Physifun is proud to announce the launch of our new website. We hope you enjoy it!
http://www.physifun.co.za
Monday, 3 November 2014
Monday, 24 February 2014
PhysiFun Health
Professionals Courses:
Physifun runs CPD courses (12 points + 1 ethics point
) for physio's and OTs.
The Physifun Gross Motor exercise programmes, (called ABC and PhysiBall) aim to improve gross
motor development, by using a combination of Pilates, Yoga, coordination and
balance exercises using the gym ball. Improving gross motor and postural/core
control is one of the foundations for higher intellectual, psychological and social
functions, especially when implemented in a fun and enticing way- Physifun aims
to address not only the physical needs of children, but also the psychological
& social needs of a child who might otherwise not want to participate in a
physical activity. Health professionals will walk away with ideas and concepts
regarding tapping in to a child's perceptions of self efficacy, mindfulness and
ways to kickstart the cycle of learning by exploration, play and doing.
Physifun has recently introduced the Physifit exercise programme which is for all children aged 8 to 13
years and is aimed at injury prevention, muscle conditioning, agility training
and general core muscle strengthening in a sporting setting.
Some of the content covered during the weekend course is:
·
Developmental
Coordination Disorder- a summary of the latest research which supports specific screening
tools, interventions and approaches to management
·
Neuromyths and the
relevance to education- facts and fiction about the science behind brain research in
education.
·
Exercise in the
therapeutic and educational setting- the link between physical activity, obesity
& its effects on a child's learning ability as well as what motivates
children to participate in physical activity. A brief overview is also given on
acute and overuse injury prevention during formal exercise programmes and what
the coaches should be doing as part of their training sessions and warm ups.
·
Ethical and
professional responsibilities when implementing group based exercise programmes
in schools and in your practices
·
Postural control: How and why it affects
your child’s health, learning, behaviour & future A lecture designed for physios and OTs to give
to parents and teachers regarding postural control, with take - home, easy-to-implement
practical ideas and tips to help children become more aware of their posture
and to help their postural control become more consolidated, freer and
automatic.
Physifun Gross
Motor Programmes: Physiball and ABC theory and practical Health Professionals
can run Physifun group exercise classes in their practices
as they might run a pilates class or they can educate local
schools (using Physifun power presentations) and parents so that everyone
is on board and doing their bit on a daily basis to help these children achieve
their maximum potential in the classroom, on the playground and in the sporting
and physical environment. Physifun does not replace 1 to 1 therapy ,
but rather, it is an additional support and educational tool, or a follow-on
for those families who cannot afford ongoing therapy or more than 1 session per
week. (Please note Physifun is not designed to replace 1 to 1 therapy).
Friday, 31 January 2014
What happened to deportment badges...? Postural can affect your child's health, learning, behaviour and future.
Postural
control: How and why it affects your
child’s health, learning, behaviour & future – written by Tracy Prowse
The
words, “sit up straight” bring back all sorts of memories from my childhood.
Deportment badges and practising walking
with a book on my head were all part of a normal school day for me. Today,
however, we think of these memories with a smile on our faces and cannot
imagine it happening in today’s schools. Sitting up straight at a dinner table
doesn’t often feature, since many of us do not eat at the dinner table anymore.
Instilling a sense or awareness of good posture in a child seems to have been
abandoned, perhaps to the detriment of our children’s health. Nowadays,
children are spending more time in a sedentary position than ever before, which
should give us more reason to focus on posture, not less. This article aims to
explain why being aware of your posture whilst sitting and standing is so
important to your health, behaviour and
learning ability and ways to encourage your child to sit and learn in an
optimal way.
Postural
control describes the way muscles work together to maintain and regain posture
and balance, thus liberating our arms and legs to do other things. Gravity, our sensory systems in our joints
and ears (proprioceptive and vestibular), our brain’s ability to perceive the
information given to it from these sensory systems and our innate motor
development (such as balance, coordination and core stability) are factors that
influence the control of our posture. Postural control begins in the womb and
becomes refined with each new learnt task.
It takes 7 years of constant refinement to achieve automatic postural
control and in order to be “writing ready” postural control has to be
adequately consolidated and automatic. However, for some of us, this ability to
control our posture is not automatic and perhaps was not ever consolidated as a
child and there can be a number of reasons for this.
