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Why it's so important to get your toddler exercising.

Posted on Monday, 24 October 2011 12:53PM by

Most children take their first steps before the age of 15 months, this requires a combination of not only good balance and body movements but self-confidence.

These are main areas that we work on at Tumble Tots. We encourage parents to introduce the simple pleasure of being physically active to their child.

With the launch of the government guideline for physical activity, their recommendations are for infants under 5 years old to do at least 180 minutes a day of physical activity.

Examples of Physical Activity that meet the guidelines:-

Under 5’s who are capable of walking :-
Activities which involve movements of all the major muscle groups.
Energetic play, e.g. climbing, riding a bike.
More energetic bouts of activity, e.g. running and chasing games.
Walking/skipping to the shops, friends, park etc.

The British Heart Foundation say that Physical activity can bring the following benefits for children:
It can Build a healthy heart.
Develop strong muscles and bones.
Reduce the risk of some chronic diseases later in life.
Reduce body fat.
Help children feel good about themselves.
Foster moral and social development.
Reduce anxiety and stress.
Increase opportunity to mix with other children and make friends.

The benefits for exercise for a toddler include, strengthening his/her muscles and keeping healthy, developing hand and eye coordination, building pathways in the brain which aids the rest of his development and improving balance, all of which are included in our main adjectives at Tumble Tots.
One example of a great exercise for children is “rolling” whether it be a forwards roll, backwards roll or straight rolling i.e. down a hill.

Forward and backwards rolling are not just important fun activities for most children but they also help with developing the child’s vestibular awareness. What this means is they learn to understand the feeling of dizziness as the fluid in their ears sloshes around and then settles down, it can be quite an unfamiliar and an unpleasant feeling to start with. The main benefits of straight rolling (sausage roll) is to promote the coordination of the upper and lower body moving together, which will continually help to strengthen the child’s core strength.

Another great exercise top of the list is jumping. The impact element in jumping is especially useful in building strong bones. Along with other forms of activity, it can help prevent osteoporosis later on in life.

Children who are physically fit can perform vigorous exercise without losing steam, and recover quickly once the exercise is over. To achieve this, your child needs to be able to increase the depth and rate of his breathing, with a corresponding increase in the output of blood from the heart. For this, his muscles have to respond effectively.
Your baby has the same number of muscles at birth as he will have when an adult. But the fibres grow longer and thicker. In the first 18 months of your child’s life, his muscle mass will increase twice as fast as his bone mass.

The three elements which go to make up being fit are:

STRENGTH and ENDURANCE
Some people think that strength is all about lifting weights to develop big muscles. But children don’t need to lift weights to be strong. Simply using their own body weight as resistance during activities will build strength and endurance as will weight-bearing exercise such as running and jumping.
FLEXIBILITY
Being Flexible means that muscles and joints bend easily, and it comes in useful even when your child is doing something as simple as tying his shoelace.

Many experts are now convinced that activity can boost IQ. The theory is that activity increases blood flow to the brain and, when combined with learning tasks, promote the formation of dendrites. These are filaments which branch out of the neurons and increase the neural pathways and neural mapping of the brain.

10 WAYS PARENTS CAN HELP

1.            Be a good role model.
2.            Do things together.
3.            Encourage basic skills i.e. run, hop, jump, skip
4.            Provide basic equipment.
5.            Join activity classes.
6.            Make sure your child has a safe area where he can play.
7.            Invite other children to play.
8.            Lay down some ground rules.
9.            Try to get your child outdoors for a part of each day.
10.          Do make sure your child is safe when he’s being active.

The Tumble Tots programme endeavours to provide a challenging fun environment of active physical play for children to fully explore and develop their physical skills of agility, balance, climbing and coordination. Structured play builds a child’s self confidence and allows positive traits to flourish thus enhancing social skills.