Movement and development for educators
Practical articles for teachers and kindergarten teams who want to understand the strength, coordination, movement and developmental skills sitting underneath everyday learning and participation.
The child who leans across the table. The child who frequently W sits. The child who struggles to stand up after group time.
Sometimes the little movement patterns educators notice every day are worth becoming curious about.
Read the articleWorking with both children and older adults has changed the way I think about movement.
When I see a child running, climbing and jumping, I am thinking about leg strength, coordination and balance today, but I am also thinking about the relationship with movement we want them to carry into the decades ahead.
This is also where I explain why increasing sedentary screen time concerns me as an Exercise Physiologist, without blaming families or technology.
Read why I still want children to jump
What are you noticing in your room?
These articles begin with the things educators actually see, then look underneath them using Exercise Physiology and developmental movement knowledge.
Sometimes the child who looks like they are slouching is actually working much harder than we realise just to hold their body upright.
Read the article →Look at STNR, trunk strength, movement variety and flexibility rather than only focusing on the position of the legs.
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A simple classroom transition can give us useful clues about strength, balance, mobility and motor planning.
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Nose to finger tapping, Simon Says and real movement experiences can help children explore position, direction and space.
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Useful core strength helps children stabilise their body while their arms and legs get on with learning, playing and moving.
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Crossing the body can involve bilateral coordination, balance, trunk control, weight shifting and motor planning all at once.
Read the article →Still to explore
I am building this library around the movement questions that come up in real classrooms, rather than creating another collection of generic activity ideas.
A movement lens
I am an Exercise Physiologist and Developmental Educator, so when I look at classroom participation I am interested in more than whether a child can complete the task.
I am looking at how much physical effort the task is taking. How the child stabilises their body. How they move between positions. How they coordinate both sides. Whether they tire, compensate, avoid or find another way.
Teachers do not need to diagnose these things. But educators are often the people who notice the patterns first.
Play Move Improve professional learning helps school and kindergarten teams understand movement and development, then use that knowledge within everyday teaching.
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