Learning Through Movement

Learning Through Movement is a guest post by Chynna Laird.  Here is a brief introduction to Chynna and you can read more at the close of the post:

CHYNNA TAMARA LAIRD is a psychology student, freelance writer and author living in Edmonton, Alberta with her three daughters [Jaimie (six), Jordhan (four), and baby Sophie (one)] and baby boy, Xander (two and a half). Her passion is helping children and families living with Sensory Processing Disorder and other special needs.

Much research conducted by leading child development experts suggests, and I completely agree, that children learn best when they’re moving and exploring. Unfortunately, most public school settings don’t provide children with enough opportunity for movement.

Yes, children get recess twice a day but this only offers fifteen minutes, twice a day—half-an hour in total—for fun, games and free play. Half-an hour out of their entire school day! And this can be a real problem for those students with specific disorders, such as ADHD or SPD, who have difficulty with sitting still for large blocks of time. Such students need that extra free play and fun time to release their pent up energy or stresses and get their brains and bodies more organized for learning.

Initially, this was a major issue I had when enrolling my daughter, Jaimie, in public school. Jaimie has SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) and she functions best when she’s given extra opportunities throughout her day to move her muscles. Fortunately, Jaimie had a phenomenal Kindergarten teacher who shared my idea of teaching children through movement. And with leading children experts, such as Carol Stock Kranowitz and Dr. Stanley Greenspan, preaching about the importance of the same thing, how could we be wrong in our vision?

Still, not everyone shares this vision. And it can be a real struggle to make some educational professionals understand this idea. But if we teach them that little things worked into the regular curriculum can make a huge difference for these children in terms of learning, attention span and other focusing, perhaps they’ll agree.

The following are fantastic ways to work movement into a regular educational setting, whether children are learning at home or at public school:

Have sing-and-dance time. Jaimie’s teacher worked song with body motions into her learning carpet time. There are so many great tunes out there about everything you can imagine, so no matter what you’re teaching there should be a song you can work into the program. Then you simply create hand and body movements to go with it. Kids love music and interactive songs…work with that!

Plant a garden. This is fun and great exercise. Children love getting right in there digging, planting and, if you teach them the right ones to pull out, weeding. For those children in public school, see if the school can provide a small section of the school grounds to use as a place to learn about plants. If they can see how wonderfully children respond to nature, they’d most likely be open to the idea. For those of us with children at home, dedicate a portion of your garden to your little student’s learning. (If you live in an apartment or other rental location with no backyard—as we did for a couple of years—just use big pots or window gardens.) In expensive alternatives to planting pots can be plastic containers or coffee cans.

Have a run around time. If your child is only able to sit for a specific amount of time, make them a deal: “Get this writing/reading/printing assignment done, then you can have five or ten minutes to run around outside or in the gym (weather depending). For your child at home, you can use a funtime in the back yard, a game of catch or some other activity they love. Always use the activities they love—it’s a much greater incentive.

Stretch it out. Get the class to do stretching exercises or give them the chance to walk around the classroom or down the hall in between lessons. Of course this has to be done respectfully because children can’t be disturbing those students still in classrooms. At home, have a short “recess” or “gym time” but use a child’s yoga tape or simply stretch to music.

Provide special jobs. Children can help new students find their way to the classrooms, take messages or other items to the office, or do special jobs for the teacher—anything that can get them up and moving around for a few minutes. For the child learning at home, get them to do a household duty or a special job outside (eg: shoveling the sidewalk, raking, etc.) Most kids love to help out—just be sure to give them something age and ability appropriate.

Heavy lifting, dragging or pushing. Okay, we don’t expect them to be Arnold Schwartzenagger here. But it’s been shown that heavy lifting—carrying the milk jug for snack time, dragging the mats for floor time, carrying the tub of water for wash-up time, pushing a wheelbarrow, wall pushups or other such physically exerting activities—can be great “calm down” strategies.

These are just a few suggestions. I’m sure a lot of parents out there can think of other things that have worked with their own children. The entire focus of learning through movement is teaching children how to interact with their environments in a healthy, safe and fun way while learning something at the same time.

A good idea to keep in mind is that a lot of children with sensory issues or disorders such as ADHD or autism need a counteractive calming strategy to use after a stimulating one. This teaches appropriate self-regulation as well as learning when he or she needs a stimulating activity to get the sillies out or when a calmer activity to organize their little bodies would be more appropriate. This is especially important for children with SPD, ADHD, Asperger’s, Autism or other similar struggles.

Movement and play are so important to a child’s development. We need to ensure they get that time to explore, investigate and play. We did Play Therapy with Jaimie, which emphasizes giving children a required amount of free play each and every day. It also encourages parents to get right down there and play with their children.

Whatever activities you choose to do, it will make a world of difference in the long run…you’ll see!

You’ll find Chynna’s work in many online and in-print parenting, inspirational, Christian and writing publications in Canada, United States, Australia, and Britain. She’s most proud of her children’s picture book, I’m Not Weird, I Have SPD, which she wrote for Jaimie. In addition, she’ll have a memoir about raising a child with SPD out in August of 2009 and a reference book about the Sensory Diet coming January 2011.

Please visit Chynna’s website at www.lilywolfwords.ca to get a feel for her work and what inspires her.