Let’s welcome our latest guest blogger, Leanna Rae, as she begins a series of articles on early signs of sensory and motor immaturity and early intervention!
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Learning is much more than classrooms and tests. Children start at a young age exploring their environment through their senses (sensory learning) and working to understand how to move through and interact with it (motor interaction). The sensory motor interaction is interdependent and essential to all learning.
How a child behaves and physically moves gives us insight into how they process information from the world around them.
Does your child display any of the following?
Sensory motor movement (sensory perception and motor skills) is the primary vehicle through which we learn and express what we have learned. These “behaviors” mentioned above are signs of an immature neurological (sensory motor) system and indicates that the brain and body are not getting the proper stimulation or connection needed to support learning.
Physiological Foundation
There are foundational physiological skills the body needs to master for the brain to meet the task of higher level thinking. Our ability to move through space (coordination) and organize information and relationships in the world around us (emotional and social intelligence) forms the foundation for successful academic learning. Simply put, without a fully functioning sensory motor system, the brain cannot operate at its best. Your child expends an enormous amount of energy in constructing and filtering a world of objects, sights, sounds, textures, colors, shapes, dimension and directions. When the physiological skills are not in place, daily school activities like siting in a chair, tracking words across the page to read fluently, being able to copy from the whiteboard to paper without losing their thought or information, etc. becomes a conscious effort and learning is compromised.
In life, it is easier to start off on the right path as a young child versus having to make corrections latter in adolescence and adulthood where the cost of energy and time is much greater. Early intervention supports your child’s developing mind and body, creating fluid and harmonious learning. In this series of articles, we will address what interventions and approaches lead to academic achievement, social growth, and emotional maturity.
Resources
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Leanna Rae, MSSW, RMTi, CPLC
Ms. Rae has over 16 years of experience in the field of social work providing neurodevelopmental tools for children and adults to help with social, emotional and cognitive growth and learning. She is the co-founder and Executive Director at Kid’s Brain Tree Fort Worth, www.kidsbraintree.com.
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