‘PHYSIO BALL’ SEATS
Benefit of balancing act noted in classes
By Charlie Boss THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Brent Cole walked into his seventh-period class at Heritage Middle School and headed toward the cluster of giant red and green balls. The 14-year-old eighth-grader rolled a red one to a desk, sat on the ball and started bouncing. His twin, Kent, was sitting nearby on a ball of his own. The balls “are awesome,” Brent said. “They help me focus and pay attention in class. I get my homework done much faster. “I have more energy sitting on the ball than sitting on a chair.”
Since January, a handful of students at Heritage in Westerville have been able to replace their desk chairs with physio balls, often used for core training in fitness classes. The idea is that giving students the freedom to roll, bounce and shimmy provides an outlet for movement that will help them focus, stay alert and perform better.
- “I want to be able to prove that we do need movement for learning,” said Angi Up-dyke, an occupational therapist at Heritage and three other Westerville schools.
A $720 grant from the Westerville Education Association is helping her conduct research at Heritage. The money paid for the balls for two classrooms serving students with extra learning needs. At the start of the project, Updyke gave students a lesson on how to sit on the balls safely. They were then asked to use the balls daily for two weeks. After that, use of the balls was optional, Updyke said.
Adolescents can get tired and have a hard time focusing throughout the school day because their bodies are changing, Updyke said. Movement can help their brains stay on task. Fatigue “will affect your thinking and the ability to retain information,” she said. “Giving their bodies extra input through movement and exercise will help (them)” Research has put some stock in the theory.
John Kilbourne, a movement-sciences professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, studied the use of physio balls with his students in 2008 and 2009. His research, published in the Chronicle of Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education in 2009, noted that students who sat on the balls showed improved ability to pay attention, concentrate, take notes, engage in classroom discussions and take exams.
Other schools are trying out the alternative seating. In Summit County in northeastern Ohio, Our Lady of the Elms School replaced chairs with balls in a first-grade classroom last year, and fourth-and fifth-graders at Silver Lake Elementary have used balls for years, according to a story in the Akron Beacon Journal. Updyke plans to study students’ behavior, handwriting and performance in class to see whether the balls make a difference. She has noticed that the balls have calmed those who tend to be overexcited during the day and alerted others who have a hard time staying awake.
Teacher Kristine Smith said the students tend to choose the balls when they know they’ll be sitting at their desks for a long time or during a lecture. A few rock on the balls in the morning or bounce after lunch. In a recent poll of the 29 students in the two classrooms, 86 percent said the balls helped them to learn; 41 percent said they “need” the balls and don’t want them removed; and 45 percent said they like the balls but don’t need them. For Brent Cole, the verdict on the balls is simple. “I love them,” he said.
cboss@dispatch.com
