Movement Based Learning

Cecilia Koester is internationally known for her work with children and adults who are differently abled. She has worked since 1979 with children and adults of all abilities – typically functioning, attention deficit/hyperactive, emotionally/behaviorally challenged, autistic, developmentally delayed, Down Syndrome, stroke impairments and severe handicaps. The remarkable and provocative book I Am the Child: Using Brain Gym® with Children Who Have Special Needs, published in 1998, journaled Koester’s experiences over a two-year period as a teacher in a public school classroom, drawing out the gifts of 11 children who had complex developmental needs. This inspirational book offers the reader insights into the kinds of things that can be done to improve the quality of life for children who have severe physical challenges.

Since 1998, Koester has been teaching workshops throughout the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Slovenia, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Russia, Spain, France, Italy and Scotland. She would be happy to introduce her work to your friends, colleagues and families wherever there is a need. Teachers, counselors, occupational therapists, physical therapists and parents have repeatedly expressed their joy and delight in how Cecilia teaches as well as the easily accessible concepts that are the basis for her workshops. These workshops have been based on Brain Gym®, which is a program of 26 easy and enjoyable targeted activities/physical movements that enhance learning and performance in all areas.

Through these years, Cecilia Koester has developed a movement-based learning curriculum that specifically addresses children and adults who are differently abled. This curriculum specifically teaches adults how to work with any child or adult – resistant, unable to walk or talk, a typically functioning child who is having difficulty focusing or reading or any adult who is challenged with daily life activities. The uniqueness of this course, Brain Gym® for Special Needs Providers, grows from the methods and techniques that are offered in her workshops. These “new tools” empower and guide the participant into an awareness of how to assist all children and elders in their journey. Perhaps Cecilia’s greatest gift is being able to show the participant how and where she begins. Her grounded teaching style makes the information easy to assimilate – she teaches verbally and then demonstrates visually and physically how to use what has just been taught. Cecilia has taken the work of Brain Gym® and blossomed the information into working with children and adults of all abilities through providing a foundation of developmental building blocks.

In January 2006, Cecilia Koester published her second book, Movement Based Learning for Children of All Abilities. The book was reprinted in 2012. This practical book offers the developmental building blocks that Koester has gathered over the years to enhance the skills involved in the areas of comprehension, organization, communicate, physical mobility, and the ability to focus. Bill Hubert, the originator of Bal-A-Vis-X said, “Somehow, by an exquisite synthesis of What Was and What Is and What Might Be, Cecilia creates a new form.” This form is addressed in a clear and easy to implement style in this book.