Texas School Beats ADHD by Tripling Recess Time
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
While most school districts across the country are cutting back on recess time and ramping up the Ritalin, one Texas school has kindergartners and first graders sitting still and “incredibly attentive.”
What’s their secret? Their recess time has tripled.
Instead of 20 minutes of recess per day, Eagle Mountain Elementary kindergartners and first graders now get an hour, broken up into four 15-minute breaks, in addition to lunchtime.
Their teachers say it’s totally transformed them.
The kids are less fidgety, less distracted, more engaged in learning and make more eye contact.
Eagle Mountain is one of dozens of schools in Texas, Oklahoma and California testing out extra recess time as part of a three-year trial. The pilot program is modeled after the Finnish school system, whose students get some of the best scores in the world in reading, math and science.
The designer of the program — called LiiNK — is kinesiologist Debbie Rhea of Texas Christian University. Rhea spent 6 weeks in Finland in 2012 to discover the secret of their success.
The biggest difference Rhea noticed was that students in Finland get much more recess than American kids do — 15 minutes of “unstructured outdoor play” after every 45 minutes of instruction.
They key is the “unstructured,” Rhea told TODAY, which means kids are allowed to run, play and make up their own games.
While indoor breaks are better than none, Rhea says they should ideally take place outdoors because fresh air, natural light and vivid colors all have a big impact on brain function.
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Seems that we are reinventing the wheel ... but in a healthy way.
I love this idea.. I am an adult with ADD .. my youngest son is Attention Deficit as well. When he was in grade school, I met with his teachers, explained what they were up against - and the best ways I had found at home to bring his attention back to the task at hand .. he succeeded [NO drugs necessary] his teachers said that they found that having the class stand up and do some stretching / walk around the room a bit before changing to a different subject .. helped the entire class stay focused.... extra recess is good for all students..
Now as a young adult (17) he is finding out what works best for him .. he will be a senior this fall, has a job working for a local radio station running the sound board .. is in a techie running lights for the school productions. (not so) Lil man has found a place where his attention deficit works for him, he can think outside the box to get things done
I think it is important that 'we' stop drugging 'our' children and telling them that a pill will make them normal (whatever that is)
Any kind of diversion is helpful, even if it's only stretching and walking around the classroom. Little children, especially, don't have long attention spans ... even when they don't have ADD or ADHD.
So true .. and honestly one cannot force other to pay attention, there has to be stimuli that draws in an individuals attention - that in my opinion is what makes a good teacher .. even as a 50+ year old adult, I remember the teachers that got my attention and were able to teach me lessons I still remember..
Feel free to share your experiences of unstructured recess time when you were young. What did you and your classmates do? Did those activities help you focus better when you returned to class?
makes sense, kids bodies are growing too.
LOL .. I never grew out of needing breaks. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, I do better if I take a break from it from time to time. On big tasks I have "Built in breaks" even. It adds to my efficiency and long term engagement capabilities. However, once I start something, I almost always finish it.
So Hell Yeah children do better with breaks... who doesn't ?
You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish