Early Years Development, Movement And Learning In Malta Learn to Move, Move to Learn
The foundations for successful learning begin long before a child enters the classroom. Movement and learning development are closely connected throughout the early years. As children move, explore and interact with their environment, they develop the neurological foundations that support learning, attention, behaviour, communication and emotional wellbeing. At Child Development Malta, I help parents, schools and professionals understand the vital relationship between brain development and learning, child sensory development and the role developmental movements for children play in creating strong foundations for lifelong success. Understanding these foundations can provide valuable insight into why some children find learning easier than others and what can be done to offer effective support.
Why Do Learning Challenges Occur?
Many learning challenges in children begin long before formal education starts.
During pregnancy, infancy and the early years, the brain and sensory systems undergo rapid development. Movement plays a critical role in helping different areas of the brain connect, communicate and mature.
When developmental stages are disrupted or not fully completed, children may find it more difficult to develop the skills required for successful learning.
These challenges can affect:
- Reading
- Writing
- Concentration
- Memory
- Organisation
- Behaviour
- Emotional regulation
- Coordination
- Communication
- Confidence
A Different Approach To Learning
Traditional education often focuses on academic performance first.
However, before learning can become easier, the brain and sensory systems need strong foundations in place.
A child who is not developmentally ready for certain learning tasks may require significantly more effort, support and repetition to achieve the same outcomes as their peers.This is why developmental movements for children can be such a valuable addition to educational support.
By strengthening the foundations first, children are often better prepared to engage with learning opportunities and educational challenges.
Brain Development And Learning
Brain development and learning are inseparable. The brain develops through movement, sensory experiences and interaction with the environment during the earliest years of life. The first year after birth is particularly important, with significant neurological development continuing throughout the first five years. During this period, primitive reflexes and postural reflexes help create the neural pathways that support:- Learning
- Attention
- Memory
- Language
- Emotional regulation
- Physical coordination
- Social development
- Problem solving
Child Sensory Development And Learning Success
Child sensory development is one of the most important factors influencing a child's ability to learn. Children rely on their sensory systems to gather, process and respond to information from the world around them. These systems include:- Visual Processing The ability to track, focus and interpret visual information efficiently.
- Auditory Processing The ability to listen, understand, remember and process language and sounds.
- Motor Development The development of movement skills, coordination, balance and physical control.
- Tactile Processing The ability to process touch, texture and sensory feedback from the environment.
- Vestibular Development The system responsible for balance, posture and spatial awareness.
- Proprioceptive Development The body's awareness of position, movement and coordination. When sensory systems are working efficiently together, children are often better prepared for learning, communication and everyday activities.
The Importance Of Primitive Reflexes
Primitive reflexes are automatic movement patterns present during infancy. They play a vital role in helping babies survive, develop movement skills and build the neurological foundations required for future learning. As development progresses, these reflexes should naturally integrate and make way for more mature movement patterns.When primitive reflexes remain active beyond the early years, they may affect:- Learning readiness
- Concentration
- Coordination
- Behaviour
- Emotional regulation
- Sensory processing
- Reading and writing development
Signs Your Child May Benefit From Developmental Support
Every child develops at their own pace, but some common signs may indicate underlying developmental factors that deserve further investigation.These can include:- Reading difficulties
- Writing difficulties
- Poor concentration
- Reduced attention span
- Difficulty following instructions
- Coordination challenges
- Balance difficulties
- Emotional outbursts
- Anxiety
- Poor handwriting
- Speech and language delays
- Sensory sensitivities
- Organisational difficulties
- Memory challenges
- Delayed developmental milestones
- Difficulty sitting still
- Fidgeting
- Reduced confidence
The Importance Of Early Years Development
The early years provide the foundation for every stage of future learning and development. Primitive reflexes begin developing before birth and continue to play an important role throughout infancy and early childhood. The first 12 months after birth are especially important for neurological development, with reflex integration and sensory development continuing throughout the first four to five years. This developmental process helps prepare children for:- School readiness
- Learning
- Emotional resilience
- Social interaction
- Communication
- Coordination
- Independence
Understanding Learned Compensations
Many older children and adults develop strategies to compensate for underlying developmental challenges. These strategies can help them achieve success, but often require significantly more effort, concentration and energy. As educational or workplace demands increase, these compensations can become harder to maintain. By identifying and addressing underlying developmental factors, learning can become more efficient, natural and less stressful.Frequently Asked Questions
Why do learning challenges occur?
