The developmental state of newborn human babies is the result of a compromise. At full term, or close to 37/38 weeks, our babies are able to survive an independent life outside the womb. Their brains have already started to develop and are poised for an impressive rate of change over the next couple of years. However, if their brains were more developed, their heads would be larger and, as some books delicately say, 'normal birth would not be possible'.
So our babies do not get up and toddle off within an hour or so of birth, like the young of many other mammals. They look vulnerable physically and they need our care to thrive. But watch babies and you will see that they use their physical abilities to the full. The ability of babies to exert physical control over their body moves steadily in two directions: from the top of their head down towards their feet and from the midline of the body out towards the extremities.
Practicing perfection
Research that has tracked brain development for infants and toddlers has shown that babies' keenness to use their current skills is crucial for future learning. The neural connections in young brains are built by doing. You can observe enthusiastic, repeated attempts by babies to hold up their wobbly and heavy head. They reach out and try to co-ordinate what their eyes see by making contact with their hands. Babies and very young children often persevere long beyond the point where we would give up.
The actual practice of crawling and moving about, handling objects and looking builds connections of learning in the brain. Babies become impressive crawlers, walkers and climbers, because they have done it so often that the appropriate neural pathways have become established in their brains. There comes a time when you no longer see that rather puzzled expression on a baby's face, as when a novice crawler finds she has gone backwards rather than forwards (because the front half of her body is stronger at the moment). Or that look of consternation as a new walker realises he is about to lose his balance or that the wheeled trolley is going rather faster than the preferred speed for his legs. Practice really does make perfect.
When you observe babies and young toddlers, it becomes obvious that they have a strong drive to use their bodies and to apply their muscle control to the utmost. They are also keen to repeat actions, sometimes with minor variations. Once they have managed a vital skill, like crawling, then they vigorously use the skill to get themselves to every corner of a room at speed - sometimes apparently for the sheer pleasure of travelling. Practice is how their learning is consolidated and confidence grows.
What under-threes need
* Under-threes need open space for moving around. Often the best indoor area will be on a comfortable floor, with adults happy to be at the same level, watching, joining in or letting children crawl and clamber over them.
* They need adults who support them safely when they try to hold up their head for a short while, and who are pleased to be used as an impromptu baby gym, when older babies are steady enough to bounce on their feet against a lap.
* Mobile older babies and toddlers need an environment that is safe for them, as well as having alert adults. They then need to move as much as they wish and in pursuit of all sorts of intriguing play materials.
* Watch babies as they explore the interesting contents of a treasure basket, or a toddler who perseveres trying to fit objects into each other.
* Young children need experiences with play materials that allow them plenty of choices. Simple and flexible playthings offer more scope for physical learning than solid plastic consoles in which everything is attached, despite these being marketed with claims that they will support almost every kind of early learning.
Young children do not need to be organised into physical programmes for movement. They will choose to use their skills if they have flexible indoor and outdoor space and play equipment. They will also happily use their skills of co-ordination to take part in the daily routines of finding and tidying, hand washing and mealtimes.
Mind and body links
Practitioners such as Sally Goddard Blythe ('Mind and body', Nursery World, 15 June 2000) have shown how physical skills build bodily awareness and are vital building blocks for later skills of literacy.
Creeping and crawling by older babies and toddlers help them directly to synchronise their sense of balance. Plenty of relaxed practice in all kinds of physical movement brings together the physical sensations and what young children see and feel.
Apart from being enjoyable now, crawling and other games enable young children to strengthen their limbs. The co-ordination of hand and eye in crawling is undertaken at the same visual distance that older children will use in reading and writing.
We need to be highly aware of the value of physical development, and developmentally appropriate practice with under-threes can support and constructively challenge practice for over-threes. Physical development should never be seen as the 'poor relation' in terms of early learning. An over-emphasis on intellectual development has sometimes rolled down from unbalanced practice with over-threes, along with the serious misapprehension that children only really learn or concentrate 'properly' if they are sitting up to do work at the table.
Young children need to be physically active within their day. They can look and listen when they are on the move - in fact, staying still is the hardest movement of all for them. So it is not surprising that very young children (and three-to five-year-olds too) become unhappy and fidgety if they are required to sit still for what seems like ages to them. Staying still actually disrupts, rather than helps their powers of concentration.
We definitely do not want to be in a rush to get young children sitting at a table to 'do their work' or unable to move around for long periods of time. If you find you are under pressure to make rising-threes behave in this way to 'get them ready for the pre-school room', then it is time to challenge the priorities for the over-threes in your setting.