Our main goal at Skip & Scoot is to exercise kids' brains as well as bodies! We believe very strongly in the brain-body connection and are simply fascinated by the occurring relationship.
Sequencing. Patterning. Repetition.
As educators, parents, and caregivers, we hear these words often in relation to our children’s development. But, what do they actually mean and why should we care???
In short, young children need oodles of repetition (practice) in order to master a skill, whether it be physical, cognitive, or emotional. We may wonder sometimes, "why isn't my child grasping this concept even though s/he's been exposed to it over and over?" Time and practice is what their brains need to make neural connections, and there is a wide range of normal in terms of how long this process takes.
It’s just another area of our children’s development that requires patience on everyone’s part. I think it’s good to keep this in mind when kiddos ask to play the same song or do the same activity over and over again…and again…and again…right? Their end goal is to achieve physical and cognitive mastery and until they do, they will likely want to practice, practice, practice.
Your children learn about sequencing at a very young age with YOU! Each day you have routines- eat, bath, read, sleep, etc. Family routines are a kind of sequence. Patterning is a little bit more complicated in that it includes recurring actions.
An example of abstract patterning (vs. visual patterning) is moving from slow to fast to slow to fast, etc. We do this a lot in our @skipandscoot classes! Going from one speed to another and repeating this pattern is tricky for young brains and bodies to process, so we practice! We are asking your children to let go of one idea (move slow) and switch to a new idea (move fast) and back again. That's a lot of thinking!
Try this at home: ask your young child to move slowly (like they're walking through peanut butter). Next, ask your child to move quickly (like a bear is chasing them). Now ask your child to do these two things consecutively 3X. (Peanut butter, Bear, PB, Bear, PB, Bear).
-What happened?
-Was it more challenging for them to do the latter team task?
-Did you observe them thinking about it more?
-Did they need help?
Of course, it all depends on the after age and degree of difficulty of the tasks, but patterned movements required more thought.
This is just one way we can help our children exercise their brains AND bodies to promote kid’s fitness. We love kids. We love fitness. And, we are fascinated by kid’s fitness! Questions/Comments below!