The 3 Stages for Healthy Child Development
“We are not built for exterior motion. We are built for interior movement. That's how our bodies make up movement.” - Michelle Turner -
Stage 1. Vision Development
The first stage for childhood development is vision development.
Suppose a child has any visual complications due to the structure of their eyes. In that case, it will change all of their movements and even cause developmental delays.
This would include things like lack of convergence, lack of binocular vision, nystagmus, astigmatism, strabismus, and so forth.
So, before working with a child’s movement milestone development, their functional vision must be resolved first. Then one can start working with fine and gross motor skills.
To understand if your child has visual needs (even if you think their vision is fine, or the doctor has said, “their vision is fine,”) do the following steps.
- Check out the course “Vision and Your Child.” Click here.
- Download the PDF “Tips for a Successful Pediatric Ophthalmology Appointment.” Click here.
- Take the Cognitive Vision Training Course. To learn more, click here.
- If you want a one-on-one consultation for your child, schedule an in-person or virtual appointment. Click here.
Stage 2. Fine Motor Skills – Transitional Milestones
The second stage for childhood development is fine motor skills.
They are a priority over gross motor skills.
Most therapies will teach a child gross motor skills first, but when we're learning how to move, we do it with fine motor skills.
Fine motor skills are what gives a child the ability to go in and out of movements independently.
If a child is getting “stuck” in a position, they lack the transitional skills needed for that movement. Something should resolve this. You may ask, “What can resolve this?” The answer is “Movement Lesson.”
With the Movement Lesson™ Technique, one can teach a system transitional skills by initiating rotation and midline crossing throughout the body.
AGAIN, two keys to helping a child achieve transitional skills are teaching the body how to rotate and cross midline in the spine, lungs, hands, and feet.
Stage 3. Gross Motor Skills – Baby Milestones
When working with a child's milestone development, their gross motor skills are the last thing to work on.
Gross motor skills are the actual milestones like tummy time, rolling over, crawling, Standing, etc.
When a child has the necessary transitional skills, you can enhance and use the actual milestone skill.
What is a transitional skill vs. a milestone skill?
A transitional skill is what allows a person to get in and out of a milestone movement.
For example, walking, putting one foot in front of the other, is a transitional skill that gets a person in and out of the milestone movement of standing.
When a system can go from a milestone skill to a transitional skill and back to a milestone skill, using rotation and midline crossing, this is called functional movement.
A milestone movement would not be classified as a “functional movement” if the body cannot go in and out of a milestone using rotation and midline crossing throughout the body.
Another example of this would be sitting.
If a child has to be placed into sitting, this is not considered a functional movement.
For a child to achieve a checkmark on the sitting milestone, the child would need to independently get in and out of sitting using rotation and midline crossing in the body.
A therapist or caregiver would want to work with a child on the transitional skills of sitting instead of the milestone sitting.
This would help the child achieve the functional milestone of sitting.
Movement Lesson is unique from any other modality out there.
- First, you learn how to evaluate a child’s ability to manifest transitional skills.
- Second, using the Movement Lesson™ Touch, you learn how to initiate, stimulate, and enhance these skills so more milestone movements can start to happen.*
Why is rotation and midline crossing so important?
When a child successfully has rotation and midline crossing in their system, developmental milestone delays are less likely to happen, or they will be less severe.
Please note that a child can appear to have transitional skills.
Children can walk without rotation or crossing midline in their body, but this is when we start using words like awkward, heavy, or stomping when describing how the child looks when walking.
Milestones should never chronically look awkward or clumsy in their movements.
*(Please note that Movement Lesson™ does not guarantee that milestone movements will happen using this technique.)