Smart Start: How Exercise Transforms Your Child's Life for the Better

Author: Margaret Sasse

The main goal of this book is to help parents maximize the critical periods of brain development during the early years of life. Brain development continues throughout life based on environmental stimuli. Nature has provided a natural, predictable, and sequential development for everyone since conception. The initial movements are called reflexes, which stimulate the growth of neural pathways within the brain to help develop voluntary movements and learning ability in the individual. The activities in the book are arranged sequentially and are important for building the necessary foundations for successful learning. Each child's rate of development differs. Ideally, all children will go through these natural, sequential, and predictable stages. You can enhance your child's development by providing them with opportunities to enjoy and participate in the activities described in the book. Choose activities for massage, inner ear stimulation (vestibular stimulation), and age-appropriate movements to create a 10-minute program to be practiced several times daily. When a child reaches the walking stage, this is not easy, and it is best practiced in a fun, sequential way while playing with them or reading their favorite books. Simply dedicate regular 10-minute periods each day to play a game from this book. No activity should last more than two minutes and should be performed slowly. Remember: intensity, frequency, and duration are the keys to development. The name of the game is repetition: children do this instinctively. When there are some minor "difficulties" that cause developmental delays, repetition, intensity, and duration become key factors of great importance.