By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist
This Week’s Tatty Bumpkin Yoga Activity is Horse
Kick up your heels in horse pose!
This week Tatty Bumpkin stays at home on Wobble Farm – but it is far from quiet! Horse has suggested that the animals make a huge picture of Wobble Farm for Earth Day. As with all the Tatty Bumpkin poses we encourage parents and carers to do the pose with their child. This is because children learn a great deal from watching, they also ‘bond’ with other people when they move with them, and finally it gives parents and carers a chance to be active and discover their 'inner child' for a moment or two! Remember - horse pose is an active pose so do check with a health professional before you do the pose if you have any health concerns. If you have low pressure be careful as horse pose can make you dizzy.
Horse Pose Pointers
Before you have a go at doing horse pose with your child:
Check you both have a clear space around you so you can do the pose without bumping into objects or indeed each other!
Do the pose on a non-slip surface. For example: a non-slip mat, an area of carpet or even the grass.
Take off your shoes and socks – this will actually mean you both slip less and can do the pose better – as you will both be receiving accurate sensory information through the soles of your feet.
Ready? Okay...
Bend forward and downwards together - placing your hands about shoulder width apart on the floor in front of you. Don’t bump heads!!
Make sure your child’s hands are flat on the mat or carpet and their fingers are spread out wide.
Now start doing little steps, on the spot, with your feet - just like a horse trotting. Keep your heads looking downwards between your legs.
Do a few trots and then carefully stand or sit up to have a break. Doing this pose for too long can be disorientating for your child as they are moving their head upside down.
If your child is older they might want to try kicking their legs up higher behind them (see picture). It is very wise to supervise this activity closely as your child can overbalance and bump their head on the mat if they kick their legs up too high.
Younger children
If your child is younger, please watch them closely as they do horse pose. It is a good idea to put your hands around their hips to give them extra support - so they do not fall forwards and bump their head.
Why Horse Pose is ‘Good for Me’
Horse pose gives your child the opportunity to: 1. Strengthen their shoulder muscles To write comfortably the shoulder muscles need to be ‘active’. Then they can support the weight of the arm, allowing the delicate finger muscles to do the intricate work of holding and manipulating a pen or crayon. If your child's shoulder muscles are inactive or weak this can lead to hand-ache as they try to use their little finger muscles to 'hold up' their arm.
2. Improve their awareness of their hands In horse pose your child will be taking quite a bit of their body weight through their hands. As they do this they will be gently activating their hand muscles and opening out their hand joints. This activity will bring your child's awareness to their hands and also help to both activate and relive any tension in their hands. So horse pose can be a godd activity for your child to do if they have been writing or drawing for awhile. See below for further reasons why horse pose is a good movement break. 3. Improve their co-ordination and awareness of their right and left hand sides As your child’s trots in horse pose they will be quickly alternating between their right and left legs, bringing their awareness to both sides of their body.
4. Develop their balance skills Horse pose is great for balance skills! Especially if your child starts to kick their feet up behind them. Careful though with this movement!
5. Refine their sensory processing ability – helping them to manage their alertness A word on the senses When we do movements we often focus on just that - the movement. We forget that with every move we make we stimulate our senses. A well-known occupational therapist called Jean Ayres, working in the 1970’s and 80’s, recognised the importance of the senses in the development of the child’s brain and coined the term – ‘Sensations are the food for the brain'. And horse pose is indeed a full meal for the brain! As your child does horse pose they will be stimulating their:
Vestibular sense. This sense develops before birth and continues to be refined throughout our lives. The receptors for this sense are located in structures deep inside our ears. Hence we stimulate this sense when we move our heads. Jean Ayres felt the vestibular system was fundamental to all our actions. It tells us when we are moving, when we are still, which direction we are moving in and which way up we are. The vestibular sense also helps us to calm or alert our whole body. For example, if your child moves their head into a very different position or spins round quickly – this will probably alert them. However, of your child is rocked slowly back and forth - this movement will help them to calm down.
Proprioceptive sense. Proprioception is another body sense. However receptors for this sense are all over our body, deep within our joints and muscles, not just in our ears. We stimulate this sense more when we do 'hard work' activities for example lifting, pushing pulling movements. It is thought that stimulating the proprioceptive sense has an ‘organising’ effect on the brain – it can calm us down if we are feeling stressed or can make us feel more alert if we are losing concentration.
As your child does horse pose they will be stimulating both their vestibular and their proprioceptive senses. The move involves big head movements (vestibular sense) so will raise your child’s ‘levels of alertness’. It also involves ‘hard work’ movements, taking weight through the hands and arms (proprioceptive sense) so will help your child to ‘organise’ themselves. If your child does horse pose – carefully and not for too long – they should be alerting their brain - but not ‘over exciting’ it! This means horse pose can be good ‘movement break’ for your child if they need to raise their concentration levels after sitting for a while.
The Tatty Bumpkin Adventure this Week
Remember, for you and your child to gain the full benefit of all the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga and multi-sensory activities, find out about your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html. Or, ask your child’s nursery if they are doing Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity sessions as part of their day. Our qualified Tatty Bumpkin Teachers are fully trained in aspects of child development and Yoga and are kept fully up-to-date by our professional team of paediatric physiotherapists, Yoga teachers and musicians. All the Tatty Bumpkin stores are aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage this means the sessions not only enhance your child’s physical skills they also develop their communication, social and thinking skills. If your child is going to a Tatty Bumpkin class this week they will have the chance to:
Improve their physical skills as they do horse, frog and snake poses.
Develop their imagination and thinking skills as they think about what they can add to the Wobble Farm picture.
Progress their communication skills as they listen to the Tatty Bumpkin spider song and follow the moves. Then make their own suggestions for the picture.
But most of all, your child will have fun with others as work together to build up a truly multi-sensory picture of Wobble Farm. They may be adding in grasses, twigs, different flowers!
Wobble Farm by the children at Country Cottage nursery in Kent
Love Tatty Bumpkin x
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