One
reason is that some of us are born with what seems to be loose, floppy muscles
and joints. The medical term for this is hypermobility, which means “more
movement”. It is characterised by weakness or laxity (looseness) of the
connective tissue in our body. Connective
tissue’s function is primarily
to support, anchor and connect various parts of the body and is found
in muscle, ligaments, surrounding organs and even in bone. Therefore, if one is
born with a predisposition towards connective tissue laxity, they don’t have a
natural supporting and anchoring system to help them sit or stand or move
efficiently. As a result, their muscles need to work a lot harder to support
and move their joints and maintain a posture than someone else who was born
with strong and taut connective tissue system. Children who have hypermobility often
find it hard to maintain their sitting posture for very long and will
constantly wriggle and move in and out of positions or wind their joints up to
the maximum position so that they almost lock the joint. The reason is that the
muscles do not need to work in this position because the joint is locked into a
sturdy position. Typical postures would
be to stand with their knees locked back, hips thrust forward and a larger
curve in their lower back then normal. They also tend to sit in a “W-sitting”
position or if they are at a desk, they will try and curl their feet under them
or around the chair in order to gain as much stability as possible.
Another reason for not having automatic postural control is purely a
lack of practice. Some children are not encouraged to sit at the dinner table
and eat their supper or perhaps they were not interested in drawing or table
top activities as a toddler and so it was never pursued further. The problem
with this is that they never get to practice something which is absolutely
fundamental to learning: the ability to sit at a desk for a prolonged period.
These children will have weaker sitting muscles, standing muscles and writing
muscles than a child who has grown up being encouraged to sit and do an
activity (like scribbling, playing with play Doh, eating, lego, or whatever)
for short periods-progressively getting to be longer periods-since the time
they could sit.
Following on from this scenario, is another scenario where the child
doesn’t seem to have the concentration or ability to focus on one thing for any
period of time. Their attention is constantly moving from one thing to the next
and they are constantly distracted by outside noises, textures, sights or
whatever catches their attention. These children do not gain that automatic and
consolidated postural control because their attention to the task of sitting
has never been present.
Many
children (and adults) who have any of these underlying issues with postural
control can end up with poor fine motor (movement) and sometimes poor gross
motor control. This means that they have difficulty with their handwriting and
other fine motor activities, as well as on the sports field during ball games,
balance activities or coordination activities like skipping, hopscotch, riding
a bicycle. Unfortunately, these are the children who desperately need to
practise their motor skills, yet, due to a feeling of inadequacy or difficulty
in sport or handwriting, choose not to do these activities. As a result, the
weak get weaker, (and the sporty get sportier) and these are the children who
often end up with poor posture, bad backs and a poor self-esteem or
self-efficacy, later on.
In
order to have efficient postural control, the spine needs to be in alignment
with the natural curvatures of the spine preserved, with a stable but dynamic
base of support in the core musculature. This will free up the arms and legs
with minimum effort. Having good postural control strengthens the core
stabilisers (postural muscles) and inhibits the moving muscles (non-postural
muscles). These moving muscles are often the culprits of those aches and pains
one gets when one has a sore back or neck. The moving muscles often try and
compensate for the lack of core stability or core support and they try and do the
work of the core muscles. However, the moving muscles are made up differently
with fast twitch muscle fibres and therefore they cannot sustain the types of
demands that maintaining postures requires. This is why they often get tight
and sore. They are unable to do the work of the postural muscles for a long
length of time.
Having
good postural control, whilst sitting, facilitates proper positioning of the
writing arm. It enables a shift of gaze with minimal shifts in background
posture (“fidgety” kids) and facilitates use of vision and reduces visual
strain and increases alertness and oxygenation and prevents back pain (13% of
children aged 10-16 have significant incidence of recurrent LBP) (Jones et al,
2001). So, how do we encourage good
postural control in our children?
It
is believed that physical activity helps trigger our postural muscles (core
stabilisers) unconsciously. Thus, encouraging a child to do physical activity
is a way of improving posture, since the core stabilisers are the muscles needed
to maintain a good posture. Physical activity is proportional to IQ,
achievement, maths & verbal testing (Sibley & Etnier, 2003)
and research shows that aerobic exercise is beneficial on brain function which
is important for education (Hillman
et al, 2008).
