THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVEMENT FROM BIRTH use are the ones they keep. With this in mind we need to offer babies as many activities and opportunities to move and explore their environment as we can. A parent plays a large role in this as parent/carer and baby interaction is one of the most important factors in a babies’ development and can dictate the amount of movement experiences they are exposed to. SO HOW CAN WE HELP A BABY ‘USE’ ITS BRAIN? As parents we love to see our babies start to move; their first roll, crawl and walk is a real milestone. But it’s much more than that, of course, as without plenty of natural movement, babies and toddlers run the risk of experiencing developmental delays in all areas of life. Movement is not just about a babies’ physical development, it is necessary for developing a healthy brain by making those all-important neural connections. Movement in fact, helps to create nerve cell networks and neural wiring in the brain and throughout the body – in infancy and throughout life. In infancy, you can literally see the relationship between a baby’s motor development and the resultant learning. With each new experience, new neural connections are made. As parents, we need to be wary of passivity and a lack of natural movement for our children. Still, recent evidence indicates that infants are spending upward of 60 waking hours a week in such things as highchairs, carriers, car seats and the like. That means little to no opportunity for babies to strengthen their muscles – to lift and turn their heads, to push up on their arms, to develop optimal balance, stability and motor skills. It means little to no opportunity for the cross-lateral (right arm/left leg, left arm/right leg) experience gained from crawling and creeping. And because cross-lateral movement activates both hemispheres of the brain and stimulates communication across the corpus callosum (the matter connecting the two hemispheres), being confined affects much more than motor development; it impacts brain development and can later result in problems with reading and writing. During the first year of a babies’ life brain cells are busy making millions of connections. The connections peak at about one year and are eliminated if they are not used. So most importantly the connections that babies regularly
Engaging in movement activities with your baby everyday is a simple way to enhance their development and have them ‘use’ their brain. Here are some ideas: Tummy Time: Giving babies opportunities to lay on their tummy stretching, developing their muscles and gain control of their movements is very important for brain development. Lay a blanket on the floor and give them objects to reach for or speak next to them so they turn to your voice. Baby massage: Massage and loving touch aid emotional bonding and ensure babies from secure attachments. Make time for skin on skin contact with your baby and gently stroke their arms and legs whilst chatting to them in a soothing voice. Baby Yoga and exercises: Fantastic ways to create neural pathways that form the foundations of brain development and later learning. Sing your favourite baby rhyme whilst doing cross lateral movements with your baby’s arms and legs. Music and Dance: Developing a babies’ listening, speech and language skills and paving the way for future development of reading and writing skills. Turn some music on and dance around with your baby, sing nursery rhymes and bounce them on your knee. As above the correct early movement experiences are easy, natural and fun and any parent can do them with their babies. Parents are a child’s first, most important and best teacher. At Mini Monkey Gym we strive to help parents feel confident in their knowledge about their baby’s brain and body development and provide them with developmentally appropriate and loving activities that can be easily accomplished at Mini Monkey Gym and at home.
