Neurodevelopment Through Movement

Attend a FREE workshop on Neurodevelopment Through Movement. See registration for details.

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What is Neurodevelopment Through Movement?

Neurodevelopment Through Movement is a therapy that builds and corrects pathways in the brain that affect how children take in information. Many learning challenges result from the central nervous system not functioning as it should, changing how children process information. 

Movements during childhood development build pathways in the brain that teach the brain how to process information from the senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. Sometimes, those pathways are not made properly or are incomplete. Repetitive movements can be used to create new brain pathways for the central nervous system to use instead of the pathways that are currently inadequate to process sensory information. 

Repeating these movements over time can strengthen the new pathways while the old ones that caused pain or learning challenges will start to fade. Movement is a powerful tool because it stimulates and engages the brain. Repeartedly engaging the brain through movement allows it to form new connections. 

This therapy can improve your child’s processing speed, working memory, coordination and behaviour. Learning will become easier for your child!

See results from these 13 movements done in succession and repeated over time:

  • The Hammock
  • The Bomb
  • The Lizard
  • The Cross-Pattern Lizard
  • The Roll
  • The Lizard Forward
  • The Army Crawl
  • The Tiger Walk
  • The Elephant Walk
  •  The Frog
  •  The Cross-Pattern Walk
  •  The Cross-Pattern Skip
  •  The Hammock #2
The Lizard

Register for our monthly workshop to learn how to do these movements with your child.

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The central nervous system develops in stages, with the highest rate of growth happening from before before birth to one year old and continues to develop rapidly until age seven to become an efficient learner.

This program allows your child a “second chance” at these stages of neurodevelopment.

You can do the Neurodevelopment Through Movement program with your child right at home!

Stages of Brain Development and their Connection to Movement

Step 1: Pons (1-5 months) Crawling on his belly

  • Helps the hands to open out, integrating the grasp reflex (essential for writing)
  • First time the baby moves forward on his own (attention and motivation)
  • Horizontal eye-tracking (eyes muscles working without the head moving, essential for reading)
  • Develops eye muscles to converge
    (two eyes but one image, preparing to focus later on each letter as they learn to read)
  • Tactile perception of their body in space (dermatomes on the surface of the skin linking to spinal cord and brain)

Step 2: Midbrain (4-13 months) Creeping on hands and knees

  • Hands open and close to support body weight (essential for writing)
  • Eye accommodation: switching from near to far point vision
  • First experience of moving forward with speed
  • Connects vestibular, proprioception and visual systems

Step 3: Cortex (8-72 months) Upright walk with cross-pattern

  • Refining binocularity
  • Awareness of three dimensions (touch, vision, sound)
  • Cortical opposition of both hands, working together but independently
  • Inhibition of subcortical reactions (controlling impulsivity, learning to simultaneously problem solve while staying calm)

Stage 4: Prefrontal Cortex (6 – 25 years) Refined skills for performance

  • Executive functions: planning, organizing, starting and finishing a project
  • Cognitive and emotional self-regulation
  • Delays gratification for a higher cause
  • Working memory
  • Consolidation of brain laterality
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