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Volume I, No. 6 MOVEMENT HE REALLY LOVES TO MOVE Five-year-old Gabriel never lacks things to
do, and one of his most visible sources of enjoyment is the family
brachiation ladder. He easily swings from rung to rung, illustrating why such
overhead ladders are sometimes dubbed “monkey bars.” Attached to the main beams of the structure
are a free-swinging rope ladder for challenging climbs, and gymnastic rings
for aerial somersaults such as “skin the cat.” Beneath the ladder, a tumbling
mat cushions drops to the floor and serves as a good spot for practicing
forward rolls. Near this rebounder, Gabriel likes to keep a count of the
number of times he jumps on it without stopping. Gabriel also takes swimming lessons at the
YMCA, and swims recreationally at the local pond. He likes to skip around the
house, and when he was younger, he enjoyed responding to word cards which
instructed him to skip, gallop, jump and giggle. Movement experiences are a pleasurable part of
Gabriel’s regular activities. That’s important, for, as is true with all
children, Gabriel really loves to move. IT STARTS WITH AN IDEA The equipment at the The gym offers Gabriel a great way to burn off
that abundance of energy so characteristic of a five year old. It also allows
him to alternate lively physical activities with quieter kinds of projects. For example, many of Gabriel’s days are filled
with reading, writing, playing the violin and finding little animals to keep
for a few days of observation. He loves to be read to, to help with the
gardening and cooking, and to collect rocks like the ones he saw in the
lapidary museum. Laced between these and many other activities,
he likes to jump on a rebounder, brachiate, skip and practice his tumbling. Although some of Gabriel’s activities are
inspired by the special gym equipment, many of them are inspired largely by
an idea—by a suggestion from his mother, Becky. They are numerous activities
which Gabriel learned to do simply because his mother took the time to show him. IT’S MORE THAN FREE PLAY David L. Gallahue, in Motor Development
and Movement Experiences for Young Children,
states that we can no longer justify the view that free play provides ample
opportunity for children to refine their basic movement abilities. He feels
that young children need at least three to four hours of vigorous activity
each day. This fosters children learning about 1) balancing their bodies
under different conditions, 2) moving through space in a variety of ways, and
3) manipulating the many objects in their surroundings. Parents of infants may foster healthy physical
development through the use of exercises such as in The Baby Exercises
Book by Dr. Janine Levy. Parents of older children may promote further
development through regular trips to the park where children may brachiate,
swing, spin, slide, climb and run. They may also suggest that children join
them in jumping, hopping, rolling, spinning, leaping, galloping, sliding,
rocking, bending, stretching, twisting and turning. These exercises may be
supplemented with activities such as throwing, carrying, kicking, catching,
dodging, swimming, bicycling, dancing, and gymnastics. The possibilities are refreshingly limitless.
They’re playful opportunities for children to further their development, and
that’s why young children so love to move. A GOOD DAY FOR A SWIM Three-and-one-half-month-old
Nina sat supported on the edge of the bathtub, her feet dipped in the
96-degree water. “How does that feel, Nina? Is that about right?’ Seeing that
she was ready for a swim, her father, David, lowered her into the completely
filled tub. David continued, “What do you think, Nina? How do you like that?”
Then, reflecting her feelings, he said, ‘That feels pretty relaxing.’ With
only her fathers hand under her head, Nina proceeded to do a frog kick,
pushing off from the sides of the tub, and experiencing her body in its
weightless state. Her father continued to chat with her in soothing tones as
she moved about the tub. After a few
minutes, she indicated she was ready to stop. Her father, sensitive to her
signals, prepared to take her out. David remarked, ‘I’m going to splash a
little water over your head, Nina. In between splashes she looked at him as
if to ask, “How am I supposed to react to this?” Her father’s reassuring
tones told her everything was okay, and Nina’s wide-eyed gaze told him that
this was a nice way to play. OPPORTUNITIES ARE CREATED Swimming is only one of the bonuses which Nina
gets. Her parents put their emphasis on establishing a deep family bond and
everything that they do builds upon this ideal. Nina’s mother, Kalli, carries her from room to
room, quietly talking to her as she does things throughout the house. David
sings to Nina and moves her arms and legs in time to the music. He holds her
over his head, or, while holding her hips and sides, gently swings her upside
down. Kalli and David both read to Nina, and she
eagerly babbles as she listens and looks at the pictures. At different times
during the day, they also place her on her stomach on a warm, smooth floor.
