How Movement Impacts Your Child's Brain

Is it not ironic that in the first two years, we do everything in our power to teach a baby how to walk and talk, just to tell him over the next few years to 'sit still and be quiet'. (And I'm not talking about discipline or the lack thereof). The fact is - children were made to move!

Physical inactivity is now identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Over and above the fact that movement helps to improve our sleep, mental health and mood, it also reduces our risk for diabetes, obesity and some cancers.

Even though most people know that movement is the key to our health, we still get asked: why is movement important and how will it help my child? It may come as a surprise but movement is crucial for our brains! In this blog, we will explore all the interesting facts and benefits of movement, and provide all the info that you need to get your children active and smart. Let’s jump right in!

Physical Activity And Your Child's Health

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your child’s health. According to the Centre for Disease Control (DCD), “Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities. It can also reduce your risk of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better.”

Physical activity also plays a critical role in weight management. Regular physical activity further lowers your blood pressure and improves your cholesterol levels, thus decreasing your risk for cardiovascular diseases and strokes.

According to a 2022 research article published in JAMA, an estimated 110,000 deaths per year could be prevented if US adults ages 40 and older increased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity by a small amount. Even 10 minutes more a day would make a difference.

Movement is not only the key to us living a long healthy life. Did you know that movement is crucial for the growth of your child’s brain?

The Link Between Movement And The Brain

Many people are aware of the health benefits of movement. However, few people know or understand what exercise does for our brains...! Our practice is absolutely fascinated with this aspect of movement and was blown away when we discovered this link in Dr. Ratey’s book “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain”.

However, Jean-Pierre Changeux, a French neuroscientist, was one of the first people who have pursued the link between movement and our brains. In his research, he paralysed the muscles of a baby chick inside the egg. This prevented the chick embryo to move whilst being in the egg. The result? The chick’s brain was abnormal when it hatched! For Jean-Pierre, this emphasized the need for movement (even prior to birth), for healthy brain development.

His initial research motivated him to go one step further. In the next phase of his research, he took the healthy brain cells of a baby chick and placed them in a dish. The cells remained lifeless and still. He then added a protein called BDNF. Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard psychiatrist, calls this protein "Miracle-Gro". Do you know why? This protein caused the brain cells to sprout into structural neural branches. Thus, BDNF acts like a fertilizer for the brain!

So how do we get this protein called "Miracle-Gro"? You guessed it - through movement and exercise! We can now understand why modern technology can be so harmful to our children's development. Not only because of the content that they may view, but also because the excessive amount of screen time robs them of valuable time that they could be active. Valuable time that they could spend on "building their brains". Like John R. Ratey says, "Exercise is really for the brain, not for the body".

Another interesting fact is that the brain does not store its own fuel, nor does it produce its own fuel. The brain relies on the body to get its needed fuel—oxygen and glucose—to the brain. Thus, the healthier and more physically fit the body is, the more efficiently the brain can function. This is because exercise physically changes the brain by growing new brain cells. This process is called neurogenesis.

According to the latest research, exercise and movement lead to the following changes, to name but a few:

• Improved brain function

• Enhanced cognition

• Improved memory

• Reduced stress

• Balanced mood and behaviour

• Improved attention, motivation, self-esteem, cooperation & impulse control

• Improved social skills and behaviour

• Improved problem-solving skills

Movement And Cognitive Performance

Healthy, active kids make better learners. In 2009, the Cooper Institute performed the Texas Youth Fitness Study where they compared their Fitness Gram ™ scores to the scores from a standardized test called TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). The researchers found significant links between physical fitness and signs of academic achievement:

• Higher levels of fitness are associated with better academic performance.

• Higher levels of fitness are associated with better school attendance.

• Higher levels of fitness are associated with fewer negative incidents at school.

For children 6 to 13 years of age, exercise benefits include improved thinking and cognition. Physical activity is clearly a high-yield investment for all of us. Even more so for our children and those with attentive or hyperactive symptoms.

Just imagine giving your child a 'spoon-full-of-exercise' every day. This will lead him to naturally concentrate better, have better impulse control and experience less stress. No wonder John Ratey suggests that people should think of exercise as medication for ADHD.

Apart from the health benefits and the fact that movement counterfeits emotional stress, movement is also crucial for sensory processing and learning.

Physical Activity And Sensory Processing

Research on the importance of sensory-motor experiences for brain growth and development has blossomed in recent years. Not only is movement a cheaper way to keep children healthy and fit but it also stimulates and affects all their senses (that provide important information that they need to use for future academic success).

As an example, let us look at the vestibular system. This is just a fancy word for the 'balance' system that is situated in your inner ear. This system is stimulated by movement and sends constant information to the brain about our everyday whereabouts – just like a GPS.

It also acts as a 'traffic cop' to regulate the information in our brains and has a strong influence on the muscles that control our posture. It is further responsible for holding our bodies still in a variety of positions and it affects our:

• balance & equilibrium,

• eye movements & muscle control,

• spatial orientation,

• arousal state (responsiveness, being alert)

• discrimination of speech and language.

