The Power of Active Play

Ask yourself, what’s one most common problem you keep coming across with your toddler?

Terrible twos tantrums?

Knowing how to balance screen time with normal outdoorsy play?

Well, we can help with the second question.

This is what we at Cutie Pies have been working on to help you the parents get your child into more outdoor activities that they can enjoy and will help them improve their motor skills like hand eye co-ordination, spatial awareness, build a sense of teamwork and so on. The benefits have no limits to outdoor play for children.

To do this, we partnered with Youth sports development (YSD) and introduced some new Friday football sessions with one of their professional coaches Yanki.

Beyond the Pitch: How Active Play Builds Sharper Brains

Fun fact: Aerobic fitness in children is directly associated with greater hippocampal cerebral blood flow (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2016), a structural correlate of the memory and learning benefits documented in behavioral studies.

What this means is that physical sports via games or activities directly helps brain development. The football classes we have on Fridays are here for just that exactly. By making the children engage in activities such as

Kicking the ball
Running across the pitch to stack cones on top of one each other
Engage in wholebody warm up drills like jumping jacks

The children get a chance to get used to how their body works and increase their overall strength as well reaction times, stability and improved spatial awareness reducing accidents.

But there is more to it than that. Much more.

Supercharging Motor Skills for Everyday Safety

We all know working reaction times, strength, spatial awareness and team work is important.

But why?

Strength: Have you ever had that moment where your child has surprised you by how strong they are? Just one day they come and pick up/push something heavy like a big box or like a basket of laundry? That’s genuine toddler strength and even more surprisingly, it's actually a regulatory practice that they instinctively have. It’s called ‘Heavy Work’.

According to Allison Taylor from her article: What is Heavy Work and Why is it Important for My Child? ‘A child who participates within heavy work activities is better able to attend and engage within directed tasks (even challenging ones!), control impulses, has greater awareness of their body and surroundings, has improved force discrimination, and is better equipped to handle frustrating situations.’

Spatial awareness: Now that's where your child no longer starts bumping into things or falling from tripping on something on the ground. Having this means that your child can navigate through certain problems on a mental and physical level- have you ever seen them try to work out how they can get out of their bed by themselves?

Faster Reaction times: Now it’s no surprise that toddlers like to test boundaries and love to try new things without understanding the dangers. Spatial awareness obviously helps them navigate through some of the dangers but sometimes…it’s not enough and by having quick reaction times they more often save themselves when needed. This can include from falling when walking or if they are climbers, catching themselves before they truly fall.

Fostering a Lifelong Love for Health and Teamwork

Now there are other benefits to active play. It is believed that children who stay active actually lead happier lives in the long run regardless of how naturally athletic they are. Most importantly it connects movement with joy. This is the vital step that makes exercise and movement a key part of their life and something that will never go away from them because their body will yearn for it even as they grow older.

Playing teamwork games like the Football sessions here at Cutie Pies Nursery or basketball sessions or whatever activities they prefer actually boosts the ability to share, cooperate with one another (even in stressful times) and learn how to cheer each other on in a positive manner regardless of results. It helps them grow into becoming happier, healthier people. That is emotionally, mentally and physically healthier all in one.

Conclusion

Before we wrap up, if there is one thing you should take away from this post it should be that physical activity can help your child in more ways than one. Here at Cutie pies that’s one of the main things we focus on to help your child become the best version of themselves by instilling the habits that will lead them that way.

Reading about our active play is one thing however. Seeing the focus, laughter and learning in person is another. Book a tour of the nursery today to see our active curriculum in action and talk to our practitioners about any questions you might have.

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Why Football for Toddlers is a Game-Changer for Brain Development and Safety