This allows her to work at crawling along on her stomach. To aid her in this,
her hands, feet, elbows and knees are left bare to help her gain traction. All of the crawling which Nina does now brings
her closer to one day creeping on her hands and knees. Actually, the more
opportunities she gets to practice ANY skills suited to her level of
development, the more she is enabled to grow into the next stage. Knowing
this, her parents create opportunities for her to explore her world in
countless, pleasurable ways. This exciting process takes a lot of love and
a lot of work. For David an Kalli, it means allowing a little girl to be
herself, while helping her to test the heights of her ever-expanding world. Basic Principles TO MOTHER IS TO TEACH FUNNY WAYS TO DO
ORDINARY THINGS A European expert* on children’s
physical development says that: • newborns
ought to have five periods daily of five-to-ten minutes each for movement
activities; • from
about six weeks up to six months
old, an infant needs three thirty-minute periods each day for such exercise;
and • from six
months to around three years a child needs
exercise for three l- to l-1/2-hour periods daily! A REGULAR PROGRAM Parents determined to give their children an
optimal start on life need to help their young children spend at least those
amounts of time in enjoyable but vigorous physical movement to insure their
physical, mental), and emotional health. Many specialists have written many books on
how to exercise. We recommend your finding one or two you like and
participating with your children in regular periods of daily exercise. ADDITIONAL LEVELS That’s one level at which you can arrange
excellence in your children’s physical development. There are additional
levels. One is less a program than a change in
consciousness; requires little or no extra time, but calls for imagination.
It looks very much like everyday life, but with a difference. A PROGRAM OF DIFFERENCES When you’re with your children as they wake
up, you show them how to stretch themselves in every direction—reaching for
the ceiling and touching the floor. Maybe you show them how to: —hop to the bathroom, —stand on one foot as they brush their teeth, —do pliés
or knee-bends as they towel-dry after a bath, —crawl or creep or skip back down the hall, —roll their eyes in circles as they comb their
hair, and —help each other elephant-walk to breakfast. Once you begin looking for movement possibilities
in the everyday, they may start popping out at you. Walking backwards or sideways down the hall
increases one kind of bodily awareness; somersaulting exercises another. An
efficient way to get dirty clothes from bedrooms to the laundry area is to
put them all in a basket and carry it yourself. Letting your children carry
the clothes—in smaller loads, perhaps—gives their muscles the workout.
However, they might have even more fun running each item to you
separately—maybe in a relay. Walking or running with hands held together
behind their backs would stimulate some internal balancing mechanisms. So
would walking while holding their own ankles. Kicking a ball to the toy box calls for a
certain kind of coordination, as do keeping a balloon up in the air and
jumping through hoops or over pillows. Older children who hear of the handicapped
artist who draws with her feet might want to try it—thus gaining awareness
and control in muscles in their feet. Others could be challenged by the
indomitable spirit of a paralyzed man who devised an alphabet of eye signals
so he could dictate stories. Eye muscles can use exercise too! Getting into the kitchen by crawling under or
over a chair can be another kind of challenge—as much fun as playing leapfrog
on the way to the coat closet. And a popular birthday party “game” can end by
giving each child a healthy treat after all children have, one at a time,
done assigned “tricks” or exercises appropriate to their level of
development. All of these ideas can be done on the sure of
the moment, indoors, with no special equipment. If you add ropes, ladders,
bars, swings, and the like, the possibilities multiply. The child of a mother who’s always thinking up
funny ways to do ordinary things leads an exciting life. The child also
develops a body that responds to all the demands made of it by such an
exciting life! * Liselott Diem in Children Learn Physical Skills, Vol. 1 READY FOR FALL? Most of the problems associated with
children’s winter clothing disappear when everything has a proper place. The
following checklist, created by Linda Guinn, may help you check your
readiness to deal with the deluge of fall clothing: • There is a low hook or bar in the closet
where my children may hang their coats. • There is a special place where my children
can place boots and shoes neatly. (Contact paper foot prints can be a
fascinating reminder of where to place boots.) • My children have an accessible place where
they put mittens, scarves and hats This is a practical way to welcome fall, and
minimize the clothing tangle! THE RELATION BETWEEN MOVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT “The facts are that a child’s character remains
rudimentary unless he finds opportunities for applying his powers ‘of movement to his
surroundings.” Maria Montessori The
Absorbent Mind Mental and physical development are
interdependent. Several forms of movement are important for
optimal development in infancy. INTERDEPENDENCE The complex interdependence of our bodies and
minds is currently a popular subject for research. In Bodymind—a
fascinating overview of the field in the 70’s—Ken Dychtwald tells of a
therapist who can look at someone’s body, watch the person moving, and can
then accurately describe major psychological influences in that individual’s
life. Another sample of body-mind interplay is seen
in the ability each of us has to extend the range of a muscle’s movement by
thinking. Teachers trained by Moshe Feldenkrais, and others, can lead
students through an exercise, next have them remain still but think their
bodies through that exercise several times, then try moving through it again.
