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Areas › Your body › Moving your body
A child who is using most of what they have simply to stay upright in a chair has little left for the words on the page. Sorting out the physical base is not a detour from the learning, it is what makes the learning affordable for them. Climbing, balancing, rolling, carrying things, all of it counts. Nursery staff and physiotherapists often see this before anyone else does.
He shaped you, formed you well (Quran 40:64). The body is spoken of as made well and made first, which is where this starts too.
غافر
ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلۡأَرۡضَ قَرَارࣰ ا وَٱلسَّمَآءَ بِنَآءࣰ وَصَوَّرَكُمۡ فَأَحۡسَنَ صُوَرَكُمۡ وَرَزَقَكُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِۚ ذَٰلِكُمُ ٱللَّهُ رَبُّكُمۡۖ فَتَبَارَكَ ٱللَّهُ رَبُّ ٱلۡعَٰلَمِينَ
It is God who has given you the earth for a dwelling place and the heavens for a canopy. He shaped you, formed you well, and provided you with good things. Such is God your Lord, so glory be to Him, the Lord of the Worlds
Qur’an 40:64read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A large systematic review in children and adolescents found more physical activity going with better mental health and more sedentary time with worse. That evidence is mostly observational and is about mental health rather than about motor development specifically. The sequencing advice here comes from clinical practice, so hold it as a working principle rather than a proven order.
Rodriguez-Ayllon M, Cadenas-Sánchez C, Estévez-López F, Muñoz NE, Mora-Gonzalez J, Migueles JH, Molina-García P, Henriksson H, Mena-Molina A, Martínez-Vizcaíno V, Catena A, Löf M, Erickson KI, Lubans DR, Ortega FB, Esteban-Cornejo I. (2019). Role of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in the Mental Health of Preschoolers, Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Holding yourself steady takes effort, and whatever it takes is not available for anything else.
If a child's movement or speech is well behind other children their age, ask for a proper assessment rather than waiting to see.
Before you decide a club is out of reach, ask. Some let children earn the uniform through the levels, and plenty have quiet arrangements for families who need them.
How often you move matters more than how hard. Pick something you would still do on a mediocre Tuesday.
Bolt the movement onto something you would want to do anyway. A game with a friend, a walk to somewhere with good coffee at the end, a route past the river.