Another
easy way to facilitate good posture in children is to make sure that their feet
are supported whilst sitting. The Erector Spinae muscles (in spine) are
triggered by the sensors in the feet, so without foot contact, the spinal
muscles have to depend on conscious control. It is essential that the child’s
school desk is the correct size and that a child is sitting with a foot stool
at the dining table. You will be amazed at our much longer your child will be
willing to sit still at the dinner table. Sit with knees apart, feet on floor,
elbow at desk level, rest forearms lightly on front table and use light support
for alignment, in order to gain natural curves of spine. Imagine that you are
pulling the top of your head to the ceiling. Size matters when selecting
educational chairs and tables. Age and height considerations are often not
reflected in furniture selection, and consequently the furniture is too big or
too small. Furniture that does not fit the users will lead to restlessness and
discomfort, resulting in a decreased attention span and the consequence is that
one size of furniture will not fit all the pupils who use a classroom; they
need furniture of different sizes or that can be adjusted to suit their varying
dimensions. Desk and chair height needs to be measured for each child and
schools need to make use of wedge cushions and writing slopes for the children
who are not coping with the standard desk structure (the slope enables the
child to keep their hand under the line of writing and the wedge assists the
child to maintain a natural curvature of the spine, thereby stimulating
unconscious core muscle activation).
Ways
to encourage good posture in pre-schoolers are to avoid W-sitting. Encourage
good spinal and joint alignment during play by using cushions, wedges, and
playing in different positions, such as high kneeling, lying on their tummy, on
all fours or standing. Make sure these pre-schoolers have an opportunity to
practise the skill of sitting and building up their writing muscles by setting
goals for them to see how long they can do it for. Ensure that they eat whilst
sitting with good alignment, feet supported and a stable base, but also teach
and instill an awareness of themselves, by being present in your mind with your
child during these activities. In the
same way that we need to build up the strength of the muscles, so do we need to
build up the “strength” of our focus, attention and concentration. The only way
to do this is to engage with your child with mindful awareness of the task you
are both engaging in.
Poor
posture not only leads to a bad back at a later age but even in the young it
can have some negative effects with poor concentration, fidgeting and
discomfort. Ensure your child reads in a supported position with good alignment
or even allow the fidgety child to read with their books in standing on a
recipe or music stand. He or she will be able to move around and fidget whilst
reading. This will actually improve his or her concentration, rather than
hinder it. Incorporating movement into the task of reading might make it more
interesting and enjoyable for them.
Give
your child a stable base of support with cushions under their arms, knees and
head (either lying on a bed or well supported behind the back on the sofa);
arms comfortably supported; both hands on sides of book; Fingers long and
relaxed; plane of book and the plane of face parallel; Nose opposite the middle
of the block of print being read to facilitate easy flow of eye movement across
midline.
If
we can increase our children’s awareness about their posture and give them
responsibility for their exercise and postural habits, then we, as parents are
giving them the best start possible to a healthy future.
Parents
and teachers need to provide good role models to the children; not only with
their own posture, but also, by the amount of exercise and activity that they
do. Encourage your child to walk to school, by appearing excited at the
prospect yourself. Schools need to educate teachers and children about good
posture. Positively praise and reward children for sitting at their desks for a
prolonged period (20 minutes maximum for a grade 1 child; 15 minutes max for a
Grade R child) and build up to that goal. You cannot expect a child who has
never sat down and completed the task of colouring in a picture in Grade R to
then sitting at a desk I Grade 1 for 20 minutes. Persist and insist that they
move about and have breaks throughout the day (send the fidgety child on
errands- they will return more focussed and less disruptive), think about
incorporating a 5 minute stretch programme into your school day, such as the
Straighten Up UK programme (http://www.chiropractic-uk.co.uk/straightenup).
Movement plays an important part in seating. Research has found that “a school
in which movement is supported and encouraged has a positive effect on the
learning ability and attentiveness of the children” (Dr Dieter Breitheckerxi).
Commit to good posture at home and in the classroom and make correct sitting a
key component of all tasks at the desk and try and encourage mindfulness or
awareness in both you and your child regarding their ability to sit. Be aware
that a child may benefit from consulting a physiotherapist or OT, if they have
writing or movement difficulties or you have observed symptoms of postural
inadequacies. And consider implementing a strengthening exercise programme at
the school for the children who are clumsy, floppy, poor posture or uncoordinated,
such as Physifun’s programmes (www.physifun.co.uk/physifunpackage),
so that they can strengthen their core muscles and their moving muscles and improve their
balance and coordination in a structured daily setting.
