Parents can feel a lot of pressure for their child to meet milestones by a specific age and when they don’t, panic can set in.
If a parent or therapist skips too far ahead by putting a child in a position they are not developmentally ready to do, they miss many important learning opportunities for movement. Those missed opportunities are what will actually lead them to the desired milestones in a natural effortless way.
Challenging a child by going too far ahead of their current development can also be very stressful for them. This is teaching the child that the desired goal for them is unenjoyable or too difficult. It can cause a negative emotion toward the goal and end up causing them to avoid the desired movement/milestone altogether.
An example of this is propping a child up into a tripod sitting position (this is where the child needs to lean on their arms to keep their balance) and expecting them to try and hold the position. If they don’t know how to safely get in and out of the sitting position on their own , their experience will be they have to hold it without moving in fear of losing their balance and falling. This type of approach can also teach the child to tense up and contract muscles to hold themselves up, rather than a more desired approach of using a coordinated skeletal system to hold ourselves up.
At Move Integrate, I understand those are all important milestones that we as parents want our children to reach.
We can still keep those goals in mind, but approach it in a more achievable way. I start their ABM NeuroMovement® lessons slightly ahead of where your child is currently at in THEIR development. This gives a much more desirable outcome with quicker results than trying to start by their AGE or by what people think they SHOULD be doing by now. With this approach, we are setting your child up for an enjoyable, successful and positive experience.
When your child is happy and a movement feels easy and effortless, it is more likely they will look to recreate it on their own. Together we keep building on little by little and that can quickly add up to a lot, achieving the milestones that once seemed so far away.
Contact Renée at Move Integrate to get started!
www.moveintegrate.com
403-483-9769
