Our Amazing Babies

Movement and the Developing Brain

Our babies are little miracles of creation that we get to witness with the delightful developments of the first year. Baby’s capacities build from early nursing and gazing to avid exploration and cruising out in the world. The brain triples in size by the end of the first year. A little being comes shining though, and shows us the mystery of this new little person. And it all happens through movement and relationship.

Brain development through movement

Fascinating research inform us that the baby’s brain develops through natural movements of nursing, tummy time, rolling, creeping and crawling. Baby’s most complex senses, vision and hearing, are also organized by doing the same movements.

Developmental movements organize and structure the brain for cognition, attention asset (vs. attention deficit) and emotional regulation, the ability to modulate between calm and excited states. The earliest learning takes place through movement explorations. Baby’s natural movements also provide a baseline of core strength and good coordination.

Nursing

Mother’s intake of Omega-3 fish oils is essential for growing the fatty myelin wrappers around baby’s brain cells. There is no better source of food for baby’s brain than mother’s milk. In addition to the innumerable nutritional, emotional and immune benefits of breastfeeding, the movements of nursing provide specific support to brain development. Nursing rocks the cranial bones, typically resolving most compression displacements of the intensity of birth. And mobile cranial bones give the brain room to grow.

Nursing actively balances the central nervous system (sympathetic/para-sympathetic) for sound emotional regulation. Mutual gazing between baby and mom is an early stage in developing the complex sense of vision.

Reflexes

Each of the developmental movements is made up of micro-movements, called reflexes. Reflexes, and their complex interaction as developmental movements, organize the baby’s brain for optimal function.

Tummy Time

During tummy time baby builds his earliest measuring skills. Moving his head up and down, bopping himself with his hand and turning in response to voices, baby gradually builds a map of his visual and auditory fields. While on the tummy, baby’s field of sensory experience matches his field of action – both small. This creates a properly matched learning environment of sensory-motor balance. Over time, baby comes up to rock back and forth on hands and knees, developing near to far vision.  School age children need this visual organization for switching between blackboard and their desk work.

Emotional regulation is supported during tummy time as the prone (face down) position elicits the parasympathetic activity, while active tummy time play engages the sympathetic nervous system. 

Many invisible senses of internal movement and the vestibular sense of gravity are elicited through reflexive micro-movements while on the tummy. These internal senses develop sense of connection within oneself and feeling of support from the earth. Both of these are underneath a stable sense of self.

Distress in tummy time

Many babies who have not spent much time on their tummy may fuss or even cry in distress when placed there.  A baby may experience mild to profound vestibular disorientation if he haven’t spent time on his tummy.  Vestibular disorientation can lead to anxiety, hyperactivity and many behavior problems, as the child does not have a secure sense of self and of support.

Tummy time provides baby with the first opportunity for mastery learning. Tummy time is the foundation for all of the following developmental movements, including rolling, creeping and crawling. Many school age children with learning challenges skipped these early movements.

Distress in tummy time can be resolved through simple handling practices and daily play activities.

Sitting up and down; belly crawling

From six to eight months babies start to move up and out in the world under their own steam.   The level at which that the baby is moving shows us the level of the brain the baby is developing. Early activities on the floor develop the lowest parts of the brain and spine. Coming into mid-level movement (like crawling), the baby activates his brainstem.

Reflexes make connections along nerve tract up and down on each side. Baby starts to develop a sense of each side, a precursor to handedness and differentiation of cerebral function. Vision and hearing follow along as a child normally develops dominant hand, eye, ear, foot and brain side.  Mixed dominance creates many problems for school age children in thinking, language and problem solving. Horizontal tracking of vision during belly crawling also comes into play now. Many children who have problems reading lack coherent horizontal tracking.

Babies who are not able to get up and down from sitting on the floor during this time show us that these parts of the brain are not yet activated. Babies who have spent a lot of time either sitting or on their backs are likely to get locked into sitting and may be anxious when tilted. Long term, children may be rigid, both in their spines and in their minds; needing adults to either deliver the world to them or to have their environment be just so. Although all toddlers call on us and need order in their small worlds, extreme inflexibility is a sign of insecurity. When children are not at ease in three dimensions in the gravitational field, their sense of security is impaired.

Crawling

Crawling builds on all of the earlier skills of developmental movement. The diagonal movements of crawling and spiral turns show us the action of nerve fibers crossing over between the right brain and left brain. These connections linking the cerebral cortex are vital for language, reading, writing and math. Good communication between the brain hemispheres is essential to all problem solving and complex thinking such as sciences and creative work. Ability to see the whole and the part, and all their relationships, is developed through crawling.

Vision continues to develop with crawling as the eyes begin to move independently of the head. Hearing and spatial intelligence (basic to math) become more complex with crawling.

Reading and school readiness

Many reading readiness programs focus on reading books to babies. While this creates a pleasurable association and familiarity with books, the actual brain and eye functions necessary for reading and writing are developed through movement. The natural movements of the first year establish the ABCs of pre-academic skills; attention, balance and coordination.

Learning challenges

Many babies do not have sufficient movement opportunities on their tummies and on the floor to fully organize and develop their brain. Brains are wizards of compensation, but sometimes compensation patterns eat up neural energy. The good news is that brains are malleable through out life, and can learn to function optimally through movement at any age. 

Catherine Burns, movement therapist, RSMT, and craniosacral therapist, specializes in core neural integration through developmental movement for babies and children. Her special concern is sound function of the brain for relationship, attention, cognition and the child’s emerging sense of self.

Contact information:

Catherine Burns

612/332-7459

Catherine@mamabebe.org

www.MamaBebe.org