All children develop according to their own timetable, and no two children are exactly alike.  This is the result of combinations of tens of thousands of genes inherited from their parents.  The potential for greatness may be encoded in the genes, but whether that potential is realized as a gift for mathematics, or a brilliant criminal mind depends on patterns etched by experience in the critical early years of life.  Responsive, positive experiences stabilize connections in the brain.  Children use their own bodies as the tools for their discoveries, by starting out through physical interactions with family members and their surroundings.

Stimulation is needed for brain development. Each child is born with 150 billon neurons, roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. These neurons must be stimulated to create pathways for learning to take place. Every thought we think, every move we make, and every word we say is based on the electrical and chemical communication between neurons. Starting around age eight and lasting until their early twenties the neurons not stimulated are deleted. New learning then must use pathways which have already been established. So the kinds and the amounts of these experiences, and the quality of these experiences combine to make each child unique.

Infants: Scarf Dancing – Children learn about timing of movement when they go fast or slow, start or stop, move in a steady or sporadic way. They learn to time their movements to musical phrases or beats as they coordinate sound and movements. Caregivers should hold the infant in one arm and holding a scarf in the other dance to the music. Older infants who are walking can hold their own scarf and move to the beat of the music.

Toddlers: Hula Hoops – The cognitive aspect of movement involves problem solving with one’s own body. This nourishes understanding and develops the ability to symbolize experiences which are important beginning steps to mathematics, and one to one correspondence. Colored hula hoops are laid out in a pattern of repeating colors. Toddlers can do a movement for each color: hop for yellow, wiggle for red, spin for blue. This activity offers mastery of memorization, and patterning.

Preschoolers: Sequencing – Predicable stories such as the “Billy Goats Gruff” can help preschoolers develop the concepts of sequencing (Who crossed the bridge first?),counting, (Which Billy goat hit the troll?), and ordering (What happened next?).

There is a growing body of research which has emerged recently affirming that children learn most effectively though concrete play. The National Association for the Education of Young Children believes that developmentally appropriate practices result in the process of professionals making decisions about the well-being and education of children based on understanding the individuality of young children.

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. (Albert Einstein)