Another critical period in early childhood development: Movement

Each Monday I will review a different study guide or study tool. On Tuesdays and Thursdays check in for test-taking advice, tips and reminders. On Wednesdays you may find a post about standardized testing or education in general, and on Fridays articles geared to the parents of children age 0 to 13. Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you. I’m sorry it is late.

In my last Friday post I wrote about the critical period for language development in children.  Another window of opportunity that is open in early childhood is associated with movement.  Young children were designed to move!  They are wiggly for a reason. Neural pathways associated with large muscle movement are being developed from the prenatal period to about age 5. During this time you want to give your child the opportunity to move in as many different ways as possible. Crawl, climb, hop, skip, dance, balance on things, roll a ball, stretch. A toddler tumbling class might be fun, but none of this needs to be formal.

When pediatricians call for less “screen time” for preschool children, we sometimes stop to ask if sitting in front of the TV is harmful.  What if the child is watching something educational? You should consider that the problem might not be what your child is doing as he sits in front of the TV; it might be what he’s not doing.

You can read more about this here.