Tracy Prowse
Physifun Founder
BSc (Physio) Hons UCT, MPhil (Sports Physio)
UCT/SSISA
PhysiFun
References
1. Barnett, L et al (2010).
Longitudinal evidence for the importance of motor skill proficiency to physical
activity. Journal of Science and medicine in Sport. Vol 12, Supplement
2, January 2010, Page e70
2. Cliff, D et al (2010). Efficacy
of a skill development programme in promoting motor skill proficiency and
physical activity in overweight children. Journal of Science and medicine in
Sport. Vol 12, Supplement 2, January 2010, Page e70
3. Hunt, L (2009). Core Stability on
the curriculum. Frontline. October 2009, Page 15
4. Weikart, P et al (1995).
Foundations in elementary education movement.
Ypsilanti, MI: High Scope Press
5. Hillman, C.H, Erikson, K.I, and
Framer, A.F (2008) Be smart, exercise your heart: Exercise effects on brain
& cognition. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 9, 58-65.
6. Kirby, A. & Sugden, D.A. (2007).
"Children with developmental coordination disorder". Journal of the
Royal Society of Medicine, 100, 1-5.
7. Orton, S.T (1937). Reading,
writing & speech problems in children, New York. Norton.
8. Sibley, BA & Etnier, J.L
(2003). The relationship between physical activity & cognition in children:
A meta-analysis. Pediatric Exercise Science. 15, 243-256.
9. Winter, B, Breitenstein, C,
Mooren, F.C, Voelker, K, Fobker, M, Lechtermann, A, Krueger, K, Framme, A,
Korsukewitz, C, Floel, A & Kncht, S (2007). High impact running improves
learning. Neurobiology of Learning & Memory, 87, 597-609.
10. Sugden, D.A. & Chambers, M.E.
(Forthcoming). "Stability and change in childrenw ith Developmental
Coordination Disorder". Child: Care, Health and Development.
11. Sugden, D.A. & Dunford, C. (2007).
"Intervention and the role of theory, empircism and experience in
childrenw ith motor impairment". Disability and Rehabilitation, 29,
3-11.
12. Sugden, D.A. & Kirby, A. (2006). "A
moving child is a learning child". Child Care, 1, 13-14.
13. Green, D., Baird, G. Sugden, D.A. (2006).
"A pilot study of psychopathology in Developmental Coordination
Disorder". Child: Care, Health and development, 32, 741-750.
14. Smits-Englesman, B.C.M., Sugden, D.A. &
Duysens, J (2005). "Developmental trends in speed accuracy trade off in
6-10 year old children performing rapid and discrete aiming movements".
Human Movement science, 3, 1-11.
15. Sugden, D.A. and Chambers, M.E. (2003).
"Intervention in children with DCD:the role of parents and teachers".
British Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 545-561.
16. Utley,A,Steenbergen,B. & Sugden, D.A.
(2003). "The influence of object size on discrete bimanuakl co-ordination
in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy". Disability and
rehabilitation, 26, 603-613.
17. Chambers, M.E. and Sugden,D.A. (2002).
"The identification and assessment of young children with movement
difficulties". International Journal of Early Years Educaton, 10,
157-175.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
What makes a person good at ball sports?
I have recently come across some interesting research around a subject called "Quiet Eye Training". The term was originally coined by Professor Joan Vickers, from Calgary University and has been defined as the final visual fixation of long steady duration (500-3000 milli seconds) found typically in experts in aiming type tasks (golf putt, shooting, basketball free throws) and has been described as a perception action variable.
Positive findings have emerged from a number of different tasks, from golfing and basketball skills, from surgeons performing laparoscopy, from police fire arms tasks, recently from military marksmen (plus many more) and (why I am interested in this) from children with motor coordination disorder. These studies have varied in design in terms of the duration of training, the delay until retention (how long does it take to retain the skill, as a novice, for example) and the type of situations that a trained-up individual can perform in (initial studies, from Exeter University in both putting and basketball have revealed that the individuals (both novice and expert) who had Quiet eye training (QET) were able to retain their performances better under pressure compared to those who received more regular technical training. Therefore, this is important for athletes who "choke"). The vast majority of these studies have supported QE training as a means to expedite motor learning.
This concept of QET has been around since the 90's and many sports coaches, psychologists and trainers use the concept daily. It has also been incorporated into mindfulness, visualisation, sports specific vision therapy and anxiety relieving techniques in terms of getting the individual to be in the present moment and take time to focus on specifics of their technique (for example looking at the back of the ball for a prolonged moment before you take your back swing of the putt in golf).
