Learn to Move, Move to Learn The Importance of Physical Skills Development in Children

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Learn to Move, Move to LearnThe Importance of
Physical Skills Development in Children

• Sharon Drew
• sharonannedrew_at_aol.com
• www.smartcc.co.uk

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Prime Areas of Learning Development
Physical Development
These areas are particularly crucial for igniting
childrens curiosity and enthusiasm for learning
and for building their capacity to learn, form
relationships and thrive.
Personal Social Emotional Development
Communication Language Development
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Importance of physical skills development?

• Makes new behaviours/learning possible
  cognition/problem solving. It is the childs
  preferred mode of learning because they best
  understand concepts when theyre physically
  experienced.
• Perceptual development is intricately entwined
  with motor development space, body depth

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Getting Connected.......

• Movement creates muscular patterns on which to
  build learning
• The brain develops its neural connections through
  movement - the cells that fire together wire
  together.
• Brain doubles in weight in first 2 years not
  because new cells created but movement helps
  build connections

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Planning Organising and Problem Solving...........

• Movement involves judgment - Assess the situation
  and ability to make the appropriate movement. 
• How hard should I throw?  How fast should I
  run?  How much effort do I need to jump that
  high?  When should I stop?
• Decision-making that is needed in school, and
  social life. 
• "What will happen if...?"  "Should I...?

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• Healthy and happy
• Physical competence/incompetence affects a
  childs self-esteem
• Builds muscle strength, lung capacity and bone
  development
• Crucial for the body control necessary later for
  writing and reading.
• Enables a child to take independent action and
  gain control over personal routines

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A moving child is a speaking child.............

• Gain experiences from the world
• Movement combined with information from the
  senses is the first way in which babies
  communicate with the world

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• Moving together provides opportunities for to
  speak and listen to one another
• Stringing actions together to form sequences is
  similar to linking words to form sentences (and
  eventually paragraphs)
• Activities crossing the body's midline helps the
  brain to communicate across the corpus callosum.
  This integration is essential to the ability to
  read, write, use scissors, dress

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• When children demonstrate the meaning of words
  physically, their understanding of the words is
  more immediate and longer-lasting. E.g. action
  words as stomp, pounce, stalk, or slither

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• Until children have experiences orienting their
  bodies in space by going up, on, under, beside,
  inside, and in front of things, it is possible
  they will have difficulty dealing with letter
  identification and the orientation of symbols on
  a page. 
• Anita Rui Early Childhood Exchange

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• Movement is also..............
• Pleasurable
• Learn about risk
• Set personal challenges
• Sense of purpose and self fulfillment
• Learn motor skills that will be used for a life
  time
• Outlet for energy

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Movement Makes Sense

• Perceive the world through our senses.
• In addition to the usual senses there is
  somatic or body senses
• Which way is up? gravity sensors
• How fast? motion sensors
• Where am I? muscle sensors
• Balance is linked with vision
• What does it feel like? touch sensors

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sensational movement

• As children move in endless ways the sensations
  from these movements lay down 'sensory maps',
  which enhance their perception of their body
  schema. Through using larger full-body
  movements, children begin to learn to relate
  themselves to the space around them (spatial
  awareness)
• Senses link with emotions

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Factors that can hinder physical skill
development.

• Physical - body size, physical growth, strength
• Gender
• Maturation of the central nervous system
• Genetic
• Wellbeing health, diet
• Developmental/cognition
• Family culture, reinforcement of behaviors,
  habits and levels of support, family position
• Environment opportunities/experience to
  practice
• Intrinsic - the child's ability to make choices,
  cooperate, make decisions, and recognize
  outcomes.
• Temperament, sense of self-control, self-esteem,
  and motivation.

