What children need physically to be ready to learn

Tasha Ball at the Willowell Foundation is talking to Taryn Levy, who has been a 22 -year -old physiotherapist, working in pediatrics for 20 years. Currently, it offers physical therapy services within the School System in Addison county and around it.

Q: What brought you to thiS work?

A: I like to work with children because every day is different and bring such joy in my life and in the lives of those around them.

Q: Can you talk with the current trends of child development from your perspective as a kinetotherapist?

A: The times have changed. I believe that our children are missing essential parts of their development due to the excessive use of “containers” and screens for our babies. Many children no longer follow the typical sensory motor development sequence. Children are supported on chairs, Bumbo and Practorsaucers chairs and are visually overestimated by colorful, strong and intermittent toys and screens. Children do not spend a long time on the floor, teaching how their body moves without gadgets “having fun”. We disappoint us on infants and young children, teaching them that the external world deserves more attention than the way their body moves and feels. I think this leads to increasing the states of regregation.

Our children did not integrate their main reflexes well, have not developed a good basic power and have a limited basis for postural stability. A limited foundation everywhere, indeed! Melt with the fact that, as they get older, the children don’t do work/snow with shovel/go long distance/climb a tree … everything before school.

Our children now reach school in bodies that are not ready for seated learning.

However, all hope is not lost! We can create environments and opportunities both inside and outside the school, which can complete their foundations, can help them integrate these primary reflexes and develop the basic power. Offering more opportunities for movement and longer in the unstructured game naturally encourages the construction of fundamental and regulatory sensory skills.

Meanwhile, while we help our children complete missing parts of their foundation, some children may need additional support During the activities seated to keep their body against gravity, pay attention and learn all at the same time. Their postural control is not yet automatic. If they are asked to keep their body in space, as well as to fulfill or engage in a cognitive task, something must give! This can be manifested as “behavior”, moving and frequently changing positions, distraction, falling from the chair or inability to pay attention.

Q: Say the difference between the gross engine, the fine engine and the sensory awareness? In what ways can the caregivers help or become more attentive to them?

A: Gross motor skills are the big movements you make with large muscles, such as running, dragging, running, jumping, etc. Fine motor skills follow the development of large motor skills. They are more refined using smaller muscles, requiring the strength and control of the core to make small movements with their hands, such as understanding, lifting objects, handling small toys, drawing and writing. The sensory regulation takes over information through the senses, interpreting this information and responding without reacting or under reaction. Carers can support the sequence of sensory motor development by creating or providing environments that encourage movement, exploration and various ways of interaction in space. Natural environments, outdoors, organically offer these opportunities; However, interior environments with large motor spaces and open game can also encourage this type of adequate development.

Q: How can careers help change how we see and respond to young children in terms of body development and awareness?

A: Children need to move to learn. Quiet, alert time, without distractions, facilitates physical embodiment. Babies and young children who spend time on their belly benefit not only the creation of the basic power, but the mating of tactile, visual and proprioceptive sensory information to develop where their body is in space. Based on that foundation, young children continue to develop their body and spatial awareness, moving in a wide variety of ways, on many different surfaces and obstacles; Pulling it or climbing up, down, under, around and through. And falling.

Q: I know you are a great supporter of caregivers who do not use “tools” or props for young children? Can you talk about why this is and what you suggest instead?

A: Often, the use of containers, gadgets, toys or “tools” to entertain your child and make your life easier prevents typical development and could be considered “non-development time”. We all need a safe place for our children to be while participating in other tasks. But this balancing over time on the floor, involvement in play and adequate movement for development, is essential. A doctor once told me, your child cannot fall off the floor. Creating a safe place on the floor, where your child can discover his hands, roller, plane, pushes his hands, dragging his belly, can go on his hands and knees and then learn to build the foundation that will have to develop raw and fine motor skills. When your child is older, curious children will find many ways to move their body using sofa pillows, pillows, blankets, beds, trees, logs, sticks, hills and more.

Q: How does this “pay” in the long term? Are there ways in which body development connects to learning or to the mind later in life?

A: Following the typical sensory motor development sequence and focusing on inch stones (all very important stages between landmarks) not just landmarks, it builds a strong base for higher level skills. Children who follow the typical development sequence and are involved in the appropriate development game will probably have more powerful basic muscles and a stronger, more automatic postural control system that allows them to engage in motor and cognitive tasks. Improved postural control is related to improved concentration and attention during cognitive tasks.

Q: Can you explain the “risky game” and elaborate on the associated benefits or risks?

A: The best said by Angela Hanscom, the occupational therapist: “We have to allow children to move in ways that make adults tickle. They have to bold. They have to rise upwards. They must turn into circles and fall to the ground.” Play Risky builds brain areas associated with decisions and impulse control and can increase that area of ​​the brain for better decision -making. Allowing the risky game helps children trust themselves. On the other hand, the prohibition of the risky game (telling children: “not safe”, when, in fact, maybe) undermines the trust of children in themselves and has a negative impact on their decision -making skills.

Q: What are some steps of action that parents and carers can make in their own homes and lives to support age -appropriate sensory motor development?

A: Do not push higher level skills (for example, if your child is not yet seated rather than practicing your child, allow your child to engage in all lower level skills that lead to independent sessions).

Q: Allow your child to move in ways to put you on the nerve list. Can you support them by asking questions like: “Do you feel safe? What would happen if you fall? What is your plan to go down?”

A: Get out. Explore. Movement. Play.