Resources

A child's physical coordination and movement skills are inherently connected to their developing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral abilities. This is especially clear during the early years of development when children discover the world through sensory experiences, motor actions, exploration, and play. In this article, you will find 12 activities to support your young children's motor, cognitive, and language skills. Developmental Milestones Achieving motor milestones lik

Steven G. Feifer D.Ed. Shared with the permission of Jack Hirose & Associates According to a recent survey conducted by the Canadian Mental Health and Access to Care (2022), more than 5 million Canadians were experiencing symptoms of mental illness in the aftermath of the world-wide pandemic.  Unfortunately, the mental health of children was disproportionately impacted by the pandemic as well, due primarily to extended disruptions in education, as well as forced social distan

Cognitivities Help Children Self-Regulate The human brain and music share an ancient relationship. When humans listen to or engage with music, multiple brain regions activate simultaneously in a neural symphony of their own (Toader et al., 2023). This is particularly significant for children as their brains are in an important period of development, forming neural connections at an astonishing rate, particularly in areas related to language, emotional regulation, and executiv

Crawling is a foundational developmental milestone that does far more than help babies move around. Research shows that when infants crawl, they develop crucial cross-lateral movements where opposite sides of the body must coordinate - right arm with left leg and vice versa. This cross-patterning helps establish important neural connections between the brain's hemispheres. Beyond physical coordination, crawling is vital in developing depth perception and spatial awareness. As

Lynne Kenney, PsyD Reading requires a complex interplay between cognitive, sensory, and motor processes. Sensory motor skills are fundamental to developing good reading skills in elementary school because reading involves more than just decoding letters and words on a page. Sensory motor skills are those that involve the coordination of movement with sensory input, such as eye-hand coordination, gross and fine motor skills, and spatial awareness. Initial sensory-motor develop

Teaching children how to slow down enhances self-regulation. Today on our Executive Function Festival on Instagram and Facebook, we are doing some cognitive-motor activities to enhance self-regulation. Here are some of the benefits of motor movement for calming. https://www.instagram.com/drlynnekenney Engaging children and adolescents through rhythm - The benefits of coordinative cognitive rhythmic movement for children's self-regulation include: Activating executive function

Teachers, clinicians, and parents are often looking for simple and effective ways to help children practice self-regulation, self-control, attention, and response inhibition; skill sets essential to successful learning and behavior. Self-regulation is the ability to manage one's thoughts, behaviors, and emotions to achieve goal-directed prosocial behaviors. Children’s ability to self-regulate (exercise control over their dominant impulses; calm themselves when over-energized)

When we think of music, often what comes to mind, is a song. We may think of Broadway musicals, Bach, or Taylor Swift. In our minds, songs may play throughout the day. Music is a universal language    central to civilization for thousands of years. Before we had language, we used musical tones and sounds to communicate. The tone of a grunt signaled a message from our prehistoric ancestors, while the beat of a drum brought village people together in unity far and wide. What w

Over the past 20 years, we have developed engaging cognitive-motor & executive function activities to help clinicians and educators who work with neurodiverse children to stimulate self-regulation, self-control, response inhibition, attention, and memory. Current studies on the relationship between executive function and emergent academic skills in preschoolers, kindergartners, and older children have shown that executive function significantly relates to both mathematics and

While working with parents, teachers, and districts during this unique time, we asked some of our esteemed colleagues, what Apps and Resources you all are using to facilitate online, hybrid, and at-home learning. Here are a few we gathered. Feel free to add more on our FB Page .  We are hearing from many families and educators about the academic slide students are experiencing. We are reflecting on how to bridge the gap between learning, reading, math, cognition, and joy! Sha

We have a NEW Executive Function in the Classroom, Home & Clinic PreK-6th-grade resource page you can share with your schools.  Our NEW 6-Hour MasterClass ENGAGE to bring cognitive skills coaching and cognitive-physical activities to your school, home, and clinic Our FREE Brain Primers Cards from Moving Minds Publishing to get you started helping students alert their Attention Engines with motor-movement 3-5 minutes at a time anywhere! Our FREE “I DID IT” Executive Function M