Nursery World - Physical development

Movement play is an essential part of children’s exploration of their core body senses, finds Penny Greenland

Sensation-driven movement play is key to children’s physical development

Let’s redefine the word sensible, as in ‘Children! Be sensible!’, or ‘Mason, that’s not very sensible, is it?’ You can hear the tone from the occasions when it was said to you as a child perhaps, or when you have said it to children. My body is tightening with discomfort right now, flooded by uncomfortable memories of both.

Sensible has come to mean something like ‘in an orderly fashion’ or with the subtext ‘as the adult in the room would like you to’. It speaks of constraint and containment and might often be used when voices get loud or bodies exuberant – especially the latter.

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