Dr. Debbie Rhea

The Today Show recently featured Dr. Debbie Rhea’s LiiNK Project and highlighted how training teachers to think differently and implementing two actions – recess and character development – can improve academic behaviors, social and emotional skills, and attentional focus in children.

LiiNK, Let’s Inspire Innovation ‘N Kids, is an innovative school program that’s changing conceptions about a traditional classroom’s structure and school hours in Texas and beyond.

“If you ask American kids what their favorite subject is, their excited reply is often recess!” said Rhea. “And that isn’t a bad thing—physical activity boosts brain function, improving development, academic performance and creativity in the classroom.”

But over the past decade, many schools in the U.S. have reduced or eliminated recess to provide for more classroom instruction time.

Rhea believes the lack of physical activity and movement was a primary contributor to lower test scores, increased student stress and, of course, obesity among school-age children.

Rhea created the LiiNK Project based on the education model in Finland, where play is part of each hour of instruction. The program launched in 2013 at two private kindergarten and first-grade classrooms in Fort Worth and expanded to include additional grade levels and two public school districts in the Metroplex last fall.

The program incorporates two 15-minute recesses into the morning and two more in the afternoon. Additionally, a 15-minute character development lesson that focuses on empathy, trust and cooperation is included in the curriculum three times per week.

“Positive results are almost immediate,” said Rhea. “Students are more coordinated, relaxed and focused when they have an outlet for their energy.

“Data collected from participating schools in year one and year two demonstrate that classroom behaviors have improved by 30 percent, attentional focus has improved by 25 percent and the time students take getting to and from recess has decreased from 4-5 minutes to less than one minute each way,” added Rhea. “Teachers report that students are more focused when they enter the classroom and seem excited to be in school.”

Initial data for the public schools mirror the private school results and Rhea anticipates that success will continue through the spring semester.

Rhea, associate dean of the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences at TCU, has been an educator for 37 years. She taught physical education and coached in the public schools for 12 years before earning her doctorate in pedagogy and sport/exercise psychology and moving to the university level. While at TCU, Rhea has worked with physical education teachers, and consulted with all ages of athletes and non-athletes to enhance their mental skills related to performance and physical activity. She has published more than a dozen books, presented at conferences internationally, and developed and trained physical education and classroom teachers on developmentally appropriate curriculum at all levels. Her goal is to have the LiiNK Project in five additional school districts for the 2016-2017 school year.