If You Give a Kid Their Core...

Photo: yogainterlude.com

Today we are happy to feature a guest post from Shelley Mannell from HeartSpace Physical Therapy for Children. Shelley is a pediatric Physical Therapist in St. Catharines Ontario Canada. She has 25 years of experience treating babies, children and adolescents with physical challenges and gross motor delays. She is also a certified children’s meditation facilitator.


Today she shares with us some valuable insight on the connection between inner and outer core strength, postural alignment, breathing and motor skill development, and how activities and movement that promote core stability can help and support a child for their entire life.





If You Give A Kid Their Core...

One of my favourite children’s books is “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” - I love how the beginning of the story is also the end of the story. As a Physical Therapist I understand that success in motor skills begins and ends with core stability; the core supports every skill from eating to handwriting to walking to basketball. And I think it’s outstanding that so many people are now talking about the importance of core stability for kids.

We know that there are inner core muscles and outer core muscles. The four inner core muscles stabilize our spine and pelvis before every movement that we make. (FYI these are: the respiratory diaphgram, the pelvic floor, the transversus abdominis and the multifidus.) And our research has shown that there is a key to building core stability – you need to have neutral alignment of your rib cage and pelvis and you need to be able to breathe into the front, back and especially the sides of your rib cage. This sounds simple but because we spend so much time in sitting, it turns out to be harder than expected. The inner core is our central anchor but it needs the help of the outer core muscles for movement. And the outer core muscles are most effectively trained when combined with each other and with the breath.

It might surprise you to learn that children are not born with core stability; in fact, they have relatively inactive core muscles. However, as their brains and bodies mature, babies begin to develop the core strength and coordination that allows them to stabilize the trunk efficiently and effectively in preparation for movement. One of the reasons a baby needs to spend time playing on the floor is to develop the connection between the inner core muscles and some very important outer core muscle groups. This connection sets the stage for all future function in sitting and standing. Unfortunately, many of our babies spend too much time in equipment (swings, chairs, walkers) and they don’t build good core stability. Or in later years our kids spend so much time sitting that they lose the core strength they gained as babies.


There’s also one other huge bonus to teaching children to engage their core. As they get that all important alignment and learn to breathe fully with their diaphragms, they engage the calming nervous system (= the parasympathic nervous system). It turns out that when we belly breathe or when we breathe with our upper chest, we don’t really activate the big nerve that feeds the calming nervous system well; this only happens when we breathe by fully expanding our diaphragm. The ancient yogis really did know what they were talking about - deep breathing is calming, but only if you can do it properly.


So we build core stability by connecting inner and outer core groups through the combination of neutral alignment and breathing and movement. That’s where yoga comes in. There are very few other activities for kids that combine awareness of alignment with breathing and movement the way yoga does. Downward dog, cobra and tree pose are three favourites of mine, poses that children of all ages can do. And when they are done with proper alignment and breathing, they engage the core muscles wonderfully. And they’re fun. So the next time you watch your child doing downward dog, remember she’s also building her core muscle strength. And when you give a kid her core, she’s preparing her body for lifetime of successful movement.

~Shelley Mannell

Shelley Mannell
www.heartspacept.com 

In addition to her clinical work, Shelley teaches continuing education courses for therapists across North America. For more information, you can visit Shelley at: www.heartspacept.com . Be sure to visit her blog at the HeartSpace website.

You can connect with Shelley on: Twitter (@heartspacept)  or on Facebook (HeartSpacePT).









Related Articles:

Deep Breathing: Facilitated Technique for Kids



Contact: barbara@bodylogique.com