Learning & Development: Physical Development - Body doodles

Let us follow the children's lead and make our environments and their learning more physical not less. Let us engage them more in their own learning and gain a better understanding of their own body's fantastic abilities in creative and playful ways.

ARTIST'S INTENTION

• This activity supports children's physical development and proprioception through using touch and sensations - aiding body mapping and brain development.
• It supports social and emotional development as each child explores their own responses, interactions and expressions, with a focus on building empathy skills and awareness of others' responses.
• This sort of movement is particularly good for sensory integration, which supports brain development and is an important foundation for later learning.

HOW TO ... STEP BY STEP

1. Getting comfortable Make sure your child is sitting, resting or lying comfortably (allow cushions and support where needed).
2. Drumming Using your hands, start by gently drumming fingers on different body parts, like rain, for the child to feel and experience. You could start up at the top of the head and work down the body to the shoulders, all over the back, on the knees, legs and spending time on the feet.
3. Stroking Repeat this exploration, with stronger big stroking moves (like you would stroke a cat or a horse) along the arms, legs, down the back and head to shoulders.
4. Observation Always observe your child's response to guide your understanding of their enjoyment and curiosity. See this as a non-verbal conversation, notice their likes and dislikes and seek their consent.
5. Squeezes Try doing squeezes, like small firm hugs, for different parts of the body. Include an appropriate firm squeeze of the shoulders, down the arms or legs, hand squeezes and feet squeezes. Pay attention to individuals preferences.
6. Physical doodles Explore doing physical doodles with your fingers, for example try drawing polka dots all over your child's legs or a straight line down the arms or squiggles on the feet.
7. Shape making Working with sitting children, particularly three upwards, draw shapes with your fingers on backs or tummies. Explore doodling different shapes, smiles, swirls or dots and talk about these as you do them. Respond to requests or ask them to guess shapes.

DEVELOPMENT

• Use brushes for a different version, or if children are not keen on close physical touch. Explore using soft, clean paint brushes for a gentle sensory experience that can easily be used on bare skin, the face and head to toe to offer a different sensory input.
• Try with different types of music - calm, quick or swaying. See how you can keep the beat on the body, such as tapping in time to the tempo on children's backs.
• Take time to explore these movements with paint and see the visible results. This also provides another sensory experience.
• Use appropriate effort and touch to support children that may want to explore this with some of their toys or pet animals in the setting. Use language to talk about different ways: stroke, tickle, squeeze, gently pat, drum, draw, and so on.

This is an edited extract from Using Body Doodles to Nurture Young Children's Learning

CREATIVE RESOURCES

Using Body Doodles to Nurture Young Children's Learning is one of six new resources designed to promote creative, investigative and explorative activities fundamental to early learning and critical in fostering the characteristics of effective learning and development.

Created by Early Arts in collaboration with skilled artists and teachers, the series also includes:

• Using Mark Making with Charcoal to Nurture Young Children's Learning
• Using Clay Worlds ...
• Using Photography of the Environment ...
• Using Story Building ...
• Using Stretchy Bodies ...

Alongside a main activity and hints and tips for extending learning, each resource provides a pedagogical context, a resource list, a map of the Prime and Specific areas of learning to use as an observation tool and questions for planning and reflection.

Until Monday 25 November, Nursery World readers can buy the titles at the special price of £11.99 each (usually £14.99). Use the code NW251113 at the checkout. The full pack is £49.99 (usually £59.99).

To order, visit: http://earlyarts.co.uk/store/products/using-body-doodles/

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