We as parents all face the same challenge of discovering how to best help our children reach their full potential. Both genetics and environment shape how a child learns. Genetics are determined before birth, but environment is incredibly significant and we now know that it is possible to provide a child with information and feedback that will allow learning to outpace talent, to overcome genetic limitations, and to open up worlds of possibilities. The key to eliminating limitations and plateaus in development, to maximizing learning, and to reaching full potential, is to optimize how the brain functions.

The job of the brain is to receive sensation from all of the senses and turn that chaos of stimulation into information to act on. A babys brain first begins by managing a few moving parts. Learning continues until the babys brain grows into an adult brain that can manage a multi-jointed skeleton, the dynamics of social interactions, a myriad of emotional responses, and the mental challenges of problems solving. It is important that a childs early experiences with movement be as varied and broad as possible to lay a strong foundation for future learning and brain development. The more complex the experiences of a child, the more complex their brain development becomes.

Our children are not in an automatic pre-programmed learning process. We provide the interaction and environment for their development. We spontaneously provide our children with a wide array of learning experiences. We make eye contact with and smile at newborns. We hold babies against ourselves and they feel the rhythm of our heart and breathing. We sing songs, use poetry, and clap hands and it encourages babies to develop their own rhythms. We tell stories and encourage our childrens imagination and curiosity. All of these actions are creating a rich learning environment for our developing child.

What can interfere with this process of development?

Our early reaction to being overwhelmed, to being in a situation that is beyond our ability to process, is to protect ourselves. That appears as guarding, withdrawing, moving less, or holding breath. Its a closing off from the experience. This early reaction can be triggered quickly by major traumas such as injury, surgery, or infection, or more slowly, over time, from less obvious traumas like an overwhelming classroom environment, stress in the family, or repeated requests to do something a child is not yet ready for. As we learn, we gain other tools for coping that allow us to maintain our equilibrium and freedom to move in the face of challenges, but babies and children do not yet have as many coping options as adults. If the immobilizing reaction becomes a pattern that feels normal a child has dulled the ability to feel the difference between a balanced equilibrium and the protective state.

When physical injury occurs, our incredible ability to learn can often incorporate this protective immobility into our movement patterns in the time it takes for the crisis to pass and healing to occur. If there is no demand on the system to resume mobility and go back to a free, balanced use of the body, these changes in our movement can stay with children and become incorporated into the foundation on which they base future learning and movement. Everything learned in the future is then built upon this new and limited movement pattern: one shoulder held slightly higher, one foot not as stable to stand on, a pulling on one side of the neck. These small limitations become normal to the child, but still limit their performance when playing music, doing sports, jumping, running and playing, etc. It is not uncommon for us to see patterns of immobility in children that may possibly be traced back to as early as a neck or shoulder injury during a suction or forceps delivery or a difficult presentation at birth.

A childs responses to more subtle but still overwhelming situations can be limited movement in the rib cage and diaphragm, or a heightened adrenaline response that raises the tonus of the muscles. Experienced chronically, either response can become a pattern and become incorporated into a childs foundation for future action and learning in a similar way to a response to physical injury. Do you have a quiet child that perceives a loud classroom as stressful? How have your children coped with family stress from divorce, medical issues or financial instability? If your child is not in balance the influence can range from subtle to more obvious. If the impact is subtle a child may not feel as successful in active play. They may not be as comfortable doing one activity for a length of time. If it is more obvious, a child who is rigid in the rib cage and upper back may have more health issues with asthma and lung conditions, they may have more difficulty with sitting comfortably, learning to climb and jump, and their arm use will be more forceful. With high adrenaline, children become more restless and less able to focus; movements may be more abrupt and awkward; toys may break more often; and more falls may occur.

The physically limiting impact of this overwhelmed reaction can affect more areas of a childs life than their physical abilities or movement. Remember that movement forms the brain. The same brain that formulates a variety of movement options also forms a variety of solutions to a mental problem, social interaction, or emotional response. One of the problems with chronic contractions or inefficient patterns of movement is that the brain becomes accustomed to them. Being able to notice differences is essential to learning. When the brain loses the ability to notice differences in movement, the child will have the same lowered awareness in other areas as well. Children who increased their sensitivity and awareness through using ABM became better students, better problem solvers, and achieved higher levels of performance.

At some point, all children will experience something that can disrupt their natural equilibrium. So how do we help our children rebound from these experiences and come back to an optimal state? The key is to provide the child with more information and feedback so that optimal functioning will become the norm. This learning is not memorization or book learning. It is learning to feel and know oneself more, being aware of all the possibilities for movement and having a system that chooses what is optimal. This kind of learning requires moving with attention, subtlety, variation, imagination, playfulness, fun, flexible goals, and awareness. These qualities are important essentials of all learning. Some of them may be a component of gymnastics training, music education, martial arts or sports, but all of them are targeted in the Anat Baniel Method. It is the only modality thats primary goal is to upgrade the functioning of the brain.

Movement is our first experience and the foundation for all future learning. At the ABM Center of San Jose, we provide individual Well Checks that help identify and correct potential limitations in your childs movement so that your child is ready to take advantage of all the learning experiences you are providing for him or her. It is a tune up that makes sure the turbulent parts of life have not disturbed your childs equilibrium, that they are ready to learn and reach their full potential.

My greatest desire when raising my two children was that their future pathway be THEIR choice. I wanted them to be able to choose their activities and interests based on their desires and preferences, not because they had limitations that prevented them from meeting the requirements of a different path. When my daughter was choosing between soccer and gymnastics, I wanted it to be because she really loved gymnastics, not because she was not successful with soccer. If she was choosing between medicine and law, I wanted it to be her choice, not have that decision made for her because she was not competent enough in science or math. Every person should be able to pursue their hearts desire without unnecessary limitations.

A healthy child is confident, happy, comfortable, curious, loving, and eager to learn. Keep your child on track and optimize their potential with one or more lessons before enrolling in sports, dance, music, a new classroom, or other changes in life.