by Josh Bowden
Lil’ Kickers of Murfreesboro

As an owner/operator of a business dedicated to a child’s behavioral, social and cognitive developmental milestones by using skills learned via soccer, the complexity and joy of the topic of child development is something I hold dear.

Let’s start off by simply setting a standardized understanding of exactly what the term “child development” means. In layman’s terms: it is the process by which children experience growth as they move from infancy to maturity. As they develop, they learn the abilities and behaviors needed to comprehend their surroundings. Their curiosity, determination and imagination emerge as they explore, play and interact with others.

Now that we have a general definition of child development, let’s begin to crawl our way through some simple best practices, theories and even some actions that we can take to help facilitate and enrich the development of our kiddos.

Let’s kick things off by taking a swing at a child’s physical development.

As children grow, they undergo significant physical changes that can also affect their psychological development. Beyond the visible physical transformations, they also develop more advanced motor skills, enabling them to engage with their surroundings in new ways. This, in turn, enhances their capacity to learn and acquire new abilities.

I have found, as a parent, that it is vitally important to “lean into” the nurturement of these motor skills as they become essential in our daily lives. They enable us to perform tasks without even thinking—like lifting objects, typing on a keyboard or, at the most basic level, walking. The retention of these motor skills (better known as muscle memory) is crucial when it comes to the growth mindset and our children’s developmental progress. Both of these begin to develop right after birth and, with our assistance as parents, will continue to blossom as children grow.

Encourage Physical Activity

Strong motor control also allows children to explore their surroundings, which supports growth in a whole slew of other developmental areas.

So how exactly do we foster and lean into this responsibility to ensure our children are progressing as needed? Simply put: encourage and demand (I know, a bit of a scary word, but it can be done gently) physical activity on a daily basis. Clearly your approach as a parent should vary depending on the age of the child, but the one simple piece of advice I can relay is to just be the example we want to set. Kids get excited when we are excited, so talk to them in a positive and upbeat way about how good physical movement and active play is for them and their bodies.

Encourage Positivity

When they finish any kind of physical play (riding a bike, at the playground, sports, etc.) ask them what their favorite part was. Tell them how much fun it looked like they were having. Essentially conclude the activity, whatever it may have been, by impressing upon them a certain level of excitement that will lend itself to them intrinsically wanting to “return to that same level of excitement” next time. You are building up their desire to continue participating in that, and other, types of physical activity.

This article from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Making Physical Activity Part of a Child’s Life,” is a good resource.

Okay, that is probably enough from me today . . . all this “talk” of physicality has me itching to get up and move.

I do not know exactly where this adventure in prose will take us, but that is no reason to avoid starting the journey. My hope, by way of this column, is to help cultivate a resource for parents in our community. Maybe, just maybe, if we all read, share, suggest and collaborate, maybe we can all somehow stay one step ahead of our kids. Strength in numbers, right?! Ha!

First bit of collaboration: we need a fun name for this column! Send any and all suggestions to thepulse@thelkm.com.