NeuroDevelopmental Movement® is a field that is concerned with the whole of childhood, even beyond the critical developmental years before age two.
Children’s brains are designed to be curious, to explore and learn. In the first months of life, that takes place through the inherent desire to move about and stimulate the body and brain with activities like crawling on the tummy, creeping on hands and knees, and rolling and tumbling, which we continually encourage. At the same time, we discourage any intervention or equipment that would keep children from exploring and learning through their bodies (walkers, Bumbos, etc).
As children get older and continue this exploration, we call it “play”. And we are as concerned about the state of children’s play activities as we are about their earlier development.
Children’s freedom to play and explore on their own, independent of direct adult guidance and direction, has declined greatly in recent decades. Free play and exploration are, historically, the means by which children learn to solve problems, control their lives, develop interests, and become competent in pursuit of those interests. In fact, play, by definition, is activity controlled and directed by the players; and play, by definition, is directed toward intrinsic rather than extrinsic goals.
By depriving children of opportunities to play on their own, we are depriving them of opportunities to learn how to take control of their own lives. We may think we are protecting them, but in fact we are diminishing their joy, diminishing their sense of self-control, preventing them from discovering and exploring the endeavors they would most love, and increasing the odds that they will suffer from anxiety, depression, and other disorders.
For this insight I want to thank Peter Gray, Ph.D. writing in Psychology Today magazine.
Rates of depression and anxiety among young people in America have been increasing steadily for the past 50 to 70 years. We are obliged, then, to look at the entire scope of the child’s developmental activities, and play to stem the tide of this mental health crisis in our children.