So, it seems natural that researchers are now looking at whether QET can improve the motor outcomes of children who have movement control difficulties. Can we teach children who are not naturally good at ball skills (for example) to focus on aspects of the ball or the target by using a QE technique? Researchers at the University of Exeter are doing just this. They have watched "good ball catchers" and analysed why they are "good" at catching compared to the poor catchers. Their studies reveal that good catchers have a technique that they are comfortable and confident with. They are aware of technical pointers such as cupping their hands together, without being told what to do. They are also able to identify a technique that suits the task and will adapt this technique according to the task at hand. The poorer catchers do not make this adaptation and will stick to their learnt technique no matter what the situation calls for. They do not adapt to their environment naturally-which is important when in a game situation. The researchers hypothesise that perhaps these poorer catchers feel incapable of adapting or changing their technique. They then did a pilot study recently which revealed that Quiet Eye Training might be an effective intervention for improving the motor skill of typically developing children.
The study compared a ‘technical training’ intervention which included the normal instructions for throwing and catching (e.g. smooth throw, hands together) with the QET which used instructions such and take time to aim, track the ball closely. Results indicated that only the QET group had significant improvements in catching performance in an immediate retention task. These results suggest that QET may be an effective intervention to improve the catching performance of typically developing children. The researchers are now assessing the effectiveness of QET for children with DCD (developmental coordination disorder) in a larger study funded by the Waterloo Foundation. This is very exciting for us parents, teachers and therapists of children who have motor skill difficulties, as it could be a fun and specific way of actually teaching ball skills to these children effectively and perhaps more efficiently as to how we do it at the moment. If you have ever taught a child with motor coordination difficulties how to catch a ball, you will agree, it takes a lot of patience, time, encouragement and motivation for both parties! Perhaps we should start incorporating these techniques into our teaching, even whilst the research is not quite there to support it as a technique for these children. There certainly can be no harm in using it as one of the techniques we use when teaching our children?
Positive findings have emerged from a number of different tasks, from golfing and basketball skills, from surgeons performing laparoscopy, from police fire arms tasks, recently from military marksmen (plus many more) and (why I am interested in this) from children with motor coordination disorder. These studies have varied in design in terms of the duration of training, the delay until retention (how long does it take to retain the skill, as a novice, for example) and the type of situations that a trained-up individual can perform in (initial studies, from Exeter University in both putting and basketball have revealed that the individuals (both novice and expert) who had Quiet eye training (QET) were able to retain their performances better under pressure compared to those who received more regular technical training. Therefore, this is important for athletes who "choke"). The vast majority of these studies have supported QE training as a means to expedite motor learning.
This concept of QET has been around since the 90's and many sports coaches, psychologists and trainers use the concept daily. It has also been incorporated into mindfulness, visualisation, sports specific vision therapy and anxiety relieving techniques in terms of getting the individual to be in the present moment and take time to focus on specifics of their technique (for example looking at the back of the ball for a prolonged moment before you take your back swing of the putt in golf).
So, it seems natural that researchers are now looking at whether QET can improve the motor outcomes of children who have movement control difficulties. Can we teach children who are not naturally good at ball skills (for example) to focus on aspects of the ball or the target by using a QE technique? Researchers at the University of Exeter are doing just this. They have watched "good ball catchers" and analysed why they are "good" at catching compared to the poor catchers. Their studies reveal that good catchers have a technique that they are comfortable and confident with. They are aware of technical pointers such as cupping their hands together, without being told what to do. They are also able to identify a technique that suits the task and will adapt this technique according to the task at hand. The poorer catchers do not make this adaptation and will stick to their learnt technique no matter what the situation calls for. They do not adapt to their environment naturally-which is important when in a game situation. The researchers hypothesise that perhaps these poorer catchers feel incapable of adapting or changing their technique. They then did a pilot study recently which revealed that Quiet Eye Training might be an effective intervention for improving the motor skill of typically developing children.
The study compared a ‘technical training’ intervention which included the normal instructions for throwing and catching (e.g. smooth throw, hands together) with the QET which used instructions such and take time to aim, track the ball closely. Results indicated that only the QET group had significant improvements in catching performance in an immediate retention task. These results suggest that QET may be an effective intervention to improve the catching performance of typically developing children. The researchers are now assessing the effectiveness of QET for children with DCD (developmental coordination disorder) in a larger study funded by the Waterloo Foundation. This is very exciting for us parents, teachers and therapists of children who have motor skill difficulties, as it could be a fun and specific way of actually teaching ball skills to these children effectively and perhaps more efficiently as to how we do it at the moment. If you have ever taught a child with motor coordination difficulties how to catch a ball, you will agree, it takes a lot of patience, time, encouragement and motivation for both parties! Perhaps we should start incorporating these techniques into our teaching, even whilst the research is not quite there to support it as a technique for these children. There certainly can be no harm in using it as one of the techniques we use when teaching our children?
