What is ImaginationGYM®?

ImaginationGYM® is an educational methodology designed to empower teachers, parents, childcare and clinical practitioners to assist in the education and emotional development of the children in their care.

ImaginationGYM® is based around a series of audio adventures that are designed to stimulate a listener’s imagination and intelligences and to integrate the left and right hemispheres of the brain which encourages whole brain learning.

These adventure worlds are designed to work with both children and adults and are completely non-invasive. The audio programs are a valuable tool for teaching listening skills, which is important as most education is delivered in todays society through spoken word in a classroom. The ImaginationGYM® adventure worlds aim to encourage the development of multi-faceted thought processes, especially creativity, problem-solving and independent thinking.

ImaginationGYM® is designed to be used in Educational, Family, Community and Clinical settings. Developed through over ten years of research, the audio programs are accompanied by activity books, workshops, practitioner manuals and training modules. This mix, coupled with the guidelines of the Methodology help determine which program is best suited for the specific user or user group.

Real World Examples

In the education environment, a class or group of children aged 6-12 years may use an ImaginationGYM® audio program (CD), with an activity book for each child. This actually provides enough material for an entire years work as part of an integrated curriculum.

On the other hand, the same audio program (CD) can be used in a family setting by both adult and child with each child still having their own activity book. This allows the family to spend quiality time together in a relaxing and positive atmosphere. Research has shown that once a child becomes familiar with the CD, they will return to it time and again, even into their teens. The audio programs are particularly useful in helping in times of stress and have proven successful in helping children with sleeping problems, emotional upsets, family problems or simply to relax coming up to exams.

The ImaginationGYM® Methodology

Information on the ImaginationGYM® methodology is given with all products and covered in more depth in our training modules. The methodology is based on common sense and aim,s in particular, to help those working with children. It is designed to compliment and update existing systems and methods given what we have learned and discovered in recent years about how the mind and brain works and how children learn.

While many adults feel children should only be focusing on "serious things" rather than wasting time on something as frivolous as imagination , the reality is that children feel happier and are more capable of quickly absorbing and assimilating new information and ideas when they are in a more balanced state for learning. This is a major benefit of ImaginationGYM®.

For example, one ImaginationGYM® methodology principle is to allow both the adult and children time and space to go into their imagination. This eliminates distractions from the listening experience and allows for a more focused experience. With practice, this behavior increases creative capacities, self-awareness and relaxation, while stimulating whole brain learning and intelligence.