They find they can do it better, with a fuller range of movement! An equal
amount of time spent physically practicing the exercise would also have extended
the range, but usually not as much! It works so well that many serious
athletes now make extensive use of mental imagery in their training. The body-mind connection in adults is
intriguing. This physical-mental link in young children may prove even more
fascinating, however. Close observers of childhood are convinced that we are
designed from birth to want to move——that we are designed to develop
optimally——and that the best parents can do for infants is to provide them
abundant opportunity to implement that design. BEING TALKED TO One remarkable finding is that if we just keep
our babies with us and talk to them a lot, we are providing them with—among
other things—physical exercise! David Lewis reports, in his highly informative
The Secret Language of Children, on the
work of Dr. William Condon of This is certainly interesting enough, and
might lead to the conjecture that we learn to “dance” to the rhythm of speech
as we learn to speak—if it were not for the work with babies. Did you see
them on television, the slow-motion films of infants making “almost
imperceptible but perfectly synchronized movements of the body and limbs”?
Those tiny movements were synchronized with each syllable being spoken to
them! Talking to our babies provides them many significant psychological and
mental benefits; it also gives them physical exercise of a special kind! ON THEIR STOMACHS Another form of movement infants are designed
to have is the crawling-creeping continuum. At In fact, healthy babies are able to crawl on
their stomachs at birth if we let them. Because it may take them a few
minutes to move themselves even an inch, the movement may seem unimportant to
us. Actually, the feedback they get from contact with a flat surface is
stimulating to their brains in and of itself. In addition, the more opportunity
they have to practice these tiny increments of movement on their own, the
more thorough will be their development, the sooner they will creep and then
walk, and the readier they will be for talking and reading. IN THE WATER A third opportunity for movement that babies
are well-equipped for is swimming. Persons familiar with the Leboyer method
of childbirth are aware of the pleasure newborns show when being gently
supported in a tank of warm water. Others may know from Claire Timmerman’s
How to Teach Your Baby to Swim, that newborns float easily by themselves—and
go on to swimming well, if given frequent opportunity and help. Perhaps fewer persons have heard of Dr. I. A.
Charkoysky of the ROCKING, SWINGING, SPINNING, UPSIDE DOWN All over the world, mothers rock their babies;
fathers toss their toddlers into the air; and children swing, spin, and hang
upside down. Now Dr. David Clarke at SIMPLE THINGS The most important position for babies is in
their parents’ arms. After that, it seems, come being talked to, being on
their stomachs, being in the water, and being rocked, spun, and held in
different positions. They are simple things, all. PARENTING FOR EXCELLENCE — Volume I, No. 6 — June
1981 Parenting
for Excellence is published ten times per year by The Stelle
Group. Subscriptions are sold by the volume, with volumes beginning in
January. Subscription rates are $15 for one year, and queries about subscriptions
and delivery should be sent to The Stelle Group, ____________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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