Children today don’t get the same amount of stimulation from movement, time to play outdoors in parks, on swings and roundabouts, time exploring, playing with others, etc, as they used to. Life has become more sedentary and with electrical equipment being given at a too earlier age, children don’t move around so much. Movement is absolutely necessary for neurological and sensory-motor development during the Early Years. There would be less learning challenges if this vital time was understood and a baby / infant helped and allowed to make the movement it needs. Hinder it or speed it up will affect development. Parents would benefit enormously if they understood this important time of their baby / infants growth, and is the area I give talks about.
Children develop at different times according to specific factors in their early formative years. Any stress to mother and fetus during pregnancy, premature birth, problems with the birthing process, ill health in the early weeks and months after birth, didn’t get ‘tummy time’, weren’t able to move around freely on the floor as a baby and toddler, didn’t crawl on hands and knees but were bottom shufflers, lacked various sensory experiences, poor nutrition, a stressful environment. All these factors, and many more, will affect the development of the reflexes and sufficient linking up of the brain.
Not every child is developmentally ready for certain tasks in learning and trying to teach a child who is not physically ready will cause more stress to a system that is already weak and not able to cope. Testing a child for their physical development and whether the reflexes have integrated would be so much more beneficial then testing their academic ability, especially at an early age. Any retained reflexes will explain why a child struggles academically and/or in life generally.
The stimulation and development of all the senses helps to create the neural linking up of the brain. The primitive and postural reflexes are responsible for this process to take place efficiently. If the reflexes don’t develop and integrate, areas of the brain will remain weak and immature and the information through the senses may not reach specific areas for processing and then being able to respond appropriately.
If you are interested in learning more about this, I offer various training courses and Teacher training days.
Why are the reflexes so important?
The reflexes are responsible for developing the visual, auditory, motor, tactile, vestibular and proprioceptor senses. These senses are vital to learning and everything we do in life. As the reflexes emerge, develop and integrate, the neural linking up of the brain takes place. Any retained reflexes much past 4 years old can cause the brain and senses to remain immature and weak when we need to access them for particular tasks in education, business, in sport and the performing arts.
Why is movement important to brain development?
Movement is key to brain and sensory development. Movement is ‘food’ to the brain and is vital for the development of the Central Nervous System. Movement is all we can do when in utero, during the birthing process and after birth. To begin with the movements are jerky, un-coordinated, fumbling and involuntary. Certain areas of the brain, especially the Cerebellum, need to develop to help make movements smooth, coordinated, rhythmical, controlled, exact and eventually automatic so we do not need to be constantly thinking about ‘how’ we are going to move i.e walking, running, chewing etc.
During the second 6 months after birth, before we learn how to get up onto two feet and walk, the baby needs to be able to learn to move freely on the floor. As it does, the Cerebellum starts its development to refine movements, including eye tracking and making the initial pathways through to the speech centres and the frontal lobes where self-control and comprehension skills are managed. Missing or hindering this stage can be the cause of many motor problems, late speech development and the first linking up of the frontal lobes (the CEO of the brain). Some of the primitive reflexes may remain active at this level of development and hinder further higher levels of physical, emotional and academic development.
Integrating the Cerebellum can make profound improvements to many tasks. This can be achieved at any time using the Rhythmic Movement Training programme. The best way is to achieve this is to get back down on the floor where the cerebellum first starts to develop and learn to make, or remake, these specific movements that cannot be achieved as easily when we are upright and on our feet. We don’t get the right stimulation in the way the mind and body needs.
To learn more about the areas of the brain and development, please visit my ‘Rhythmic Movement’ page and scroll down the page to the second group of boxes.
Can the reflexes be helped after the Early Years?
Yes absolutely. It does not matter how old you are, what ability you have or what you do, integrating the reflexes can be achieved and make amazing changes to people’s abilities and skills. It is important to understand how the brain and senses develop during the Early Years and how we can help the baby, not hinder, the developmental process. Any stress or difficulties from in utero and up to around 4 years old can affect the development and integration of the reflexes which can hinder the brain from developing and linking up properly.
What can be done to help Early Years development?
