By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and
Paediatric Physiotherapist
In this blog I:
- Describe how to do a Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity with your child
or toddler
- Give you reasons why the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity is
beneficial for your child or toddler
- Give you some ideas on progressions for the activity and games
you can play around the activity.
This week’s Tatty Bumpkin
Yoga Activity is Elephant
 |
| Imagine you are a huge, stomping elephant! |
This week Tatty
Bumpkin goes deep into the jungle to visit her elephant friends.
Remember when you
encourage your child to have a go at elephant pose – try to do the pose with
them or encourage brothers and sisters to join in. This is
because:
1.Children, and definitely those under
3 years, learn new movements best by copying others.
2. Research is showing that toddlers and young children bond
with their parents and ‘key people’ not only through touch but also by moving
with them.
3. Elephant pose gives you the chance to gently stretch out your own back and hamstrings (the muscles at the back of your legs) whilst strengthening
your tummy and back muscles. Remember to
check with a health professional before doing the pose if you have health
concerns.
- Find a clear space on the carpet or a mat, make
sure you and your child have space around you so you are not likely to bump
into anything! Take off your shoes and socks off. This is
because we receive more accurate sensory information through your feet if we are
barefoot.
- Why not start by doing an ‘Elephant Ears’ warm
up stretch. This activity allows
you both to stretch out and relax your shoulders, arms and hands.
 |
| Wave your 'elephant ears!' |
- Sit or stand up tall and place your hands on your
waist. Then, keeping your hands on your waist, slowly roll your shoulders
backwards and outwards, to stretch out your lower neck and upper chest muscles.
Do 2 - 3 shoulder rolls in a backward direction then roll your shoulders
forwards before shaking out your arms and fingers.
- Now
it’s time for Elephant pose!
To make elephant pose fun for your child, follow
the actions of the Elephant rhyme below - See the ‘why it is good for me’
section for why this is important.
The
Elephant Rhyme
|
The
Pose
|
“An
elephant goes like this and that …
Lower your
voice and speak in a slow rhythm to
encourage your toddler or child to play with you!
|
Stand
with your feet hip width apart on the mat. Start taking slow steps on the
spot as if you are elephants going through the undergrowth.
|
He’s
really tall and everso fat
Use lots of
expression in your voice
|
Really
tall - Reach both arms up high above your head.
Everso
fat - Stretch your ams out to either side.
|
He
has no fingers
Do a sorrowful
expression and voice.
|
Bring
your hands together in front of you - look at them and wiggle your fingers. Encourage
your child to copy you. You can wriggle your fingers together!
|
And
he has no toes ..
Keep looking and
sounding sad but reassure your baby by smiling a little!
|
Look
down at your feet and wriggle your toes.
|
But
my! He has a very long nose!”
|
Stand
with your feet hip width apart and stretch one arm up above your head. .
Slowly
bend forward at your waist (Adults tighten your tummy muscles to control your
movements!) and wave your outstretched arm side to side like an elephant’s
trunk. Straighten up – then bend
forward again from your waist to wave your outstretched arm or ‘trunk’ up and
down!
|
Other
Games to Play in Elephant Pose
Elephants spraying water!
- Clear
a space in a room or outside. Find a bucket sized empty container and gather
one or two blue ribbons or streamers made out fabric for you and your child to
play with. The bucket will be your ‘waterhole’ and the streamers will be your ‘elephant
water’. Make
sure the ribbons/fabrics are not too long and supervise your child closely
whilst they are playing with them. Never leave your child alone with the
ribbons/fabrics or with another child- as younger children may explore them by
putting them round their necks or in their mouths.
- To
spray your water - hold the streamer in one hand and stretch out your arm to be
an elephant’s trunk.
- Wave
your streamer high above your head then ‘dip’ it down into the bucket as if to
‘suck’ up more water. Lift your streamer out of the bucket and wave it over
your head again – to spray your water all around! If your child is younger,
make your movements big and clear – then it is easier for them to copy you. As
you do the actions make swishing ‘water’ sounds.
- If
your child is younger, help their early communication skills by backing up
their movements with speech .For example say ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘in’ or ‘out’ as
they do the actions.
- Then
show your young child all the different ways you can play with your ‘water
streamers’!!! For example:
- Pretending
to ‘wash the windows’ with your water streamer.
