Building a Mental Map

Children’s brains crave proprioceptive because it gives the brain information to guide the body as it moves.  Movement is the only way the proprioceptive system can assist the brain in mastering an understanding of force while also building a mental map of the body.  When the proprioceptive system is well-developed, children can move with control whether it is to write their name, climb a tree, or kick a ball.  Until children’s brains have been adequately satisfied, they are going to slam, wrestle, crush, push, and move to feed this unmet need.

Building a Mental Map

Doorway Bead Curtains:  These are a great way to help kids feel the limits of their bodies as they pass through the beads.  Hang one in the doorway to your classroom to give children lots of opportunities to pass through it each time they come and go!

Hide and Seek:  A classic for a reason, Hide and Seek means kids will shimmy under slides, squeeze into tires, or hide behind hay bales.  In the classroom this might mean hiding behind a chair, squeezing under a table, or even covering themselves in dress-up box clothes.  Each of these experiences help them feel where their bodies end and begin helping their brains geolocate their arms, legs, fingers, and head.

Limbo: Another classic! Each time the limbo stick is lowered, children have to duck so they don’t decapitate themselves.  Ducking and maneuvering under the stick helps them understand where their heads are and how much space their bodies take up.

Feeling Force

Children need to feel force on their joints to help them interpret force.  The best way to do this is through heavy work and heavy play like:

• Taking out the trash
• Stomping the recyling
• Wiping down tables
• Carrying the class backpack to the playground
• Running uphill
• Pushing a loaded dumptruck, wagon or sled
• Carrying buckets of sand or water
• Digging in the sand
• Moving tires or haybales
• Building forts

All of this is easily achievable in and out of the classroom at little to no expense.  But the results will be a calmer classroom with fewer ants in the pants so their can be more learning and less challenging behaviors!

Understanding what the body is doing is essential for learning to write, sitting comfortably at a desk and walking down the hall.

To be successful, we have to have an internal map of the body. Without it, we can’t control a pencil, we will wiggle at our desks and we will ping-pong down the hall in transitions.

How is this mental map developed? In the trial and error of big-body physical play.  Yep.  Play.

In the 17th century, when Aristotle taught us there are 5 senses discussion began that there may be a 6th sense, a muscle sense.

This is the proprioceptive sense or system which is our sense of force. Proprioception comes from the Latin word propitious which means one’s own or individual, and capris which means to take or to grasp.

The proprioceptive system operates silently in the background of everything we do, recording a great deal of data that we then use to move and position our bodies in the world around us.

But if we don’t move enough, we can’t adequately develop our proprioceptive system.  And kids don’t move enough today, so they are working with a proprioceptive system that is only partially operational.

Yikes.

What is the proprioceptive system and how does it influence learning?

The proprioceptive system is housed deep in our bodies, in our ligaments and joints, helping us interpret the weight of our limbs and direction of movement so we can recognize where our bodies are and anticipate where they are gaining. It helps us develop motor control and posture, working against gravity to tell our brains what our bodies are doing.

A good way to think about the proprioceptive system is in these terms: as adults when you ask someone where their toes are, they already know without looking. But if you ask a young child the same question, he will reach down and touch his toes because he is still sorting out the mental map of his body which is driven by the powerful proprioceptive system. The act of touching his toes helps him lay down that mapping. This sense allows us to navigate in the pitch-black dark because we know where our bodies end and begin.

To develop this sense, children have to learn their bodies and how much force it takes to move them.

How do children learn their bodies?  In the trial and error of play, of course. 

Have you ever watched 2-year-olds run? Their gaits are still toddler-like but look carefully. Some of them are running looking down at their feet. Part of that is their fascination with the fact that their feet are moving and propelling them forward.  But what is actually happening is their brains are still mapping their bodies, so they have to look at where their feet are going, where they are landing, and how they push the body forward so the brain knows a run is being executed.

They are building that mental map which includes understanding how the feet move.

Two generations ago, parents and teachers didn’t even know about the proprioceptive system because it was being developed appropriately in children. It worked well in the past because children moved a lot and were not sedentary or idle. But when these opportunities are stifled or removed, as they are in our current culture, then this sensory system doesn’t develop as it should. Results are not just overweight, sedentary kids, but kids who can’t perform as they should in developing classroom and social skills. This leads to frustrated children and adults.

What does it look like when the proprioceptive system isn’t working well? Here are a few examples:

• A 5-year-old friend loved to play outside and he always wanted to play soccer with his friends on the playground. He would beg for a ball and some cones to set up a pitch and the game would start out great with lots of running and laughing. But within minutes, this friend would start running into his friends and tackling them to the ground — hard. He was a sweet guy and he never wanted to hurt anyone, he just couldn’t regulate the force he used going for the ball.
• A 4-year-old friend would bound onto the playground, anxious for the open space. He would grab a big, metal dump truck and take off running, pushing it around the playground, lap after lap. He wouldn’t stop until it was time to go in, no matter how long that took. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes.
• A 4-year-old friend who just could not, no matter how hard he tried, walk down the middle of the long hallway in his school. He just couldn’t. Instead, he pinballed down the hallway, slamming into the walls in a zigzag pattern often running into his friends too.
• A 5-year-old friend who just ed not seem to settle into any activity, just wandering through her day, aggravating her friends. But, when you gave her heavy, difficult chores to do, she was happy and productive. She would work and work on something that seemed almost impossible for a child her age to accomplish like dragging heavy cardboard to the dumpster and somehow getting it into the opening. She would enthusiastically volunteer for the most difficult jobs and work tenaciously until she conquered them.

All of this movement and craving for external force is simply the brain screaming for information from the body about where the body is, what it is doing, and how much force it takes to move and control it.

This means, when children’s brains have not been adequately satisfied with ample movement, they are going to slam, wrestle, crush, push, and move whether we adults like it or not.

Does this sound like your classroom?  Do you need ideas to help kids build that mental map and calm the chaos? Let us help!