DEVELOPMENTAL FITNESS is the development of the neural network which physical movement provides to the brain.
Vicki Conway is serious about play. In today’s interview, part two of a two-part interview, she shares how important physical activity is for our children’s, and our own, brain development. In last week’s interview, Vicki talked about Survival Skills; those things the brain will default to when under stress. Unless our body is able to use those skills efficiently, our brain will not be able to access information stored in other areas.
Today, Vicki shares Literacy Skills with us. Literacy Skills have to do with three combinations of movement between our arms and legs and how that movement affects cognitive processes.
Listen to the full episode here
Vicki Conway is a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Tyler. She actively performs in concerts, plays the organ for her church, and maintains a private piano studio as well.
Together with her husband, Brett, Vicki founded Conway Music, Movement and Math through which they offer coaching and assessment in a variety of topics including math tutoring, music lessons, and motor skills efficiency.
Three combinations of movement
Laterality – dividing the body between right and left. Imagine galloping on a stick horse with right hand forward holding the stick and right foot forward with each step.
Laterality has to do with our ability to understand language and communicate, understanding the meaning, reading between the lines to grasp the concept of what is being communicated.
Bilaterality – dividing the body in half between upper and lower. Give your hands a different job than your feet. Jumping rope is a classic example of bilaterality movement.
Bilaterality has to do with the ability to understand concepts. The numbers we use for math are concepts. The letters we use for reading are concepts. The symbols we use for music are concepts.
Crosslaterality – dividing the body diagonally like an X. Right arm with left leg and left arm with right leg. When we walk or run, we should be moving cross laterally. When our left foot steps, our right arm should be forward and vice versa. When infants crawl they are moving cross laterally from the hip and shoulder, which is optimum.
Crosslaterality has to do with perception efficiency and pattern recognition.
How can parents help develop Literacy Skills?
Go for a walk.
If you’re in the south in the summertime and it’s too hot to be outside, go the mall or local gym and walk there.
Locomotor Freeze – take a step, freeze, evaluate.
If you stepped with your left foot, did your right arm move forward? Yes? Great! Take the next step and freeze. No? Fix it and try again. Exaggerate the movement until you become more proficient with it.
Jump rope – if your child doesn’t know how to jump rope yet, begin by having them start with the rope behind them and throw it from back to front over their head. When the rope lands in front of them, step over the rope and throw it again.
Children must learn that there is a sequence to jumping rope. They need to know that they don’t jump and throw at the same time; they must follow a pattern of movement.
Let your child be the teacher through role play. Demonstrate an incorrect skill and let them “teach” you the proper movement.
Above all, keep the practice light-hearted and fun. Don’t turn it into drudgery that both you and your child or teen try to avoid. While you are honing these literacy skills, you are creating family memories – make them good ones.
Higher Level Cognitive Skills
Eye-Hand/Eye-Foot/Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination – using the eyes to direct the hands, feet, or the combination of hands and feet to accomplish a task.
These skills have to do with fine motor skills: writing, coloring, and drawing. They affect the ability to relate cause and effect, decision making, judgment skills. They are higher level memory and association skills used for comparison and analogies.
Parents should encourage their young children to write and color. Don’t fret if they appear to be using each hand to draw. With practice, they will come to favor one hand over the other; that will be their dominant hand.
Riding toys are wonderful for toddlers. As they are propelling themselves forward with their feet, they learn to look ahead with their eyes while they turn the steering wheel in the correction direction with their hands. If they stop and move the rider before they make the corner, you know they need more practice to be able to combine their skills into a more fluid motion.
Locomotor Skill – The ability to establish and maintain a pattern of movement in a smooth, fluid manner. This physical ability helps our brain apply what we know in different situations or circumstances. Use what you know.
In terms of music, this is the ability to take what we learned by playing one piece of music and applying it to another piece of music. Keeping a steady beat in music is a locomotor skill.
All the Motor Skills Work Together
The beauty of the motor skills is that you are using multiple skills at the same time. As you’re working on one task, aiming to do it for a specified distance or time develops the locomotor skill.
When you roll a ball to your child, they are learning spatial awareness. When they grasp it with both hands together, they are practicing center line. They are also learning to track the movement of something outside their space.
Children are practicing eye-hand coordination, center line, and spatial awareness when they practice writing their letter across a page.
Jumping rope combines eye-foot coordination with body awareness and bilaterality.
Physical movement is good for your body and great for your mind.
Resources
To connect with Vicki and learn more about the services she and her husband, Brett, offer, go to ConwayMMM.
What do you think?
As Vicki and I were talking I recognized some of my own weaknesses and coping skills that I use to cover up those weaknesses in certain physical movements. Did she describe you or your piano kid?
If you have questions for Vicki, you can reach out to her through her website or you can send your question to me and I’ll be sure to pass it along to her.
I’d love to know what you thought about this episode. Would you like to hear more of Vicki’s research on other topics?
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