The photo above was taken during my bicycle trip across Italy.

Did you know that almost every square inch of Italy is a hill?  Why did I choose to spend 10 days of vacation pedaling over mountain ranges?  This section will explore plausible explanations to this question.  

“Organizing the Body”  is not about me, though.  This section is intended to help you understand how the child (and adult) use movement and other sensory input to energize and calm the body.

I   Movement obviously is important to complete tasks.  Here is a small list of some of the activities which entail moving one body part or another:

Breathing

Eating

Blinking and using the eyes

Talking

Self help tasks such as dressing, grooming, etc.

Sitting, standing and lying down

II  Movement also strengthens the body to ensure good health:

Cardio vascular fitness

Muscle strength and endurance

Coordination and Balance

III  Movement helps to organize the brain:

Stimulate the areas of the brain which have a significant influence on attention and emotions

Build motor pathways

Facilitate communication between the two sides of the body

Help link centers for sequential learning

Develop flexibility in problem solving and approach to tasks

I and II have been addressed in Building Trunk Strength, Increasing Body Awareness, Hand Strength, Increasing Dexterity, The Big Picture, and The Flip Side of the Story.

Now we turn to how movement actually improves the working of our brains, and why it is so important to keep our children (and ourselves) active.

Bombarding the Brain with Organizing Stimulation:

To borrow Carl Sagan’s quote,  “billions and billions of stars in the universe,”  we have billions and billions of nerve impulses bombarding the brain EVERY SECOND.  Now if you were standing in the middle of Times Square on New Year’s Eve or the French Quarter during Mardi Gras,  or on the trading floor on Wall Street during one of those crashes, you might believe this.  But usually, things seem relatively calm and it is difficult to imagine BILLIONS.  It does indeed seem to be hyperbole.

Amazingly, this is not an exaggeration.  Our brains  process billions of impulses continuously.  How do we manage this constant barage of stimuli? 

Imagine a large metropolitan train station.  Stations like Garre du Nord (Paris) conjure up a pretty good image as you can see  acres and acres of tracks converging.  Hundreds of tracks  merge and then sort out among the tracks in the station. 

The brain has a sorting station much like this.  Stimuli from the eyes, ears, skin, etc. converge in the brain.  The brain then has to decide what information is important and what can be discarded (or more specifically “disregarded”).  Then the  “important” information  needs to be tracked to the correct locations in the brain.  

While a very complex  chemical process,  the actual concept is simple.  Some information is determined important and is immediately sent to the correct center(s) in the brain.  For instance,

“Don’t touch that burner, it is hot!”  immediately goes to the language centers and then motor area to pull the arm away from the stove.

The drip, drip, drip from the faucet is not important and therefore, when the brain is filtering effectively, will be discarded and you will not hear the sound even though it is occurring.  If it has been a particularly difficult day, you might not be filtering as well and the faucet bothers you.

You generally don’t think about how your body feels as it walks across the kitchen, but if you were in a galley kitchen of a boat, where balance receptors were challenged by the rise and fall of the waves, your brain would keep you very aware of how each step felt.

When your furnace goes on (or perhaps air conditioner in warmer climates), you don’t necessarily feel or hear the rumble, but rest assured, the people in  the earthquake torn countries of Haiti and Chili are acutely aware of every tiny vibration they experience right now.

The mechanism that occurs in the brain has to due with nerve cells or “neurons.”  Imagine a whole bunch of + neurons and a whole bunch of - neurons.  This is one case in which negative is not bad.  It is actually good.  The more - nerve cells in the brain, the more efficiently necessary and unnecessary information gets weeded out.  The negative, or “inhibitory” neurons recognize useless information and “damps” them out or erases them, so to speak.  So, on a  good day, the dripping faucet is not heard because the inhibitory neurons are firing away and getting rid of all the annoying stimuli surrounding you.  After a challenging work day,  these neurons might not be working as well so we get overwhelmed, annoyed, stressed or exhausted by all the stimuli. 

Happy News Flash:  We have some control over this system!  The way to activate these inhibitory neurons in the brain is guess what .... by MOVING!  There are nerve cells in the muscles and joints, that send a message up to the brain to activate the inhibitory neurons so they can do a good job filtering all the other information bombarding the brain.

There is a reason why some adults NEED to be long distance runners.  I have had conversations with many of them.  They report that if they do not get to run for a few days, they, “ ...feel like I am going to crawl out of my skin.”  These are the exact words spoken by several different people on completely different occasions.  Why?  Because their brains need extra motor input to boost the filtering system in their brains.  Without this extra input, they become hypersensitive to all the sensations impinging on their bodies throughout the day.

