 ©
2000 Annie Brook. All rights reserved.
Developmental Movement: Foundations for
Growth
As you watch your infant struggle to roll or crawl, have you ever
wondered what is the best way to help them? Years of study of the
developmental patterns common to most infants have given us some
good ideas for you. Recently a group of Body-Mind Centering®
practitioners and mothers trained extensively in developmental patterning
were asked "What are simple things parents can do to support
their child's motor development?" Here are some of their answers.
Be on the floor with your baby and stay on their physical level
as much as possible.
If you can't be on the floor, keep your child on a high bed or
push a table in a corner and make a place for them there. Have your
face at their level, engage in eye contact and hold their belly
to your belly when nursing. Support their feet when nursing.
Verbally engage with your child without asking them questions.
Often, well-meaning adults will ask infants how they are, or what
they are doing, or if they want to come with Mother? This overactivates
the high brain. It is better simply to notice them, such as "It
is so good to see you!" Or to praise them, and to use statements
such as "We are going to the store now."
Keep your children as clothing-free as they feel comfortable.
One mother has a small room her family calls the 'Club Med' because
it is kept warm year round. Expose your child's skin to different
sensations and temperatures. Brush their skin with different textures
such as feathers, soft cloth, and rough things as well. This stimulates
their proprioceptive nerves that affect balance and coordination.
Avoid shoes as much as possible.
Stiff shoes often bind the toes and feet, reducing their flexibility.
Developing a full range of toe coordination is vital in all movement.
Let your babies and toddlers feed themselves.
Let eating be an artistic food mess. This creative play helps to
develop the hand-to-mouth reflexes that support grasping, reaching
and receiving. Bathe them after eating.
Use small soft panties rather than bulky diapers.
Bulky diapers can inhibit the development of the hip socket, causing
a child to spread the legs too wide and torque the hip before the
joint is fully formed.
Feed and hold your baby from both sides.
This helps both you and your baby to develop bisymmetry. When your
toddler is walking, encourage bilateral awareness by giving him
or her things to reach toward with both the right and left hands.
Learn to observe what is happening with young ones before interrupting
them.
Notice whether they are learning something new. What looks like
making a mess of the kitchen cupboards may be an experiment in sorting
and stacking.
When your baby is first learning to move independently, do not
interrupt.
Often the baby is responding to an external stimulus that we are
unaware of as he or she busily crawls toward a crumb on the floor.
It is common to see mothers come up from behind and scoop up their
babies. This can teach them patterns of interruption rather than
patterns of completion. It also fosters the baby's inability to
focus and follow through with tasks. When you must move your infant,
simply tell him what you are about to do so he knows what is happening
and why.
Be aware of your baby's abilities and stages of development.
When we sit or stand babies up before their internal muscular support
has developed, they learn to lock and brace the joints, especially
in the legs and low back. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, the founder of
Body Mind Centering, speculates in her book, Sensing, Feeling
and Action, that many adults' low-back problems stem from being
sat up too early as babies. For normal muscular development, let
your babies and toddlers find their pathways to sitting and standing.
One new mother had adopted a premature baby when he was three weeks
old. He had tight flexion in his muscles. His left thumb was closed
inside his fist and his left eye closed. This mother brushed his
hand and kissed his fingers and toes to help bring sensation and
attention to his outer extremeties. In just a few weeks, his left
hand opened up and became much less contracted. From her Body Mind
Centering training, this mother knew the appropriate sequence of
developmental reflexes to support and guide her baby's growth.
Lastly, listen to your baby.
Match their innate childlike qualities of attention and presence
with yours. Look into their eyes to acknowledge their essence. Feel
that place of wordless communication. This will help you both develop
deeper levels of intimacy. It might take some practice to do this
– parents often jump up at these moments and get busy. If we
get too busy or too concerned with correct parenting we miss opportunities
to foster spirit-to-spirit contact with our young ones.
Be Aware of Your Baby's Physical Development.
Below is a diagram illustrating aspects of physical development.
© 2001 Annie Brook. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from book
From Conception to Crawling.
Book available here.
|
