“Movement is key to learning. Movement and dance activities such as crawling, creeping, rolling, turning, walking, skipping, reaching and swinging are essential for a toddler and a young child’s brain development.” These activities help strengthen muscles, nerves, brain cells, speech centers and vision, so your child can use their hands, eyes and body more efficiently to eat, play, draw, write and read.
Choose 5-10 minutes of these motor exercises:
Crawling under, over and around furniture or through a tunnel if you have one
Crashing into a mound of pillows and being playful with your child after they land. You can include language like “Ready, Set, Go” “One, Two, Three,” or singing traditional nursery rhymes “Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall…”
Laying on belly and going for blanket rides
Building a mini obstacle course with chairs, jumping on stickers, pretending to be an animal (hopping like frog, crawling like a bear, wiggling like a worm, moving slow like a turtle on hands and knees, etc)
Massage your child’s head, arms and hands using deep pressure to wake up sensation and muscles of the upper body before practicing one of these fine motor activities
Choose 5-10 minutes of these fine motor exercises:
Putting coins into a piggy bank (make one with an old plastic container if you don’t have one)
Cutting play doh (supervised of course), rolling it out like a long snake, pinching it, rolling it into small balls. If you do not have play doh or putty, there are so many easy to make home made dough. I will share a recipe if you need one!
Practicing putting on or taking off shoes, wiping face, brushing teeth, opening food packages, practicing hand washing or any self care activity they are not able to do on their own.
Drawing shapes, letters or writing sight words or making marks with glue/glitter/sand/markers/crayons/chalk on sidewalk/
Purpose: Sensory motor development provides the foundation
for academic learning, behavioral regulation and language development, so these
skills will improve as your child’s eyes, ears and muscles begin working more
efficiently. Exercises should not be completed without proper
training from your Occupational Therapist.
Frequency: 20-30 minutes/day
Movement
Child must be able to tolerate being on tummy. Playing on tummy highly encouraged during initial phase of therapy.
Primitive Reflex Exercises
Swords (ATNR) x60
Lizards (ATNR) x60
Advanced Lizards (ATNR) x60
Bridge Pose (Moro)
Superman/Superwoman (TLR)
Meatball (TLR)
Stretching cat (STNR)
Snow angels (Spinal Galant)
Stress Ball (Palmar grasp)-whole hand, then thumb opposition with individual fingers
Cheek strokes (Rooting)
Starfish (Pop ups)
Rolling as demonstrated by therapist. 3x to R, 3x to L
Belly Crawling as demonstrated by therapist (The following areas will improve as skill level increases and pons develops)
Visual and auditory attention
Bonding
Perception of danger
Horizontal eye movement (tracking)
Perception of hunger, extreme hot/cold sensations and pain
Vital release (can grasp on to something but can also let go)
Control of heart rate and respiration
Ability to see visual outlines
Sensation and muscle control of the face
Balance
Sound transmission from inner ear to the brain
Crawling on hands and knees (The following areas will improve as skill level increases and midbrain develops)
Balance
Distinction of one face from another
Vertical eye tracking
Hearing and understanding meaningful sounds such as tone of voice
Perception of tactile sensations such as smooth, fuzzy, prickly, and so on
Body awareness
Hand grasp
Filtering and prioritizing of incoming stimuli
Moderation of body functions such as sleep/wake cycles, blood pressure, appetite, body temperature regulation, secretion of enzymes and hormones, secretion and suppression of neurotransmitters
Detailed information about the environment
Most of our cranial nerves are housed in the brainstem. They are the ones that control sensory, facial expressions, tongue movements, eating, breathing and regulation for being calm or alert (sleeping, waking up). The way we develop our brain stem is through creeping (crawling on belly) and crawling (moving on hands and knees). As the sensory input and motor output gets more complex, higher parts of the cortex can properly operate.
Obstacle courses; including tunnel, crawling, climbing, crash pad, scooter board if available
Any use of playground equipment; climbing on monkey bars, swings, hanging from monkey bars
Rhythmic Movement Training (Mimic in many ways the developmental movements that babies and infants naturally and automatically makes as they grow) . Video demonstration further down on page.
Proprioceptive Joint Distraction Exercises (Designed to help center or calm the child while simultaneously increasing brain stimulation). See Wilbarger Brushing Protocol video above.
Aromatherapy (Often associated with a positive change in nonverbal communication, emotional awareness of self and others, immune regulation, digestion, and body/spatial awareness)
These boys are demonstrating a Brain Highways program that addresses lower brain development (sensory and motor). Their website has several great resources and education regarding lower brain development and how important early movement is for speech, cognition, sensory, balance, coordination, fine motor and many more skills needed for higher level learning.
