Abbotsford students given a running start
School finds letting children loose on treadmills helps to calm them down and maintain focus
Wendy Enns has a saying she often repeats to students: “Running is good for your body and your brain.”
A learning support services coordinator at Abbotsford Christian Elementary School, Enns has turned to one of her own passions, running, to help kids who struggle with focus and behaviour.
The school’s “treadmill program” involves about 40 students, some of whom spend at least 20 minutes each day running on one of three donated treadmills.
The simple program has attracted attention from the school district, other schools and teachers who are seeking ways to help their students with self-regulation and anger management issues, as well as students with neurological differences, such as autism.
The program began in 2012 when Enns was working with an autistic student. The boy was non-verbal and often experienced severe anxiety.
“School was a very, very difficult place,” she said.
Educators tried a variety of tactics, including deep pressure, visual schedules and frequent breaks — “all the typical treatments” — but the student was becoming unmanageable and aggressive.
Around that time, a behaviourist pointed Enns toward the work of Harvard professor Dr. John Ratey, whose TEDTalks video on how exercise can transform schools has been viewed more than 250,000 times on YouTube.
“We knew we needed to find a way to calm his body physically, so we were told to take him on running breaks where the goal was to get his heart rate up,” said Enns, who is a member of the race-planning team for Abbotsford’s annual Run for Water and Abbotsford Trail Running Club.
But the student didn’t like being outside, and it was difficult to motivate him to run.
“I remember thinking ‘How can I make this child run?’”
A donated treadmill provided the perfect solution. The student began walking on the exercise machine while watching a video. As he grew accustomed to it, Enns slowly increased the speed and time.
The changes were “dramatic,” she said. After running, the student was calm. He could walk down the hallway, and he began to attempt language.
“It brought his anxiety down to a place where he could start learning,” said Enns. “After that, we put all the kids on the treadmill.”
Students, who are always supervised while using the treadmills, come at set times each day, such as after recess when they are having trouble settling down. Others visit with their educational aid whenever they can’t concentrate.