- Pretending
to wash each other with your water streamers – saying the body parts as you
‘wash’ them.
- Sitting
down and threading the streamer between your fingers or
toes.
- Whilst
sitting down - seeing you see if you can wave one foot in the air whilst holding the streamer
between your toes. For safety - and to make the movement easier - before they start this activity guide your child to put their hands down behind them on the mat or carpet so they can safely support themselves. Also make sure your child is not sitting close to anything which they could bump their heads on as they tip backwards.
- Encourage
your child to come up with their own play ideas!
Why Elephant Pose is Good for Both You
and your Child
The
benefits of elephant pose:
1. Gently stretches and activates shoulder
and arm muscles
Elephant pose is another great activity to do
with your young child after they have been sitting in a car seat for a while,
where they have not been able to fully stretch out. As they do the actions - your
child will be stretching and strengthening their shoulder and arm muscles.
The ‘Elephant Ears’ stretch will give you both
the chance to stretch out your neck and chest muscles. This stretch is especially
good for you - as these muscles often become tight as you lift and carry your
child.
2. Gently stretches and activates back
and tummy muscles
As
you both move in elephant pose - your child and you will be strengthening your
tummy muscles, as you bend forward, and strengthening your back muscles as your
straighten up.
3. Develops eye-hand co-ordination
skills
As
your child waves their blue streamer up and down and in and out of the bucket
in elephant pose - they will be developing their eye-hand co-ordination. It’s important
for young children to work on visual skills early on, as they provide the foundations
for activities such as reading, writing and looking up and down at a whiteboard
in a classroom situation. And of course
they are useful for ball sport activities.
4. Progresses early ‘movement planning’
skills
As
your child follows the actions to the elephant rhyme, and plays with their
streamer in different ways, they will be constantly adjusting their body
position and their grip on the streamer. This ability to change body and hand
position quickly and smoothly to do an activity is crucial for more complex
skills such as dressing or eating.
5. A playful activity – to combat stress
and support communication skills
As
you play with your child, either doing the ‘Elephant rhyme’ or being ‘Elephants
spraying water’, you could be helping them to combat stress and progress their early communication skills. Interesting
research (1) highlights that:
- When
young children have the chance to actively
play with others, they produce smaller amounts of a stress hormone called
cortisol. This is helpful because consistently high levels of cortisol have
been shown to damage nerve cells in the brain. Hence playful activities appear
to protect the young brain.
- When parents
play with their young child, rather
than just do a series of movements with them, they tend to use far more
gestures, sounds and facial expressions – all of these have been found to
really help early communication skills.
The Tatty Bumpkin
Adventure this Week
Remember, for you and your child to gain the full benefit of
all the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga and multi-sensory activities, find out about your
local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html. Or,
ask your child’s nursery if they are doing Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity sessions
as part of their day.
Our qualified Tatty Bumpkin Teachers are fully trained in
aspects of child development and Yoga and are kept fully up-to-date by our
professional team of paediatric physiotherapists, Yoga teachers and musicians.
All the Tatty Bumpkin stores are aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage
this means the sessions not only enhance your child’s physical skills they also
develop their communication, social and thinking skills.
If your child is going to a Tatty Bumpkin class this week they will go on an adventure
into the jungle to visit the jungle animals very own circus. As they follow the
adventure with Tatty Bumpkin they will have the chance to:
1. Improve their physical skills as they co-ordinate their body in elephant and horse poses and balance in lion pose.
2. Develop their imagination and thinking
skills as they
pretend to be playful clowns and think about how to balance their circus props
in different ways.
3. Progress their communication skills as they listen to the elephant rhyme and the
Tatty Bumpkin rhythms and talk about the tricks they are going to do.
4. But most of all, your child will have fun with
others as they
stomp in an elephant train and bounce Tatty Bumpkin on her trampoline!
Love
Tatty Bumpkin x
A New Start with Tatty
Bumpkin?
Maybe, you are thinking of a new career which gives you:
- The
opportunity to work with kids
- A
great sense of job satisfaction and
- Flexible
working to fit around your own family
1. National Center for Physical
Development and Outdoor Play (2010). From Playpen to Playground – The
Importance of Physical Play for the Motor Development of Young Children. www.headstartbodystart.org.