               

                                           Photo:  Eileen Counihan

Now think of  children at a birthday party.  They are so excited by the balloons, music, games, etc. that they start jumping up and down.  Looks like they are getting out of control, but paradoxically it is a good coping strategy to keep their little neurological systems organized.

Jumping up and down stimulates nerve cells called proprioceptors. These trigger inhibition in the brain, thereby helping the brain to figure out what to pay attention to and what to get rid of.  Miraculously, this all occurs on an unconscious level.  If you have to think about not paying attention to something (like a dripping faucet) then the brain isn’t doing its job effectively.

Old school teaching required, not only raising the hand to answer a question, but the child had to stand up to respond.  This seemed heavy handed and has by and large gone by the wayside.  What was thrown out with this tradition was activating muscle and joint nerve cells which traveled up to the brain and re-energize it at regular intervals.

This filtering system becomes more efficient over time.  When a newborn hears a sudden noise,  a startle response occurs and the whole body may become rigid and the infant may begin to wail in distress.  As the baby begins to self regulate, the reaction becomes less severe.  How does the baby learn to self regulate?  A lot has to do with movement and organizing the sensory stimulation.  The more movement the baby, child and adult experience, the more organized they will become. 

For more an expanded look at this refer to: Vocabulary Lesson: Proprioception

                                                                     Why I Love Winter

                                                                     Real Life Examples...

                                                                     Dynamic Balancing

                                                                     The Case for Crawling

Here are some activities to help organize the body at each developmental stage:

Babies:

Wrap tightly in blankets for firm pressure (some infants love this and others do not)

 

Infant Massage

Positioning:  alternate tummy and back positions during waking hours

Photos:  Eileen Counihan

Movement:  As head control improves, provide a variety of movement experiences for the baby.

This includes rocking, bouncing  and airplane flying.  Prior to good head control, these movements can be done gently with added support applied to the head.  As the baby gets stronger, these movements can increase in speed and rigor.  The intensity always is determined by the baby’s communicated enjoyment.  If the baby appears to enjoy the input, continue.  If this upsets the baby, discontinue, or modify until you find the baby’s comfort zone.

   Photos:  Eileen Counihan

Infant swings provide soothing movement stimulation

Toddlers:

Encourage the continuation of crawling and playing on the floor

Encourage rolling activities

New movement experiences include toddler swings, wagon rides, trikes and slides

  Photos:  Eileen Counihan

Preschool:

As motor skills develop, provide opportunities for jumping, climbing, skipping

Wheel barrow walking, crab walking, bear walking

Photo:  Eileen Counihan

 

Small exercise tramps

Photo:  Eileen Counihan

Riding trikes and bikes

Swinging

Photo:  Eileen Counihan

Sipping thick shakes from a straw:  This works the muscles around and in the mouth

Play based tumbling/gymnastic kiddy classes

Swimming

Kindergarten and Early Elementary:

Pumping on swings

Jumping rope

Trampolines

Bike riding

Heavy chewing (gum,  chunks rather than slices of cheese, meats, fruits)

Climbing

Yard games such as Hide and Seek

Sports with lots of movement (soccer, hockey)

Dance

Elementary and Beyond:

Continuation of “heavy work” activities:

Lifting and carrying heavy bags, boxes

Climbing

Sports which incorporate a lot movement should continue.  More complex sports can be introduced:

Lacrosse

Hockey

Skiing

Running

Cycling

Karate/Martial Arts

Dance

Swimming

For additional strategies refer to Building Trunk Strength and Increasing Body Awareness

                  Photo:  Eileen Counihan

Now let’s turn to facilitating communication in the brain.  The brain has two sides, called hemispheres, much like the west and east hemispheres of the earth.  The  brain’s are called the right and left hemispheres.  While there is some redundancy, each side has some specialized aspects to them.  You may have heard of a right brain thinker (artistic, creative and a NON-linear thinker) or a left brain thinker (analytic and organized).  Many of us have a little bit of both.  It is important the both sides “talk” or communicate with each other.

There is a great big band in the brain called the corpus callosum, which provides a bridge between the two hemispheres so that information on one side of the brain can  flow easily to the other side.  Information is shared.  But there are many other places that information passes from one side to the other starting right at the spinal cord.  This is complicated and I would have to get out my neurology text books to impart this information correctly but I suspect your interest would wane.  Suffice it to say that engaging in motor activity increases the communication of information in the brain at all levels.  Bilateral or two sided motor activities enhances this communication even more. 

