Why do children always move?  Why can’t they sit still?  Movement is essential to children and their overall growth and learning.  When a child moves, they are making neural connections which are necessary not only for movement, but for speech, comprehension, focussing near and far and many other tasks that they will need for school and life in general.

Movement is a child’s way of practicing concepts that are learned.  They experiment and sometimes their body is telling them to move and you can no sooner stop it than hold back the tide.

When a child is learning how to walk their brain is telling them to “walk walk walk walk”.  Their body needs the repetition for the brain to map the movement and for the correct neural connections to be made strong. The vestibular system needs to upgrade and all the muscles and tendons and thousands of messages that run through the body from brain to toes need repetition to be made strong.

The brain will continue to tell the child to upgrade and practice until the skill is learned so let them walk!  Create safe places for them and let them do what is essentially their “work” for those weeks.

The same is true when a child needs to upgrade their vestibular system prior to jumping, hopping or walking on a beam.  They will spin, roll or stimulate the system in similar ways for about 6 weeks prior to the new skill being learned.  It is fascinating to watch and when you know what is happening, you are less frustrated and can provide them with what they need to learn.

 

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Filed under: Child Development

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