Early Learning

Movement Matters

Young children love to move. There is a rhythm to the way children engage with their surroundings in action and in thought. They learn through their interactions and connections to the physical world and embrace every opportunity to participate in robust, vigorous movement.

With this understanding, ELC teachers ensure that there are many opportunities for children to engage in large muscle activity during the course of each day. Specific periods of time are allocated for energy-expending activities that allow for free, unrestricted movement in both the indoor and outdoor environments. All areas of the school campus, including the large, obstacle-free, open spaces of the ovals and tennis courts, are utilised to allow children the opportunity to run freely and unhindered.

There is no doubt that ‘big-body’ play is essential to a child’s healthy growth. Brain research indicates that there is a direct relationship between large body movement activities and other areas of a child’s development. Active movement and exercise link directly to brain stimulation in these very early years and is essential to the formation of intellect. Cross-patterning activities such as crawling, marching and climbing are important movement skills that integrate the left and right sides of the brain. Young children experience the world through their senses and motoric ability. Preschool children’s bodies, as much as their minds, are the organ of intelligence. Their ‘bodyminds’ require that they move and be moved by their surroundings.

Children also need a wide variety of movement experiences, especially through natural play opportunities, to enhance their perceptual motor development. A child who climbs, teeters on a balance board, skips and tumbles on the grass, has a greater chance of developing good co-ordination than a child who sits placidly in a chair watching television or scrolling on an iPad.

Unfortunately, childhoods are very different from those of 20 years ago. Backyards have become smaller and trips to the local park have become rare adventures for many children. In our hurried lives, there seems to be less time for uninterrupted physical activity.

The ELC curriculum and the manner in which it is implemented, reflect the importance of vigorous activity. The children are in constant motion, whether involved in the more formalised physical education classes and swimming lessons, or when participating in day-to-day activities. Enquirybased learning is a hands-on approach that, by its very nature, utilises and encourages movement and action.

Deborah Hendren Head of Early Learning