Bilateral activities are really terrific to do throughout the life span.  Here are some ways to go about it:

Infants and Babies:

When changing a diaper, move the little legs together and back and forth

Play pat-a-cake by holding the baby’s hands and clapping them together

Encourage holding and exploring objects with two hands (refer to Tactile Exploration)

Older Babies and Toddlers:

Encourage crawling, which requires bilateral reciprocal movements (refer to Case for Crawling)

Encourage Cruising, which also begins to establish a bilateral reciprocal movement such as we do when walking

      Photo:  Jill                                                                Photo:  Eileen Counihan

Encourage holding onto objects and toys with two hands

 

  Photo:  Eileen Counihan

Continue with hand play activities

Preschool:

Catching and pushing a ball with two hands

Bopping balloons with two hands

       Photo: Eileen Counihan

Tactile exploration with two hands (refer to Tactile Exploration)

Bilateral reciprocal skills develop (e.g. scissor cutting)

Learning to Swim and pedal a bike

Helping in the kitchen (stirring, rolling out dough)

Kindergarten and Early Elementary:

Introduction of sports with tools (e.g. baseball, tennis, golf, croquet, badmitton)

Continue with all the activities listed above

Sous chef continues (grating and zesting, peeling)

Older Elementary and Beyond:

Any of the activities reviewed above that require coordinated use of two arms and two legs will continue to develop bilateral motor coordination and correspondingly continue building organization in the brain.

Adults often gravitate to sports such as tennis and golf because they provide a big motor challenge involving both sides of the body.  While someone may hold the racquet with one hand, the other is important to ready the racquet.  Good form requires a follow through ending with the racquet in both hands.

Sports such as running, swimming and cycling have more rhythmic bilateral movements which can be organizing and soothing to the brain. 

Sports such as hockey,  incorporate rhythmic movements (skating) with the complexity of tennis so it is a double whammy bilateral sport.

For the less athletic still looking for the integration of bilateral activity, creative outlets such as handiwork (knitting, cross stitching) offer integrating bilateral activity.  Ceramics and pottery are wonderfully organizing activities because  they add tactile input which is also nutrition for the brain.

While we frequently joke about seniors exercising via card playing, it really is no joke.  Shuffling, dealing and holding a fan of cards all require bilateral hand use.  While caloric burn might not be huge, the two sides of the brain keep talking to each other.

Gardening requires many bilateral activities.  Raking is a great (and almost lost art in the land of noisy leaf blowers) bilateral activity which requires trunk rotation so helps strengthen frequently underused muscles.

Shoveling - ditto. 

If you have been reading through this entire section you now understand several things about movement and the brain.

1. 1. Movement activates nerves in the brain which help filter excess stimulation.  This leads to better  
   

     ability to ATTEND and CONCENTRATE.  Movement also helps to reduce anxiety and

     overload, which can lead to behavioral and emotional problems.

2. 2.Movement, especially BILATERAL in nature leads to better COMMUNICATION in the brain.
   

3. 3. This leads to the ability to make more efficient connections in the brain, laying pathways
   

     leading to  ease in learning.  MOTOR SEQUENCING facilitates this process even further.

Motor sequencing relates to the ability to link movements.  Clapping is an early form of motor sequencing.  Pedaling on a bike links a push down with a pull up.  Pumping on a swing is a more complex sequence.  There is pushing and pulling while the legs are flexing and extending. 

Dancing begins with simple steps like the Mexican Hat Dance.  Then there’s the Macarena.

As one develops as a tennis player, the serve becomes more complex, with more steps to increase the speed and motion of the racquet.

Sports such as Karate teach specific complicated  motor sequences. 

Rather than go through each developmental level with recommended activities, think of how to combine and join activities at each level.  Here are a few examples:

Clapping:  pat-a-cake,  clapping to a beat, clapping patterns, clapping while on a trampoline

Dance steps:  simple marching,  simple dance, more complex dance

Ball catching:  toss-clap-catch  toss-catch-cradle-toss (Lacrosse)

Kicking:  kick, run-kick, dribble kicking,  juggling (soccer ball)

Obstacle courses:  combine anything-hop-crab walk-roll-climb over pillows-crawl through tunnel

Musical Instruments (yes this is motor):  simple drumming, complex drumming, strumming, fingering,

picking, scales, etc.

                              Photo:  Eileen Counihan

So why is sequenced movement  important?  Sequenced activities link different actions together, therefore, information from different parts of the brain need to come together and make movements rapidly.  Add language to the activity and you have a powerful mixture for brain integration.  This  forms pathways  which make the brain more efficient and flexible.  Efficiency and flexibility make learning sports AND academics easier.