Building Baby's Brain with Exercise By:Wee Exercise Co-Creators, Margaret Barnes, Licensed Pediatric Occupational Therapist And Karen LeBlanc, TV/Video Producer

It is perhaps one of the most perplexing child development issues of our time: How can a nation so obsessed with creating super intelligent children see the rate of learning disabilities on the rise? The answer, say some child development experts, is senseless-a lack of sensory stimulation. A generation of children

are growing up in environments that don't stimulate the five senses necessary for brain and body growth. This sensory input lays the foundation for higher learning and some experts argue that learning disabilities such as Attention Deficit Disorder can be traced back to lack of sensory input in early childhood.

"Today's children are missing out on so many sensory experiences with computers being the primary source of input into their brains, little time to play in the mud because of busy family schedules and the "yuppie" generation of children always dressed and looking cute," observes Margaret Barnes, a Licensed Pediatric Occupational Therapist and the co-creator of a sensory motor video series for baby's first year, Wee Exercise. This sensory input includes touch, vision, sound, smells, and vestibular influences, the complex system that makes up your inner structures. Vestibular input tells us information about changes in movement or position as it relates to gravity and speed and direction of movement.

In a culture obsessed with test scores and academic achievement, sensory-motor development is often overlooked. Infant stimulation is the buzzword of modern parenting but parents interpret this intelligent nurturing as academic rather than physical stimulation. The emphasis is on cognitive development as parents strive to create intelligent infants with academic toys and activities such as flash cards, books and videos that focus on learning a foreign language, early reading and mathematical concepts. "As a culture, we take for granted the concept of sensory integration and how much our brain processes in one given second. I think that we need to educate our parents on how much more important sensory motor play is than sitting with flash cards. Language is a building block that stems from the foundation laid with sensory-motor development. Everything is secondary to sensory-motor development," says Barnes.

This lack of understanding and awareness stems from a shift in neuroscience thinking. We now have a much better understanding about the development of the brain and vital senses in babies. New research points to the importance of sensory-motor stimulation for higher learning. A report by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education concluded that babies need time daily to exercise and move about their environment freely for sensorial input. Parents are behind the learning curve in this new research. As a consequence of this lack of information and parents' busy lifestyles, infants are missing out on this crucial foundation of development. "I find that preschool aged children are exposed to many sensory-motor activities such as organized sports, dance lessons, and gymnastics but infants are missing out. Babies are in the car seat as their parents shuttle siblings to soccer practice and gymnastics so they don't have ample time to move about their environment. Infants simply aren't home enough for unstructured free play in today's busy world. They are carried about from errand to errand," observes Barnes.

In her work with the pediatric population, Barnes frequently sees developmental delays stemming from too little sensory-motor involvement in baby's first year of life. "The sensations an infant receives are crucial to this sensory integration process. In fact, most activity in the first seven years of life are part of this process of organizing sensations in the nervous system," explains Barnes. Integration of the senses is critical for the ability to concentrate, academic learning, self esteem, abstract thought and reasoning, visual perception, hand-eye coordination and the ability to organize. "I truly believe the rise in ADHD is due to a lack of sensory-motor stimulation and integration. Kids are on the go all the time and miss out on the crucial foundation of getting all of those senses integrated," says Barnes.

Sensory experiences guide the sequence of development, the building blocks that become the basis for more complex learning and more mature development. Take for example the "building blocks" that lead to a toddler walking: First he learns to hold his head upright, then he sits, then he learns to creep on all fours before walking on two legs. A baby must master each skill before he can advance on to the next. Oftentimes, we find that when an infant skips a skill or developmental milestone, learning or developmental deficits result. Research has shown that children with difficulty reading oftentimes skipped the crawling stage of development, which failed to activate the cross coordination or bilateral coordination of the right and left hemispheres of the brain necessary for reading. "Reading is the end-product of many building blocks that form from the sensory-motor activities of infancy and early childhood. The same is true for all academic abilities and also for behavior and emotional growth: everything rests upon a sensory-motor foundation," says Barnes.

Stimulating the Senses in Infancy:

Babies need plenty of experiences that call on the senses of touch, taste, sight, smell and movement. Babies must master their gross motor skills before they can work on their fine motor skills. Parents can help their infant get his whole system ready to work in that first year. Encourage movement and physical stimulation: dance with baby, roll on the floor with baby, let him play in the running water while you are washing the dishes. A newborn's response to sensations are built-in reflexes that outline movements and provide building blocks for further development. At one month, the infant has already performed a considerable number of responses to sensations, particularly sensations from his own body and from gravity. For example, every mother quickly learns that carrying or rocking a baby brings comfort and usually quiets a baby. The sensations of gentle body movement tend to organize the brain.

