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Children Need to Move to Learn

Read this newsletter online here: The Whole Child Issue #86

Amongst some old files, I came across an interesting snippet of rather dated information (from the 1980's).

It said, "An UNESCO study shows that physical activity has decreased by 75% in urban American children between the ages of three and seventeen."

Unfortunately, I have no idea what time periods were being compared, but I'll bet that the situation has not improved in the last 20 years since then. Chances are, with all our modern gizmos for entertainment, that it has stayed the same at best, or got WORSE.

At a time of their lives when children should be moving and active, they are becoming more and more sedentary. The increased incidences of obesity, hyperactivity and learning difficulties are associated with the increase in passive entertainment of children.

Why should children move more?

From conception onwards a child's brain and nervous system progresses through a highly ordered chronological series of stages of development, each of which are crucial for later learning and development. Stress of various kinds - emotional, environmental, physical or academic may prevent the completion of a stage and this could result in learning or other difficulties.

A child learns to comprehend the world around him through his senses. As nerves are stimulated in repeated patterns during baby- and childhood, they form pathways and set up permanent networks in the brain, which facilitate learning and development.

Touch is a highly important activator of environmental learning and is the primary means of early environmental learning. There are a greater mass of touch receptors in the mouth and fingers than anywhere else on the body - so children need to touch to explore the world and to develop their brains.

By exploring the three dimensional world through movement and touch, children learn to conquer those dimensions and learn important concepts for MATHS, READING AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION.

Through exploring and moving, children learn to focus their eyes, listen to sounds, co-ordinate eyes and ears with muscle control. They develop their gross motor skills which need to be well developed in order to hold and support the body and limbs when the eyes and hands are ready to work together and perform fine motor skills for the learning process.

Children who are offered learning experiences that don't require moving and touching are more likely NOT TO DEVELOP the concepts and skills they need to reach their full potential.

So encourage your children to play "old-fashioned" games that require high levels of motor activity, balance, co-ordination, reasoning and planning.

Try hop scotch, leap frog, handstands and cartwheels, rolling down grassy embankments, swinging, riding on bikes, roller blades, skateboards. Trampolining is also an excellent activity to stimulate the brain.

Most importantly, get away from YOUR gizmos, set an example by getting active and enjoy playing WITH your children!

Click here for a list of Toys and Games for Children that will encourage their development rather than inhibit it!

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Whenever you feel insecure as a parent, remember this:

"Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic."

~ Unknown

Regards Shirley

P.S. Activities will be posted again next time!

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