Remember

• This works best on naked skin - our skin is an organ, and it provides us with many different pieces of information about heat, wetness, touch, weight, pressure. All of them are useful.
• Cream intensifies the experience, adding color would be even better: then we provide visual information as well.
• Cross the midline if you can do so easily: if the child`s left arm touches the left leg, both sides of the body will simultaneously send information to the brain. These pieces of information have to interconnect between both hemispheres of the brain.
• Add as much information as possible: You could sit in a bathtub and help the child paint itself all over, on the backside of the legs and arms as well. Paint around the arm, and the child might rotate the arm and bend the neck to see whether you`ve got paint everywhere. If this is not possible, you could do it in front of a mirror.
• Remember, the experience is just as important as the movement. Getting the lungs and pleurae to be flexible and adapt to movement is more important than stretching muscles.

Fun - or a condition of "Flow" will provide the child with the perfect mix of neurotransmitters that support the growth of synapses - that is the relevant part. In normal child development, children learn via play, not exercise. You do not have to try harder to get results in brain development.