It's all about stories!: Movement - Your child's first language and some favourite picture books about movement and physical development

I've been reading Sally Goddard Blythe's "Movement, your child's first language" from Hawthorn Press, so here's a short review, followed by some of my favourite picture books dealing with movement & physical development; and some of our favourite things to do and explore locally to get us moving.

The book starts from a similar premise to the previous title I reviewed (Reclaim Early Childhood). Sally Goddard-Blythe calls it "accelerationism" - a runaway pressure to learn end goals (like reading and writing) without first ensuring firm foundations are put in place (like fine motor development, listening, attention, hearing stories, gross motor development etc etc). The first 3-3 1/2 years are critical for brain development, and parents and carers can help through giving children opportunities, experiences and influences for "preparing" children for later formal learning by fostering the development of sensory-motor skills. The author says "movement is our first language" - we begin to understand their postures, gestures and movements as expressions of needs and responses - body language - which incidentally forms a significant part of our communication throughout life.

Development of posture, balance and co-ordination are all needed for later reading, writing and sitting. Babies's basic needs are warmth, nourishment, closeness, attachment to carers who provide love, sensory experience, exploration and engagement. In other words, simply holding, being there and engaging is enough, and as the author says, there is no real need for the endless plastic equipment we are encouraged to purchase which is a distraction from the basic needs.

Movement experiences help babies understand where they are in space and where their body parts are in relation to one another; and to be able to go from supine to standing in the first year or so. This book is about how music along with movement assists brain development. And interestingly (but a bit obvious if I think about it), music is essentially movement (rhythm) and the mantra is that we must sow the seeds of advanced skills like reading, writing and maths in a "fertile ground of attachment, physical development, sensory processing and socialisation".

In chapter 2 Sally Goddard-Blythe describes the "primitive reflexes" babies are born with as a basic survival strategy, later being integrated into reactions controlling posture, balance and co-ordination. These include the Moro reflex, that one where you think the doctor's going to drop your newborn baby and they react by reaching out and gasping. Babies gradually learn to control their bodies, integrating these physical skills with cognitive processes if given the space and opportunity to do so - as the author points out this is quite different form being placed in a position and entertained by electronic devices. We then learn about the innate need for touch, and the touch reflexes - that one where the baby grasps your finger and won't let go. The author shows how touch is important not only for sensing things like pain or heat, but also for working out where their bodies are in relation to other bits of themselves and the environment around them; and also how touch reflexes are important to speech development. We discover the other innate reflexes babies have such as to suck, for obvious reasons, and those which help them to develop control over their posture, such as head control in the first few months. Most of these reflexes disappear in the first year of life, but some are present throughout life (blinking, sneezing and yawning for instance).

In the next chapter the author tells of meeting the Russian physician and musician Michael Lazarev who made the connection, in the unborn child, between "the music of language... and the language of movement", through the mother's voice. Lazarev went on to write a series of songs and poems that use this connection to support children's development in the early years. He looked to optimise the potential of sounds to help the prenatal brain develop. The author goes on to make the point that singing enables children to start practising the sounds of speech - hence the importance (for me) all through the early years of singing nursery rhymes together.

The book contains 2 CDs. The first "Wings of Childhood" is Lazarev's series of songs to sing along or move to - as the characters of the stories, which are specially designed to practice early stages of movement and to strengthen neural pathways between brain and body, from sea anemones to lizards to butterflies. There follow some stories "Early morning in the pond" and "A day in the garden" encouraging children to actively listen and move. It's stressed that all of this is part of "informal play", during which children practice emerging postural control and develop their senses of touch, balance and proprioception. The stories are narrated on a 2nd CD enclosed in the book.

We also discover the importance of movement and physical development in later learning of important concepts such as number. And Piaget, Montessori, Steiner and Hebb all recognised the fundamental role of physical development and physical movement in learning. Chapter 7 discusses these ideas, linking them to the need for rich learning environments as well as the need for play to continue throughout life, as "creative urges are explored and realised" - holding on to some of the awe and wonder of childhood (and we all know that continued learning is good for our brains as we get older).

Throughout the book the author gives charming anecdotes from her childhood or her children's early years to illustrate and enhance the material.

Finally the author goes on to look at the trend for boys to be behind on staring school and how positive aspects of the differences between boys and girls can be nurtured in educational environments, so that boys may have equality of opportunity in education. She compares Finland where formal schooling begins at 7, with the UK where we often have over-high expectations (as in the current debate about the Early Learning Goals).

The big connection to take home from this introduction to how music and movement assist brain development is - music developed from movement, because music is rhythm, drum beats... movement. A highly recommended read for practitioners in the early years, and parents, who want to understand these important connections, and are interested in how to foster this at home or in the early years setting.

Here are some of my favourite books about...movement and physical development -

The animal boogie by Debbie Harter and Fred Penner

Giraffes Can't dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

Angelina Ballerina by Katherine Holabird and Helen Craig

ABC yoga by Christiane Engel

From head to toe by Eric Carle

And here are some of our favourite "moving" things to do... chasing leaves, running races between the trees, giving the trees a hug, feeling a sense of well-being outside, making footprints in the snow, exploring yoga poses and listening to our breathing, climbing he little hills at the local woods.