Moving with the Brain in Mind

1. Nemours is grateful to Linda Carson, Ed.D. for permission to use and reprint this presentation, Moving with the Brain in Mind

2. Moving with the Brain in Mind

3. Clap Your HandsTouch Your ToesTurn Around And Put Your Fingers On Your NoseFlap Your ArmsJump Up HighWiggle Your Fingers And Reach For the Sky

4. Physical Health and Development • Gross Motor Skills • Fine Motor Skills • Health Status and Practices • Progress in physical growth, strength, stamina, and flexibility • Nerve connections between muscles and the brain are needed for progress to take place. • Early brain growth and movement

5. Physical Health and Development • Gross Motor Skills • Fine Motor Skills • Health Status and Practices • Planned and facilitated physical activities and movement experiences enhance early brain development, neurological organization, sensory integration (includes vestibular and tactile processing), visual and auditory processing and coordination.

6. The Child is a Mind/Body • The brain and the body can be thought of as a coordinated unit. • The brain supports all motor functions, and movement stimulates all areas of the brain. • Brain and muscles work together to execute the movement tasks.

7. Early Brain Development • Consistent, repeated, and multi-sensory learning experiences strengthen brain network connections. • They lead to gains in cognitive understanding and an increased ability to retrieve the information in new situations.

8. Early Brain Networks • Incoming sensory, perceptual, and movement information defines and “wires” the young child’s brain. • Brain networks are strongest in early childhood: by age 3, 80% of the connections are already made. • “Physical activity stimulates the body to create a hormone that acts like Miracle Gro for the brain.” -John Ratey, Harvard psychiatrist

9. Use It or Lose It • Movement and physical activity are primary brain builders. • Brain cell connections and networks are pruned away as a result of limited stimulation and inactivity, or non-use.

10. Left Brain – Right Brain: Practice Using Both • The corpus collosum – the tissue dividing the two hemispheres of the brain • Important for transmission of information between hemispheres • Physical movements crossing the midline need to be introduced. • Examples: Making Circles & Zigzags

11. Cross Multiple Midlines • Left/Right • Top/Bottom (Up/down) • Front/Back • Children develop: • HEAD to TOE • CENTER-OUT

12. Clap Your HandsTouch Your ToesTurn Around Put Your Fingers On Your NoseFlap Your ArmsJump Up HighWiggle Your Fingers And Reach For the Sky

13. Nourish Their Brains • Glucose – primary source of energy for the brain • The brain of a 4-5 year old uses twice as much glucose as an adult’s. • A healthy balance of fruits, veggies, protein, and whole grains supplies glucose to the developing brain. • MVPA is needed to pump blood to transport glucose to the brain.

14. Water Their Brains • The bodies of children are 65% water; however, their brains are 85% water. • A child’s brain needs water throughout the day to function properly. • Because children metabolize faster than adults, they can become dehydrated faster than adults.

15. Feeling Down, Move Around • Oxygen: The brain requires more oxygen than any other organ of the body because of its high rate of metabolism. • Lack of oxygen impairs learning and attention. • MVPA needed to pump blood to transport oxygen to the brain. • Example Activity (My Heart Says Thanks song on CD or chant)

16. Thank You Thank You Thank you When I Eat My Fruit, My Heart Says Thanks When I Eat My Veggies, My Heart Says Thanks When I Drink My Milk, My Heart Says Thanks When I Rest and Sleep, My Heart Says Thanks But When I Move---Jump---Hop---Run in place My Happy Healthy Heart Says (repeat) Thank You, Thank You, Thank You…… Bump, Bump, Bump, Bump, My Heart Says Thanks!

17. BALANCE What system controls a person’s motion awareness and stabilizing abilities in shared space? Vestibular

19. The Body Trains the Brain • Early and appropriate movement experiences build neural connections in the brain. • Balance, manipulation, rhythms, midline activities, vestibular activities, & perceptual-sensory activities assist learning.

20. Balance

21. Rhythms and Manipulatives • Children should be able to demonstrate rhythmic activities while seated before being expected to do rhythmic activities while standing or traveling. • It is challenging for a young child to use two halves of the body to do a single task. • The “Hokey-Pokey” is what it’s all about!

22. Rhythms and Manipulatives • Tapping RHYTHM STICKS (PVC pipe -1/2 inch diameter) • Marching with hands touching knees

23. This Is My BodyI’m Going to Treat It RightMy Bones and MusclesMy Heart and My MindThis Is My BodyIt’s Mine, All MineMy Arms and My LegsMy Ears and My Eyes

24. When I am moving, I am learning!!