by Bette Lamont
NeuroDevelopmental Movement® Consultants understand that the plan for growth that has been our birthright for millennia is a guide to the healthiest possible development of the infant, and leads to optimal psychological, physical, academic, and social abilities.
In a brief and limited summary of two of the most overlooked phases of early childhood development that encompass the first year, we want to note the functional gains at these two stages of early life. These developmental gains are prompted by the child’s only true language, movement, sensation, and reflexes in the context of non-traumatizing, balanced parenting. It is these activities we promote in healthy infants and it is these developmental activities that, when replicated, will enhance disorganized skills.
Our information comes from clinical experience of 37 years and having taken more than 4,500 children through this process. In addition, our practitioners around the world have seen thousands more.
At two and a half to seven months of age, the pons and the amygdala are dominant. At this stage we can achieve or, in cases of injury or delay, enhance these skills:
• Stimulate horizontal eye tracking, early head movement, which helps the skull to round out
• Stimulate the nerves that go to the muscles that pull the eyes into correct alignment (in the case of crossed eyes or over convergence)
• Help with heel to coccyx alignment, which strengthens the arches in the feet
• Promote cervical and lumbar spine stability and neck strength, which helps the development of the mature S curve from the infant C curve
• Make the child aware of the genital area through ventral stimulation, and help with on time toilet training
• Stabilize the hip sockets
• Help with the supination and pronation of the lower arm
• Help the hands to open out from the grasp reflex to eventual cortical control
• Create a feeling of vertical through-ness which helps the child to feel grounded
• Encourage first self-determined movement
• Connect with brain stem development, and functions that ensure survival: accurate perception of pain, heat, cold and hunger
• Build a sense of self, and the basis for development of empathy and compassion
(The implications of missing out on building these foundations are clear.)
At seven to twelve months of age, multiple brain structures are coming online and dominate the infant’s movement, relationships, and sensory experiences and provide a foundation for upcoming cortical skills. At this stage we can achieve or, in cases of injury or delay, enhance these skills:
*Enhance balance as creeping is the first true experience of gravity, balance mechanisms come into play
*Stimulate the medial joints to come into line with the proximal joints
*Trigger the brain to pull the eyes into an alignment so the two eyes look at the same thing at the same time. (Vision therapists, who have seen this work, generally recommend that children go through a NeuroDevelopmental program before going into vision therapy.)
*Further stabilize the spine as muscles on either side of the spine work in contraction and relaxation in opposition to each other
*Reduce memory, impulse, self-regulation, and attention problems
*Support better correspondence between reading fluency and comprehension
*Stimulate the maturation of the thalamus to provide better sensory processing
*Bring on board the capacity for social cueing
*Strengthen the HPA axis and stress responses
All of the functions that we have mentioned at this level of the central nervous system are triggered and mature by doing creeping on hands and knees and related developmental activities of this stage of growth. The implications for skipping this activity are apparent.
As responsible parents, when we learn new information as humans, we can tend to take things to an extreme, and when we hear that carrying babies is going to make them less anxious and happier, we hold them all the time. It can become extreme.
Neither would it be a good plan to put them on the floor all the time, where they would lack entrainment and bonding opportunities.
In order to have balanced parenting and balanced development, we want to carry our babies about half of their waking time and put them on the floor about half of their waking time.
Our goal in this brief summary is to make all parents, pediatricians, and practitioners aware of the power and importance of the Developmental Sequence in the first year of life.
Bette Lamont © 2024