Activation Strategies are frequently effective with youngsters who struggle with attention, executive skills, and/or working memory. I want my student to experience the fierce attention she displays when she’s doing a physical act, such as cartwheels, and gradually transfer it to fierce mental attention. Teachers use activation strategies like these to get those neurons firing: http://www.gcasd.org/Downloads/Activating_Strategies.pdf
The kinesthetic channel is the “bridge” between the movement that my student excels at and the cognitive channels (visual, especially). Here is some more on that: http://www.child1st.com/blog/tag/visual+learning
In fact, the Wilson Method of teaching reading is highly effective with youngsters due to its use of multiple senses. Before Wilson, the Orton-Gillingham Method used a V-A-K-T approach (Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic-Tactile) with great success. Moira and I employ elements of these methods with all of our students.