Klostermann, A., Kredel, R., & Hossner, E.-J. (2013, February 11). The “Quiet Eye” and Motor Performance: Task Demands Matter!. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0031499
Wood, Vine, Wilson (2013). The impact of visual illusions on perception, action planning, and motor performance, Atten Percept Psychophys, DOI 10.3758/s13414-013-0489-y. Horn, Okumura, Alexander, Gardin, & Sylvester (2012). Quiet eye duration is responsive to variability of practice and to the axis of target changes. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 83, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 204-211Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Life can be tough for a child with difficulties
I have been fine tuning one of the parent evening lectures
that I give to parents of children with gross and fine movement difficulties
and I thought that it would be good to share some of the ideas on the blog
page. My main passion about what I do is that I believe
that knowledge and understanding of a child’s difficulties is the first and
most important step towards helping them meet their difficulties with dignity,
self-assurance and belief in themselves. Not only is educating the parents and teachers
important, but also teaching the child about themselves and how they learn and
why they might find things trickier than others is key to maintaining their
sense of self esteem. Life for a child with difficulties is tough and I don’t
believe that we should pretend that those difficulties are not there.
So, what can be challenging for a child with a learning or
movement difficulty? Sitting in class, writing, eating, getting dressed,
playing in the playground are just a few things. Some children find one area
particularly tricky and others find all areas a challenge. Every child is
different and the environment that they are brought up in can affect what areas
they find most challenging or the easiest.
Whilst sitting at their desk or on the floor, some children
tend to: Have slumped posture, lean on others, lie down, wiggle, fall over or
hold their head in their hands. The reason for these reactions could be that
the child has a low resting state of the muscles and less resistance in their
connective tissue structures. This presents as “low tone” which means that the
muscles are less ready to contract and the surrounding connective tissue does
not provide enough resistance for the muscle to work against. As a result the
child may look floppy and loose. A child
with bendy joints often has this kind of “low tone” due to the lack of inherent
stiffness in their connective tissue. This affects how well they control their
muscles and as a result may often have decreased postural control (core
control), which makes it hard to maintain a standing or seated position for an
extended amount of time. It is most
difficult to maintain a posture when children are still. Some children need to keep
moving in order to use the moving muscles to provide their postural support and
stability, rather than their core or inner muscles. Movement also helps increase the level of brain
activity which send more messages to the floppy muscles to be stable. As you
can imagine all of this activity takes up a lot of energy, which is why sitting
still can be harder for many children than running a race.
Why is Writing Challenging?
In the same way that low muscle tone and postural control
affects sitting, so does it affect writing, as we all need to sit upright, maintain
our posture or even just stay seated in our desk in order to write. Similarly,
if a child leans on their arms or cheek to provide their support, it creates a
very tricky position to write from. If you don’t have a stable and controlled
base of support, it is very difficult to hold your pencil effectively. It
reminds me of a concept my science teacher taught me about fulcrums and levers.
If you don’t have a secure fulcrum, your lever will collapse. (Imagine your
shoulder blade muscles as your fulcrum and your arm and fingers as the levers).
Finally, children with learning difficulties often rely too much on their
vision and less on their sensations and ability to integrate their senses. Therefore
they can focus more on the pencil than on the writing. Or, they cannot rely on
the feel of the pencil in their hand and therefore can hold too tightly or too
softly. This is exaggerated by the lack of shoulder control so they often press
down too hard on the page or conversely, too softly. Once again, we have a
scenario of a lot of energy being used up in order to perform a simple task,
with most of the child’s attention being taken up with the background of
writing rather than the writing itself. As a result, the child can become
exhausted, bored, fidgety, deflated or frustrated with writing and all of these
emotions can play out in a number of ways in the classroom.
The continued challenges that children with difficulties
have with daily activities like dressing & eating and academic performance
can impact on a child’s self-esteem. They can become withdrawn and shy or act
out abrasively or aggressively around their peers. It is common for a child
with a learning or academic difficulty to experience difficulties with physical
activities as well (such as hopping, skipping, coordination, ball games,
running) and as a result they do not include themselves in playground
activities. This can further exacerbate the social difficulties these children
have. They can become frustrated and upset with themselves or even embarrassed
and the resulting social issues have the most impact on a child’s feelings of
who they are and what they are worth.