Why not take your baby outside daily and put him in the grass for texture input? If at first your baby doesn't like it, dangle his feet in the grass until he gets comfortable with this new texture. Also, accept the messiness of sensory experiences. It's okay for baby to get wet or muddy. Let him play with whipped cream or other ooey gooey fun.

If your infant attends a daycare, make sure the daycare providers are giving your baby ample time to move. Ask how often infants are in their cribs. When they aren't in the crib, what are they doing for physical movement versus being held in a caregiver's arms most of the day? Make sure your older children aren't sitting at a table most of the day and that activities aren't heavily weighted towards academics -so called tabletop learning. "If you really want a child to learn something, don't keep him in the desk. If a child is learning about weight and gravity have him do a tug of war," explains Barnes.

To better understand how sensory integration takes place in infancy Barnes addresses each of the five senses as an infant develops:

Touch: In the beginning touch is a source of emotional satisfaction-a bond between mother and infant. As an infant develops, he discovers that he has two hands and spontaneously tries to bring his hands together so that they can touch each other. This is the beginning of coordination of two sides of the body.

Sound: A newborn will respond to the sound of a rattle or a voice, although he cannot understand what those sounds mean. Simply responding to those sounds is the first building block of speech.

Vestibular: An infant shows a response to gravity from birth. For example, if you move an infant quickly towards the ground, he will become alarmed and move his arms and legs out in a protective response

Vision: A newborn's sense of sight is not very well organized, although he does recognize his mother's face and other significant objects. The first step in developing vision is learning to track objects. That is why a hanging crib mobile is an important developmental toy.

Proprioception: This is the input from muscles and joints that tell a baby where he is in space and how to use his muscles and joints to achieve tasks. An infant exhibits this sense early on as he adjusts his body to fit nicely into the arms of the person holding him. Later on, this ability will tell him how to use a knife and fork and how to climb a Jungle gym.

One of the best examples of sensory integration at work is watching a child ride a bicycle. A child must balance himself on the bike, while sensing the pull of gravity and the movements of his body. Whenever he moves off center and begins to fall, he must shift his weight to keep the bicycle in balance. The sensory systems needed to steer the bicycle tell the child where he and the bike are in relation to the environment. A child's brain must integrate the visual sensations with body sensations and the pull of gravity and use those integrated sensations to plan a path on his bike. This is motor planning at work. Eventually all of this motor planning process becomes habit or an unconscious task.

As parents, we can give our children a successful start in life by incorporating age appropriate sensory-motor activities in daily life. It's never too late to start. The plasticity of a child's brain until approximately age 10, allows us to reprogram areas of the brain that might've missed out on sensory-motor stimulation in early childhood. As your child progresses from infancy to toddler hood and preschool age, give him plenty of opportunities to interact with his physical environment such as the playground equipment, mud, sand, and many textures such as water and ice. Sensory experiences are essentially food for the brain that get processed and organized for higher functions such as academic learning abilities. They provide the energy and knowledge to direct the body and mind and set a child up for success in life academically, physically, emotionally and socially.

Barnes suggests the following play activities for sensory-motor stimulation in Baby's first year:

4-6 months - Alternate arm stretch: This activity is fun to do after a diaper change while baby is on his back. It helps baby feel movement of arms as well as strengthening baby's shoulders, arms and chest. Have baby hold your thumbs, and gently move left arm up over baby's head and move right arm straight down by its side. Then switch, reversing the arms to right arm overhead and left arm down. Have your face close to baby while you are doing the activity for added visual stimulation.

6-8 months - Flying baby: This activity helps stimulate the vestibular system in addition to strengthening the baby's back muscles. This activity is also physical for the caregiver. Caregiver lie on your back with your legs raised and bent so that your calves are parallel to the floor. Carefully place baby on your shins, baby's chest should be on your knees. Hold baby's hands. Raise your feet and have baby airplane, moving baby's arms out to the side.

9-12 months - Creamy Fun: This activity is a messy sensory activity, which is great fun! Place baby in highchair and add a few dollops of whipped cream to the tray. Introduce it gradually if baby is apprehensive to exploring this new texture and taste. If baby is really eager, add graham cracker crumbs for added texture.

The Wee Exercise videos and DVDs are a developmental series for baby's first year of life, designed and co-produced by Licensed Pediatric Occupational Therapist, Margaret Barnes. For more information on sensory motor activities and Wee Exercise consult www.weeexercise.com.

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