Kinesensory Education
There are two ways to observe the interaction of human beings with their environment. One is how does the person respond to the environment and the other is how does the environment respond to the person? In the world of child development “sensory motor development” puts the sensing of the environment first and thus must give a slight edge to the environment as initiating the interaction. For this reason the term “kinesensory development” has been coined to emphasize an interaction initiated by the individual.
The word kinesensory is derived from “kinetic” meaning movement or to move. Sensory means to be aware. Thus, kinesensory activity is initiated by the individual and the response of the environment is observed.
The concept of kinesensory education was created to emphasize the early childhood period when children are most willing to experiment with movement, usually between the ages of three and eight. Children of that age are especially ready to test out their skills on the environment. This is a time of rich exploration and experimentation. This is the time they are most apt to throw, jump, swing, turn, spin, roll, dodge, balance, and kick just to enjoy the kinesthetic feelings and/or observe the environmental results. All too soon they become aware of what others think about them, how they are being judged, and are hesitant to participate in physical activity unless they happen to be among the naturally skilled.
Infants have very little movement control thus they must sense the world around them and have little observable response except to smile, coo, cry or shutter. During this period the child is growing in awareness and is going through a period of sensory motor development. Finally the child becomes partners with the environment by either observing and responding, or acting and observing the results of their actions. As the child grows and gains the ability to control his/her movements they have a greater range of responses to what is observed.
Kinesensory education would put an emphasis on motivations from within such as curiosity, exploration and experimentation.
Kinesensory education would seem to be an appropriate term for right brain development since much of the right brain is concerned with creative activities or activities initiated from within. Kinesensory activities emphasize development of the right brain hemisphere and academic education emphasizes development of the left brain hemisphere. We would readily agree that all activities require at least some component of both right and left brain. A good education requires a balance of each.