I will write my next blog about instilling a sense of self
efficacy in these children-parents, coaches, therapists and teachers: we all
have a role to play!
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Little and often
This week, my thoughts are on being a mom of a child with movement difficulties: not a therapist or an educator, but a mom.
Parents of children who have movement difficulties are often worried about their child's lack of interest in physical activity, sport, ball games and even "incidental" exercise, like walking to the shops, or playing tag or hide and seek with the neighbours. I have often felt that I am not doing my job as a mom properly, because my little girl didn't want to play in the park or go for a cycle. Being a medical professional, I recognised the fact that a child will often say they don't like doing something (or in my daughter's case, it was "boring"), rather than saying they find it hard or tricky, or that they are embarrassed that they keep falling over or bump into their friends, or they can't hop or skip. Thus, the cycle of avoidance of physical activity begins. I knew all of this. However, how could I stop this cycle? If I couldn't do it, how could I expect other parents to do it?
Now, I could go into all the research that is exploring what motivates children to participate in physical activity (and there is lots out there-refer to the research of Australians, Jeff Wakely and Tony Okeley, Dylan Cliff and Lisa Barnett or Cheryl Missiuna and her team at McMaster University and Can Child in Canada and Helene Polatajko's (University of Toronto) fantastic work with the CO-OP approach), but instead, I am going to blog about my experiences as a mom. In retrospect, I think the experience would have been exactly the same whether I knew about the research or not, but it is interesting to read the research and realise that it ties in with the reality of having a child with movement difficulties.
So, back to my quandary of how did I encourage my daughter to be physically active? The first task was to "get in quick"-before she realised that she did things in a different way to her peers; also before her fears started creeping in-about falling, bumping, embarrassing herself. I tried to give her opportunities in stress free situations to practise things-walking along the white painted line on the pavement, the low brick wall, jumping off things, bouncing on the bed-playing, playing and more playing. I asked her about what she wanted to "get good at". Being a little girl, she really wanted to learn how to skip and gallop in ballet and she hated tennis groups at school because she couldn't hit a ball. She didn't mind if she wasn't the best, but she didn't want to stand out as the one who couldn't do anything. She also wanted to join in with hopscotch and ball games in the playground. My daughter told me what the "tasks" were and together we embarked on a journey of learning and mastering them. However, it was always in her own time and I only ever gave her something achievable to work on-we practised little and often-whilst walking to the shops or to our neighbour, never for more than 5 minutes at a time, as she would get cross and frustrated. I have emphasised over and over again, that it takes time and effort to get good at things and constantly reward both my daughters for the effort they put into practising things that they are not good at. Both my daughters are starting to recognise that some people are just good at things-without trying or putting effort into them, but that does not mean that, because they, themselves, need to practise something, they cannot achieve the skill. Practise really does make perfect (well, not so perfect, sometimes, but nevertheless, the CAN learn to DO IT!).
Regarding the ball skills- the key for my daughter was having access to all my physio equipment that happened to be lying around the house. So, (nothing to do with me), she found my big gym balls (which are slower and bigger than normal balls, therefore easier) and started bouncing them, rolling them and throwing them. Everyday whenever she came into the dining room (which is where they were being stored), she would give it a go - little and often - most of the time, all by herself. Initially, we spoke it through and I demonstrated often by showing her with my hands over her hands, we spoke about how the ball moves and used imagery regarding the ball- "imagine it is a fairy and you want to push her gently to the ground for as long as you can keep your hands on her"- but once she had the idea, she just practised on her own. the more she practised, the better she became and now it is one of her favourite activities. It seems to be a cycle: the more a child learns to use the mechanics of their body, the more they get a feeling of success, and the more they experience success, the more they are motivated to keep practising.
One last thought, and that is to do with exposure. Children who are exposed to physical activity, more out of neccessity, rather than choice, the ones who perhaps do not have access to stationary leisure activities, like TV- from a young age- no matter what they baseline ability is; I wonder if they create their own opportunities for task perfection and taking the time to work out how to do things. I am thinking of my nephew who lives on a farm with no TV. He has a learning difficulty and poor core stability, balance and coordination, yet he is the most active child I know. He has learnt his way around his difficulties and compensated in other ways that did not neccessarily use all the perfect fundamental motor skills-yet he managed to achieve the task at hand. In his case, this was being able to play outside with his brother and cousin on the farm-climbing trees, driving tractors, swimming and cycling. The intrinsic (inner) motivation was there. If he didn't work out his own way of achieving these tasks, he would have been left out of the game and bored stiff! If only we all lived in paradise though...
