How to improve your child’s coordination



Now is the time for “movement snacks”

Improve your childs coordination with movement


Once your child begins to walk and talk, you soon realize with astonishment how much they can actually do on their own – both good and bad. But one thing they cannot do – at least in our modern world, especially our winter lockdown world – is move as much they need to in order to develop the necessary coordination to have a healthful, full life of physical engagement.

ParentsBrock Armstrong – AKA “the Get Fit Guy” – knows these difficulties, but maintains you can still do right by your kids by introducing them to “movement snacks.” 

As he writes: “Similar to not simply giving your child one big meal per day, which would probably leave them grumpy, trying to give them all of their movement in one big recess or PE class per day is typically going to have them first exhausted and then rambunctious.

“There are also little things called mechanoreceptors in all of their little developing bones that can only feel certain styles of movement. Based on those styles of movement, there are important chemical changes created by the different angles and bone positions a child uses.”

To help you help your child build coordination, he offers a list of types of movement exercises, many of which are perennial and timeless, the very opposite of sedentary playing of video games or watching television, which everybody knows will turn your kid into a miserable slug. Armstrong’s list reads like an account of middle-aged me running around an early 70s playground.

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Armstrong advocates what he calls Structured or Unstructured Play, for example playing tag, jumping rope, throwing and catching a ball. “Anything that involves moving their bodies (and having fun doing it) is on the table here.”

Other suggestions include Walking, Hanging from the Upper Body, Hanging from the Lower Body, and Swinging through Space using swinging on “traveling rings.” 

Armstrong is also a fan of Crawling, Running, and, my favorite: Falling Down.

As to Falling Down, he writes: “Believe it or not, falling down (and getting back up again) contributes to building strength and coordination. It does wonders for the development of proprioception, our innate awareness of where our bodies are in space.”

Armstrong strongly advises not purchasing “a bunch of expensive toys” or enrolling your child in time-consuming lessons. Rather, simply take a walk – actually a lot of walks – with your youngster. Just like old times.

Thanks to Parents.com.



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