Little bodies need play, not stillness
By Judith Ashton
Many children have just started school and teachers see a lot of fidgeting. The infants being the “worst offenders”!
It’s un-natural for a 3 – 6 year old to sit still for hours when the natural language of the body is movement, feeling and touch; these are their means of exploring the world of wonders into which they have recently arrived. If you watch nature programmes, young animals are all playing, exploring, eating or asleep…. Rarely still.
In our present school system, kids have to pay attention by sitting still in an upright position for long periods. Kids are naturally full of beans, with energy to burn.
There are numerous natural body positions for youngsters: eg. Lounging, moving, dancing, rolling, climbing, tumbling, wrestling, jumping, skipping, hopping, spinning, twisting, turning, falling etc. Sounds familiar? As a kid I never walked, I was constantly in motion.
Today, many children lead sedentary lives, some playgrounds ban chasing games, running, leapfrog, skipping ropes, hop, skip and jump etc for fear of falling and litigation. Even the sand pit has gone for fear of grains in eyes!
Research from the early 1980’s shows that children, had good core strength and good balance because of movement and mobility. Today only 1 in 12 children has good core strength and balance. What is this telling us about our children’s developing bodies? I am convinced that it’s because they are not moving enough or getting enough exercise, and I believe that this is why many are fidgeting and getting ADHD diagnoses.
Movement is not an option for a healthy body and mind but an essential part of daily activity. Children need to move in a multitude of ways for most of their waking hours not just using short bursts of energy at regulated times. All young animals need to move and explore with their bodies to make sense of the world around them. Many children are walking about with very poor co-ordination due to restriction of movement. Poor hand eye co-ordination and balance issues can be improved by ball throwing and catching and lots of cross lateral movements like skipping, crawling and hopping. School sport and weekends are fine but movement needs to be frequent, intense and regular. For optimum health, kids need to get out of breath, sweat and get tired out. In short, they need to let off steam … This strengthens their developing bodies, decreases build- up of emotional pressure, is good for healthy relationships, builds self- esteem and encourages healthy tiredness which leads to healthy sleep patterns. Exercise oxygenates the brain making children more alert, motivated and receptive to learning.
Children who lack exercise cannot function properly on many levels. A child’s body needs movement and exercise which stimulate growth and optimum function: the child’s skeleton, muscles, digestive system, nervous system, lymphatic system etc. are all enhanced.
Inhibiting children (especially the youngest ones in schools) from moving by forcing them to conform to stillness and making them pay attention, is to rob them of the joys and benefits of movement which are their rightful and natural states during childhood. Making them endure un-natural stillness and silence is bound to create trouble down the line for both mind and body. Might I suggest, this un-natural lack of movement and exercise is the root of much fidgeting and a possible over- diagnosis of ADHD?
To learn and to get the most out of school, children need to be able to pay attention. To enable them to pay attention we need to encourage our kids to move, walk, run, hop, skip, jump, climb, fall, dance and twist and turn. In other words, to mobilise every part of their body as often and as much as possible so that they can be happy, well balanced, healthy, sleep well at night and fidget less during the day.