Parents of children who have movement difficulties are often worried about their child's lack of interest in physical activity, sport, ball games and even "incidental" exercise, like walking to the shops, or playing tag or hide and seek with the neighbours. I have often felt that I am not doing my job as a mom properly, because my little girl didn't want to play in the park or go for a cycle. Being a medical professional, I recognised the fact that a child will often say they don't like doing something (or in my daughter's case, it was "boring"), rather than saying they find it hard or tricky, or that they are embarrassed that they keep falling over or bump into their friends, or they can't hop or skip. Thus, the cycle of avoidance of physical activity begins. I knew all of this. However, how could I stop this cycle? If I couldn't do it, how could I expect other parents to do it?
Now, I could go into all the research that is exploring what motivates children to participate in physical activity (and there is lots out there-refer to the research of Australians, Jeff Wakely and Tony Okeley, Dylan Cliff and Lisa Barnett or Cheryl Missiuna and her team at McMaster University and Can Child in Canada and Helene Polatajko's (University of Toronto) fantastic work with the CO-OP approach), but instead, I am going to blog about my experiences as a mom. In retrospect, I think the experience would have been exactly the same whether I knew about the research or not, but it is interesting to read the research and realise that it ties in with the reality of having a child with movement difficulties.
So, back to my quandary of how did I encourage my daughter to be physically active? The first task was to "get in quick"-before she realised that she did things in a different way to her peers; also before her fears started creeping in-about falling, bumping, embarrassing herself. I tried to give her opportunities in stress free situations to practise things-walking along the white painted line on the pavement, the low brick wall, jumping off things, bouncing on the bed-playing, playing and more playing. I asked her about what she wanted to "get good at". Being a little girl, she really wanted to learn how to skip and gallop in ballet and she hated tennis groups at school because she couldn't hit a ball. She didn't mind if she wasn't the best, but she didn't want to stand out as the one who couldn't do anything. She also wanted to join in with hopscotch and ball games in the playground. My daughter told me what the "tasks" were and together we embarked on a journey of learning and mastering them. However, it was always in her own time and I only ever gave her something achievable to work on-we practised little and often-whilst walking to the shops or to our neighbour, never for more than 5 minutes at a time, as she would get cross and frustrated. I have emphasised over and over again, that it takes time and effort to get good at things and constantly reward both my daughters for the effort they put into practising things that they are not good at. Both my daughters are starting to recognise that some people are just good at things-without trying or putting effort into them, but that does not mean that, because they, themselves, need to practise something, they cannot achieve the skill. Practise really does make perfect (well, not so perfect, sometimes, but nevertheless, the CAN learn to DO IT!).
Regarding the ball skills- the key for my daughter was having access to all my physio equipment that happened to be lying around the house. So, (nothing to do with me), she found my big gym balls (which are slower and bigger than normal balls, therefore easier) and started bouncing them, rolling them and throwing them. Everyday whenever she came into the dining room (which is where they were being stored), she would give it a go - little and often - most of the time, all by herself. Initially, we spoke it through and I demonstrated often by showing her with my hands over her hands, we spoke about how the ball moves and used imagery regarding the ball- "imagine it is a fairy and you want to push her gently to the ground for as long as you can keep your hands on her"- but once she had the idea, she just practised on her own. the more she practised, the better she became and now it is one of her favourite activities. It seems to be a cycle: the more a child learns to use the mechanics of their body, the more they get a feeling of success, and the more they experience success, the more they are motivated to keep practising.
One last thought, and that is to do with exposure. Children who are exposed to physical activity, more out of neccessity, rather than choice, the ones who perhaps do not have access to stationary leisure activities, like TV- from a young age- no matter what they baseline ability is; I wonder if they create their own opportunities for task perfection and taking the time to work out how to do things. I am thinking of my nephew who lives on a farm with no TV. He has a learning difficulty and poor core stability, balance and coordination, yet he is the most active child I know. He has learnt his way around his difficulties and compensated in other ways that did not neccessarily use all the perfect fundamental motor skills-yet he managed to achieve the task at hand. In his case, this was being able to play outside with his brother and cousin on the farm-climbing trees, driving tractors, swimming and cycling. The intrinsic (inner) motivation was there. If he didn't work out his own way of achieving these tasks, he would have been left out of the game and bored stiff! If only we all lived in paradise though...
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