Balance supports all movement skills and influences how they are gained and refined over a lifetime. It is an essential life skill that informs who and where we are as our relationship to gravity emerges and evolves. The vestibular system (situated in the inner ear) is primarily responsible for balance and takes around seven years to mature fully. It also needs continual refreshing through varied movement experience to achieve optimum functionality. This system is a central reference point for all other senses and lays the foundation for physical and emotional safety and security.
Development
From birth onwards, becoming more physically balanced and managing gravity with ease requires particular movement experiences that stimulate the vestibular system. Babies will move their heads from side to side and lift them up when lying on the floor – their heads also tip and tilt when being carried, during changing times and when rocked, swung or rolled.
All this early movement supports children’s balancing ability as they begin to roll over, get onto their knees, crawl, then stand and eventually walk freely.
As they become physically stronger, more competent and confident, children will discover and create more adventurous opportunities to practise balancing using their whole bodies.
Importance
Balance determines how the world is experienced – how secure children feel in themselves and their environment – and how confident they are to extend their skills and embrace new opportunities. Through continual movement experience, balance eventually becomes an efficient and reliable resource that should not require too much conscious effort to ensure daily challenges are met and managed with ease and enjoyment.
Supporting very young children
From birth, provide a range of daily movement opportunities that support the vestibular system and the overall body strength needed to engage in activities that challenge balance when moving fast and slow and being still. Babies can do these both inside and outdoors:
- Allow for plenty of independent free time on the floor to rock, roll, twist, turn, tip and tilt, and then crawl, sit and walk.
- Have ‘active lap time’ and sing songs such as ‘Ten in the bed’ or ‘Jelly on a plate’.
- Allow lots of time for pre-walking children to ‘scramble and stand’ without help – this is a very important stage and should not be rushed.
Babywalkers or jumping devices are best avoided because they do not offer effective opportunities for children to gain confidence and competence in their balancing skills.
Supporting older children
Provide a range of opportunities for them to move throughout the day, such as standing up to paint or draw, and allow personal choice of position at circle or story time, such as lying down however they choose, kneeling, squatting or sitting. Also:
- Create ways to challenge balance during transitions; for example, step over a series of low obstacles unaided, walk along a zig-zag track, reach up to touch spots on the wall or jump with feet together from sticker to sticker.
- Provide a selection of interesting and manageable loose parts outdoors so children can create their own balancing challenges to swing, slide, spin on, to go very fast and stop!
- Create possibilities for moving up and down, such as slopes or steps, and resources to go over and under while changing speed and direction.
Moving on
As children grow and develop:
- Create movement combinations that may be refined or added to over time; for example, jump and sit, run and stop, twirl and lie down, or roll and stand up on one leg. Consider adding music.
- Source a range of uneven surfaces to move over, such as air mattress, pillows, cushions, or a sheet placed over bean-bags.
- Introduce apparatus, such as a ball to kick or catch when moving, aim at a goal or pass to a partner.
- Practise being very still when alert and relaxed. What positions are the best or most difficult for maintaining stillness? Explore and time the possibilities.
How we may also benefit
We notice immediately if our balance is affected through injury, illness, age or exhaustion, so it is critical that we support our balance little and often every day. Join in with the children’s activities when appropriate and safe. Also, try to go up and down stairs hands-free, clean your teeth standing on one leg, walk as fast as possible at least once a day, or turn slowly eight seconds one way and then the other.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
This is the seventh article in a series on essential physical skills and how to support them in children from birth to three. Dr Lala Manners is a physical development trainer and director of Active Matters