MOVE WITH BALANCE ® - Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body

For elders, preventing falls means preventing disaster!
For elders, staying mentally alert and sharp is paramount!
Here's how—and how to bring confidence and joy into the aging years. This brightly illustrated book, which links to 60 on-line demonstration videos, is loaded with dozens of movements (not exercises) that anyone can do, even the frailest elder. The payoff: increased coordination, sharper cognitive skills, better vision, and enhanced self-confidence . Those who purchase the book receive support from an interactive website that includes videos and other instructional elements (www.MovewithBalance.org).

Move With Balance® is the winner of the 2012 MetLife MindAlert Award from the American Society on Aging in the category for programs designed to enhance mental fitness for the general population of older adults. Healthy, happy aging requires a good sense of physical and mental balance. Our innovative program, scientifically proven to reduce falls, is perfect for your needs, whether you are a group leader, a caregiver, or using the program for yourself. One independent study by the Maui District Health Officer shows a 38% reduction in falls for the treatment group.

This is not a "workout" program in the usual sense with muscle-strengthening and limbering exercises as the primary goal. Move with Balance® founder and director Karen Peterson has devoted the past 27 years to research into the brain-body connection, 18 of those years working with senior citizens, and the many ways that movement can correct neurological imbalance. The activities combine coordinated movement with cognitive skills. For example, we move, but while we move we read, or recognize shapes, or recite a poem. The underlying principle: challenge the brain and body simultaneously with some sensory-motor activity, repeat until the challenge becomes easier or even automatic, then up the stakes by repeating the activity at a higher level. The program is user friendly and fun.

The movements can be performed alone, with a partner, or in a group setting. In fact, the Move With Balance® phenomenon originated (in Hawaii) as an "intergenerational mentoring" program—able-bodied adults volunteering to work with frail elders in performing these movements, with benefits to all parties. The book and website explain how to create such a program. But the movements succeed in any context. Professional caregivers use them. Adults with elderly parents make them part of daily life. Statistics show that falling is the leading cause of injury-related death among people age 65 and older. This book shows how to minimize that risk through light-hearted, playful sensory-motor activities

Move With Balance®, based on the most current research in brain plasticity, vision training, and kinesiology, uses movement to help prevent falls and enhance cognitive functions. Our activities improve balance, sensory integration, spatial awareness, integration of the two hemispheres of the brain, brain timing and sequencing, reaction time, binocular teaming, and proprioception. Additionally, our mentoring system, of having active, mobile seniors “mentor” their more frail peers, reduces the isolation of elders by increasing socialization.

Once you buy the book, you have access to the videos. Along with full color photos of the exercises, the book explains the movements in depth, the why and the how. The videos give you a quick visual, and in combination with the book, should make it easy for you to learn the movements.

“I met Karen Peterson twenty-five years ago when she introduced me to her expertise in movement and perception. We worked together to help alleviate vision and balance issues. Her present concern is enhancing balance and thereby preventing falls. This program is based on cutting-edge science. She uses modified techniques that Olympic athletes employ with good success. I wholeheartedly endorse her work to make seniors safer and to help them lead more active and productive lives.—Ed Manniko, OD