Physical Play Benefits the Developing Child
By Isaac Kemsley, Salmonberry Kindergarten Teacher
Madrona School, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Anyone who spends time around young children will observe that they seek a variety of sensory stimulation from birth. One of those sensory systems is the proprioceptive system. Here, nerve centers located in the muscles, tendons, and joints combine with our other sensory systems to create a mental map of our body’s position and movement. It is a crucial part of developing balance, spatial awareness, and fine motor skills, including vocal modulation and volume control.
Proprioception
The kindergarten aged child’s work is, in large part, the development of strong neural pathways linking their sensory systems’ inputs to their brain for processing. That strengthening of pathways happens through repeated practice with a variety of sensory experiences. Everything that the young child does is strengthening (or weakening) these foundational systems that later become automatic abilities that free up energy and attention that is used for more complex learning and development.
Think of the way that we, as adults, can walk, run, drive a car, swing a golf club, or push a grocery cart without having to look at what our hands/feet are doing and without having to use the full focus of our attention. We have developed our proprioceptive sense to spatially map our bodies so that we are able to free up our attention to have a conversation, listen to music, navigate, remember what the par on this hole is, or what we are making for dinner that night.
Big, Physical Play
For the kindergarten aged child, creative free play is a huge part of the healthy exercise of the proprioceptive system. Running, jumping, tumbling, climbing, balancing, pushing/pulling/carrying heavy objects are all examples of play-based stimulation of the nerve bundles in the joints and muscles of the young child. Opportunities for working against physical resistance are valuable experiences for these systems. That is why in the Salmonberry Kindergarten we encourage opportunities for climbing up and jumping down from things, with the frequent building of obstacle courses and onsite climbing structures and trees. There are many heavy wood rounds and boards and beams for the children to build with, carrying and pushing/rolling them from one place to another. When on walks, we have hills on which we regularly tumble and roll down.
In addition to free-play opportunities for proprioceptive stimulation, we craft our circle time movements to include a wide range of activities that engage our muscles and joints. Jumping, skipping, hopping, somersaulting, tumbling, “logrolling” and “wheelbarrowing” are just some of the movements we practice during circle time.
Other times, if the behavior of the class indicates a need for more proprioceptive activities, we will dig holes in the sand boxes and “plant flower gardens” by burying children up to their waists in the heavy sand. This not only activates the nervous system in the upper body through the act of digging a hole, but it also provides compression and activation of the lower body in the burying and then wiggling free.
If more gross motor work is needed, we help facilitate a wrestling circle; either one-on-one between children or in a game of “Brown Bear” with a teacher. The hand to hand grappling of two children pushing against each other is a full proprioceptive system activation,engaging the whole system in the effort to topple a classmate. In the game “Brown Bear,” the children try to wrestle the teacher to the ground while the teacher crawls on all fours. The children tumble, roll, and pile up upon one another, as they try to topple “Brown Bear.”
Wrestling games such as these, have the added social benefit of raising further boundary awareness, as they are only able to be successful if participants listen for verbal boundaries at the same time as they experience their physical periphery. The developing ability to modulate one’s force and the executive functioning to be able to listen when someone calls for a “STOP” is crucial to one’s sense of self, the feelings of others involved in the game, and developing spatial awareness.
Work at home
If a child has an underdeveloped proprioceptive system that time in the classroom is not able to address, further games are encouraged at home (or with an Occupational Therapist.) There are a variety of swaddling games that can add compression to playful imaginations, weighted blankets, wrestling, massage, etc… all are ways to further strengthen the developing nervous system. Play is learning… and learning is fun!
