MOVE IT!

By Rebecca Eddy, MAD Academy

All parents know that young children are bundles of energy looking for opportunities to be active and let off steam. If I don’t give my lively toddler an opportunity to run, climb and ware himself out during the day the whole family will pay for it come bedtime! But allowing children to be physically active isn’t just beneficial for the peace of the family home, it is really important for their health and, perhaps more surprisingly, for their physical and mental development!

Over the past two decades the number of over-weight children has increased alarmingly and the Government estimates that 1 million children are already obese. If nothing changes it is predicted that at least one fifth of boys and one third of girls will be obese by 2020! It has been called a "public health timebomb" (Professor Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum. BBC Friday, 21 April 2006, Child obesity 'doubles in decade' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4930264.stm) Children who are obese are far more likely to become obese adults, a problem which is already responsible for more than 9,000 premature deaths a year in England. (National Audit Office) Research already indicates that there is link between childhood obesity and illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease and there is a growing number of obese children developing type 2 diabetes - normally an illness that manifests itself in middle age!

It seems it is crucial to make physical activity a habit among children from an early age. "Children get less active as they get older so it's vital that youngsters get regular physical activity to lay the foundations for good health as they grow up.” (Dr Mike Knapton of the British Heart Foundation. BBC Friday, 6 October 2006 Young Children Need More Exercise http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5409740.stm ).

But physical activity isn’t just important for children’s health, it’s actually crucial for their development. When babies come into the world they can’t even hold up their heads or control their arms. Every muscle needs developing and strengthening, and coordination takes repeated practice. Giving children opportunities to be active and move helps not only their strength and coordination, but also develops their balance, flexibility and control. It enables them to learn to crawl, walk, run, skip, dance and other gross motor skills. Equally important it allows children to develop their spatial awareness. By moving around a space, children learn how their bodies relate to their environment. Spatial awareness can be learnt by fitting objects into a tin, however getting children to dart around, change direction, weave in between objects and judge distances with their whole bodies, is much more effective.

Giving children the opportunity to move does not just result in huge physical benefits. Few people realise that it can actually help children to grow intellectually as well! Babies are born with billions of brain cells – all they will ever need - but few of them are connected. Learning is all about building the networks in the brain which connect these cells. The more we learn, the more complex those connections become and it is now realised that movement is the key to this learning. (Carla Hannaford, Smart Moves: Why Learning is not all in your head, (1995)).

Numerous scientific studies have shown there to be correlation between physical activity and intellectual performance. In these experiments both children and adults did better in mental tests when they had engaged before in repeated physical activity. Many researchers have all identified this relationship between the physical effects of movement and learning. (Carla Hannaford, Smart Moves: Why Learning is not all in your head , (1995).; Rae Pica ‘Movement and the Brain’, Teaching Elementary Physical Education, 9. (1998). Eric Jensen, Teaching With The Brain In Mind (2005); Eric Jensen, Learning with the Body in Mind (2000)). Firstly, physical activity means the heart pumps faster, sending more glucose and oxygen to the brain, which facilitates brain functioning and so aids learning. This is as true for children as it is for adults. Secondly, recent research has also shown that coordinated muscular movement stimulates the production of neurotrophins – a chemical in the brain that is needed in order to make connections between brain cells!

It has long been known that our brains have two halves responsible for different cognitive functions. We can have a tendency to use only one side or the other when performing a task but when we are able to engage both hemispheres at once, our intellectual potential is increased. It is much easier to learn if we are activating both sides of the brain but in order to do this easily we need to build neural connections across the hemispheres and the key to this is movement! Each hemisphere controls a different side of the body. When we move both sides at once and coordinate the movement – such as marching whilst swinging opposite arms – both sides of the brain have to work together and connections are forged. Children often build these connections naturally. For example, when children crawl the coordination of arms and legs promotes cross-brain development. But we can build on this natural stage by encouraging children to march, skip and dance. And when we combine children’s learning with these actions - for example if they learn new words while marching, or counting while skipping – it is likely to be much more effective.

So we are discovering that allowing children to express their natural desire to move around is really important for both their bodies and minds. However our busy lifestyles today actually reduces the opportunities for children to do this. Babies and toddlers are spending more and more time in high-chairs, car seats and prams; safety concerns mean fewer and fewer children are walking to and from school or playing outdoors; while, after school, sedentary activities predominate, such as homework, watching TV or playing computer games. Physical activity is both difficult to ‘fit in’ to our modern lifestyles and no long a popular choice among children. 

We now have to actively seek out opportunities for children to learn to move and develop their bodies. We need to consciously allow regular physical activity at home and get children involved in organised physical activities. Classes that teach dance or sport provides them with suitable facilities and structured physical learning whilst making it fun and engaging. And the key is to involve children at the earliest opportunity, to both maximise the benefits and to build life-long habits that will ensure our next generation fulfil their enormous potential. 

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