academic learning. Other brain-stimulating activities for children include hanging upside down, scrabbling along the floor on their stomachs and crawling along a trail of marked out prints.

The package of activities called SMART (stimulating maturity through accelerated readiness training) has been developed in the United States.

Five and six-year-olds who have taken part have shown significant improvements, compared to other classmates, in early language and numeracy skills, according to Lyelle Palmer of Winona State University.

In one group of 70 SMART kindergarten children, only one was referred for remedial services when usually a quarter would be.

Based on research into how the brain develops, the programme's activities are designed to stimulate brain cell growth, and have been used in 20 schools in Minnesota and 80 others across the US
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/thinking.html#Spinning