As you can see, the vestibular system directly or indirectly influences nearly everything we do in our daily lives. If a child’s vestibular processing is not optimal, such a child may experience:

• Low muscle tone

• Poor balance

• Poor body awareness & spatial orientation

• Lacking the ability to control his eye muscles

All the above-mentioned difficulties can affect a child’s future scholastic progress and achievement. How is that possible, you may ask? Well, if a child has low muscle tone, he will find it tiring to sit still at a desk for an extended period of time.

If he further has poor body awareness and spatial orientation, he may find it difficult to differentiate between letters such as a 'p','q','b','d' and will thus find it problematic to read or write. A child who also lacks the ability to control his eye movements, may battle to keep track of the words on the paper in front of him. Thus, he may be diagnosed with an attention or learning difficulty.

In fact, researchers found that 94 % of children with dyslexia and learning disabilities had a vestibular dysfunction. Now, there is a myriad of reasons or causes that can lead to this. But we cannot only stop at the cause. We need to look at how we can help to correct a dysfunction to ultimately help a child reach his full potential.

How then do we get the vestibular system to function optimally again? You guessed it - through movement! Every movement that a child makes, stimulates the vestibular system. This, in turn, stimulates the brain for new learning.

It is therefore crucial for a child with vestibular problems, to participate in therapy as well as a physical education class where experts can address his balance problems and poor muscle control. One of the ways to do this is to encourage the child to perform certain movements such as spinning, swinging, rocking and tumbling. These movements will stimulate his vestibular system and have an influence on his muscle tone as well as his balance.

That being said: prevention is better than cure. Thus, all children will benefit from participating in a structured movement class as often as possible. Remember, movement does not only stimulate the vestibular system. It stimulates ALL seen and unseen senses of a child.

Let us take tumbling as an example. As a child tumbles, he will activate and use his ‘balance’ system to know where he is in space. Also, as the child tumbles, his ‘deep pressure’ system (which is located in his muscles) will teach him more about his body and where left and right is. His ‘touch’ system will further help him to form a clear image of his body as he ‘feels’ the different parts of his body contacting the grass.

All the above will eventually help the child to develop laterality (the awareness that he has both a left and a right side), dominancy, midline crossing, directionality and more. It goes without saying that these aspects play a critical role in academic success.

Now, tumbling is just one skill in the physical activity sphere. Just imagine how much more info a child’s brain will be able to gather and store after participating in a 30-minute neuro-sensory-motor class!

Barriers To Movement

If movement is so important, what can hinder a child from being active and developing his senses? Over the next few blogs, we will provide in-depth discussions about practical steps to take for children of various ages and developmental stages. We will also have a look at conditions such as hypermobility and the influence it has on a child’s capacity to be active.

However, for this blog, we are going to look at how we can help babies become more

effective movers.

Creating Opportunities For Movement - Tips And Tricks For Babies

For years, Dr. Glenn Doman pressed for parents to get their children moving the moment that they are born. It seems as if this rings true - now more than ever..!

With ever-increasing safety equipment, convenient gadgets and overprotective parenting, we are unknowingly causing our babies to become more passive by the day. As parents we need to create an environment that gives our babies maximum opportunity to move around freely.

Since it is almost impossible for your baby to move while he is on his back (like an overturned turtle), the best thing you can do for your baby is to create a safe floor environment where he can spend as much time on his belly as possible. However, remember to offer your baby a variety of positions (back, tummy and side) during his awake time to develop and strengthen his muscles equally well. Also, ensure that your baby is doing all the hard work when he needs to assume a position like sitting.

Even if some gadgets are approved by a professional, it is futile to let a baby sit (or walk) in a gadget where he is supported in such a way that his muscles do not need to work at all. You can make it more appealing, and educational, by throwing a baby blanket over the sides and using pegs to pin various pictures or toys. Rather place your baby in an apple box where he can learn to sit upright by himself without falling over completely.

Let your baby do most of the work when you pick him up or put him down. Roll him to the side when you change his nappy and slowly pull him up into a sitting position by taking his hands. This all seems like logical things to do, but in our practice, we continue to see 4-month-old babies with poor neck control and a head lag.

Also, make sure that your baby's cloths are fitting him correctly. Long sleeves that are hanging over his hands, or pants that are too lose or too tight, are all playing a part in making movement difficult for your little one. The best shoes are no shoes at all. If you want to invest in your child's posture and health, then invest in more expensive shoes that can bend and give away as your child learns to walk.

The type of surface on which your baby needs to crawl or walk also needs a lot of consideration. If a baby has poor core muscles and finds it difficult to work against gravity when they need to push up in an all-fours position, they will tend to bum-shuffle if the surface is smooth (like tiles or laminated flooring).

If a baby is in the early stages of bum-shuffling, he will quickly be discouraged by a sturdy carpet under his bum. During winter, babies in long sleeve clothing also find it extremely difficult to move around if the surface does not provide enough grip.

Further, remember that an overweight baby finds it more difficult to move around and work against gravity than his little peers. Let us remember: an active baby is a smart baby!

Summary

From reading today’s blog, we trust that you can see that movement affects all facets of a child’s development and impacts their total wellbeing. In our next blog, we are going to look at the motor skills that develop in children between 2 – 7 years. We will also provide fun and playful activities and exercises that can do with your older child at home. Until then, let us get back to the basics - for our children's sake. Let us be ACTIVE again! Until our next blog, happy moving moments with your child!