- Understand the stages of how a baby develops from being totally dependent to becoming independent.
- Understand how and why movement is vital to sensory development in every one of us
- Understand how the different stages of the brain develop during the Early Years
- Why do learning challenges occur? Know the signs and symptoms
- How do the senses develop between in utero and 4 years old?
- What can affect the reflexes from playing their role in Early Years development?
- What is the result of retained reflexes much past 4 years old toward learning and life?
- Understand the importance and value of movement toward brain and sensory development
- Understand what the senses are and how we can help them develop efficiently
- Understand the role of each primitive and postural reflex
- Why play is so important to emotional / social development, memory and motor skills
- Attend the 8 day (4 x 2 days) Rhythmic Movement Training course to learn the simple techniques to integrate all the reflexes in the most natural way possible.
Signs Your Child May Benefit From Developmental Support
Every child develops at their own pace, but some common signs may indicate underlying developmental factors that deserve further investigation.
These can include:- Reading difficulties
- Writing difficulties
- Poor concentration
- Reduced attention span
- Difficulty following instructions
- Coordination challenges
- Balance difficulties
- Emotional outbursts
- Anxiety
- Poor handwriting
- Speech and language delays
- Sensory sensitivities
- Organisational difficulties
- Memory challenges
- Delayed developmental milestones
- Difficulty sitting still
- Fidgeting
- Reduced confidence
The Importance Of Early Years Development
The early years provide the foundation for every stage of future learning and development. Primitive reflexes begin developing before birth and continue to play an important role throughout infancy and early childhood. The first 12 months after birth are especially important for neurological development, with reflex integration and sensory development continuing throughout the first four to five years. This developmental process helps prepare children for:- School readiness
- Learning
- Emotional resilience
- Social interaction
- Communication
- Coordination
- Independence
Understanding Learned Compensations
Many older children and adults develop strategies to compensate for underlying developmental challenges. These strategies can help them achieve success, but often require significantly more effort, concentration and energy. As educational or workplace demands increase, these compensations can become harder to maintain. By identifying and addressing underlying developmental factors, learning can become more efficient, natural and less stressful.Why are the senses so important?
As the senses develop and integrate they make strong neural connections and help link up areas of the brain. The following senses are important to be developed sufficiently so the information can reach areas of the brain to be processed. Retained reflexes affect this process but can be developed at any time of life
All these senses need to develop sufficiently before we go into the learning system. If you try to teach a child who is not developmentally ready for a specific task i.e reading, writing, be able to sit still, comprehend, stay focused, listen, learn and remember, sit up at their desk properly, process information and lots more expectations, it will cause more stress and frustration to the child’s system that is already weak, and the teaching moment will be lost.
Visual sense
We need our eyes to work together to take in information equally and to have the information to be processed in each occipital lobe at the back of the brain. The eyes need to be able to track smoothly and easily across the midline for reading and writing. We need both our eyes working at the same time for spatial awareness and for balance. Our eyes need to be able to change distance from near to far and far to near instantly for copying from the whiteboard, catching a ball easily and in sport, etc. We need full working vision for eye-hand, eye-foot co-ordination in many areas of our lives. Is the information through each eye able to cross over the Corpus callosum sufficiently to get to the visual areas to be processed? Letter / number reversals, big writing or writing with big gaps between words, writing slopes up or down the page are all signs that visual processing is not taking place.
Auditory sense
We need both ears working together for listening and processing sounds and language in each temporal lobe, and for memory. The information must be able to pass across the Corpus callosum to reach each hemisphere. If not, listening, remembering and processing instructions will be poor and slow. We need the vestibular system in the inner ear to help us remain upright and balance against gravity. Ear dominance can make a big difference to learning and where to best sit a child sit in a classroom to get the most from listening to the teacher. Dyslexic people are usually left ear dominant which makes a difference to how and what they hear first and how it is processed in the brain.
Motor sense
We need to develop and refine gross and fine movement skills for holding and working with tools, feeding, proper pen grip for handwriting, ball games, sport and playing musical instruments. We need to be able to move at the speed and in the direction we want automatically without having to plan every movement. Poor co-ordination and tiring quickly can be the result of poor motor skills. Movement gives huge amounts of stimulation to the brain which is why it is important for children to move regularly to keep their mind and body’s alert when learning. Motor development is also essential for the emotional area of the brain to develop properly and playing is vital to this process.