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Fundamental Movement Skills

• As children grow and develop, they begin to
  combine and sequence their repertoire
• of physical skills which subsequently provide the
  foundation for the learning of other,
• more specialised movement skills.
• Locomotor Movement
• Movement of the body from place to place e.g.
  crawling, walking, hopping, jumping, running,
  leaping, galloping and skipping. This type of
  movement helps develop gross motor skills.
• Non-locomotor Movement
• Movement of the body while staying in one place
  e.g. pushing, pulling, twisting, turning,
  wiggling, sitting and rising. This type of
  movement helps develop balance and coordination
  skills.
• Manipulative Movement
• Movement that involves controlled use of the
  hands and feet e.g. grasping, opening and closing
  hands, waving, throwing and catching. This type
  of movement helps develop fine motor skills and
  eye-hand coordination.

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Baby Gym building blocks for learning
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• It takes 7-8 years of play and movement to
  provide a child with sensory motor intelligence
  that can serve as the foundation for
  intellectual, social, and personal development
  (Ayres 1995)

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Some Statistics

• WHO more than 22 million children under 5 are
  obese or over-weight
• By 2020
• 1/3 of girls will be obese
• 1/5 of boys will be obese
• 1/3 of adults will be obese
• The UK has the lowest physical activity for
  school children in Europe
• Ref Sian Griffiths President of the Faculty for
  Public Health

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Some Research

• Delay in gross and fine motor skills in 1st year
  (1 in 10 children) was significantly associated
  with delayed cognitive development at the age of
  5years
• Delay in gross motor development also has a
  significant impact on a childs behavioural
  adjustment at 5 years (IOE in Nursery World Feb
  2010 similar study in March Edition Hansen, Joshi
  Dex (Eds 2010))

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• Hands on learning

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Value of Fine Motor Skills

• Children in the first years of school spend 45 -
  55 of their day carrying out fine motor tasks.
• McHale and Cermak (1992)

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Handy Facts

• 27 bones
• The wrist 8
• Palm - five
• Fingers 14
• Palm arches
• Muscles strength/mobility
• Finger/thumb opposition

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Fine Motor

• The ability to co-ordinate the
• action of the eyes and hands
• together in performing precise
• manipulative movements (eye-
• hand co-ordination).
• Includes
• Different grips
• Release
• Tactile Sense
• Strength
• Using eyes and hands together
• Using two hands together
• Hand preference

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The Role of the Practitioner
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Observation and Assessment

• The way the child coordinates actions to move
  around the space - on their feet, bottoms,
  backs, tummies and hands and knees.
• How the child chooses to move and the way they
  experiment/problem solve with movement
• What toys and objects the child likes to try to
  reach for and play with.
• The skills that are developing e.g. crawling,
  climbing, throwing,
• The childs tolerance of sensory experiences of
  movements such, rolling, spinning and rocking.
• How do they feel when handled

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• How the child responds to different types of
  music.
• The way in which the child tries to copy
  movements or repeat skills they have achieved.
• How the child combines movements such as running
  and stopping or climbing and turning.
• The different ways the child uses their bodies to
  express themselves imaginatively.

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• Build on childrens physical skills development
  by planning and resourcing a challenging
  environment which supports and extends specific
  areas of childrens skills.
• Model physical participation and activity. The
  attitude and behaviour of the adult can have a
  profound impact on what happens with the
  childrens learning

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Take it outside

• The outdoors is the best place for young children
  to practice and master emerging physical skills
  and to experience the pure joy of movement.  Its
  also the place where theyre likely to burn the
  most calories, which is absolutely necessary in
  the fight against obesity. 
•  

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Opportunities for...

• Swinging, spinning, sliding and bouncing.
• Moving over different surfaces in different ways,
  different directions and speeds
• Climbing, balancing and jumping off.
• Collecting, handling, transporting, pulling and
  pushing objects.
• Traveling around over, under and through
  obstacles.
• Grasping/releasing, fine and gross, and use 2
  hands together.
• Taking risks and challenge themselves.

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• EYE acknowledge importance of movement in
  children's development and has been more often
  than not considered as a channel to children's
  cognitive social and emotion development rather
  than a feature of learning in its own right!
• Movement only becomes an issue when a delay in
  development is identified

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SUMMARY