Tactile sense
A baby first learns through this sense by handling and bringing objects to its mouth. We need our tactile sense to tell us what we are touching, whether it is safe or dangerous (hot, sharp, texture etc). Touch lets us know of pain and to let go or pleasure and to enjoy. It stimulates memory. People with tactile issues do not like physical sport or physical contact. Touch is also essential for good emotional development.
Vestibular sense
This area is vital to our sense of balance. The vestibular system is important to help build muscle tone to support our posture to remain in an upright position against gravity. We need this sense developed sufficiently for seeing and listening for reading, writing, auditory processing and language development.
Proprioception sense
The proprioceptors are in every muscle in the body. They give enormous amounts of neural feedback to the brain about where our body, and parts of our body, are in space and what the body is doing. We need them for every movement and to help build muscle tone. When this sense gets stimulation, areas of the brain gets stimulated. Much of this development takes place while in the womb and while a baby is on the floor where there is the most body surface contact. This is one of the reasons why we must not hurry the process of encouraging a baby to speed through, or miss, this important time by not allowing them time on the floor to be able to move freely.
To understand what proprioceptors do, try this exercise – Stand on one foot and close your eyes. You will feel lots of movement in your ankle. This is because the proprioceptors are working very hard to give information to the brain, and especially the vestibular system, and the brain to feedback to the proprioceptors in the ankle to help keep you upright and balance. If you cannot balance, you may have an undeveloped vestibular system. Now open your eyes and see how this changes your ability to balance and shows you how important vision is to the vestibular system.
The Role Of The Corpus Callosum
The Corpus Callosum is a large bundle of nerve fibres that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Its role is to allow information to pass efficiently between both sides of the brain. This communication is important for:- Reading
- Writing
- Language processing
- Coordination
- Balance
- Sensory processing
- Memory
- Learning
How Movement Supports Learning Development
Movement is one of the most powerful tools available for supporting neurological growth. Every movement provides sensory input that helps strengthen communication pathways throughout the brain. Movement-based activities can support:- Learning readiness
- Focus and attention
- Sensory processing
- Coordination
- Confidence
- Emotional regulation
- Motor development
- Brain development and learning
Professional Training And Educational Support
I provide training, presentations and specialist educational support for:- Schools
- Teachers
- Learning Support Educators
- Educational Psychologists
- Occupational Therapists
- Speech And Language Therapists
- Child Development Professionals
- Childcare Providers
- Parents
- Early Years Practitioners
Areas Commonly Affected By Retained Reflexes
Retained reflexes may influence a wide range of developmental areas, including:
Physical Development
Balance, coordination, posture and movement skills.
Emotional Development
Self-regulation, resilience and confidence.
Social Development
Communication, interaction and relationship building.
Behavioural Development
Attention, impulse control and classroom participation.
Cognitive Development
Memory, comprehension, processing and academic performance.
Mental Wellbeing
Stress management and emotional resilience.
Why Choose Child Development Malta?
- Specialist child development services in Malta
- More than 20 years of experience
- Focus on movement and learning development
- Practical support for parents, schools and professionals
- Educational workshops and training programmes
- Expertise in primitive reflexes and sensory development
- Child-centred approach to learning support
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do learning challenges occur?
Learning challenges in children can arise from a variety of developmental, sensory and neurological factors. Understanding these foundations often provides valuable insight into the support a child may benefit from.
Why are primitive reflexes important?
Primitive reflexes help establish the neurological foundations required for learning, movement and development during infancy and early childhood.
Why is movement important to brain development?
Movement provides essential sensory input that supports the growth and strengthening of neural pathways throughout the brain.
Can development be supported after the early years?
Yes. The brain continues to adapt and learn throughout life, making it possible to support development at many different ages.
What can be done to support healthy development?
Understanding child sensory development, encouraging movement, recognising developmental milestones and providing appropriate support can all contribute to positive outcomes.
Start With A Conversation
If you would like to learn more about developmental movements for children, movement and learning development, child sensory development or learning challenges in children, I would be happy to help. Whether you are a parent, teacher, school or professional, the first step is understanding the developmental foundations that support successful learning.Contact Child Development Malta
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