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End of the First Week

You have reached the end of the first week. Time for some time off for both of you, and also time to integrate what we did in this week into the everyday life of your child - this is the ultimate goal. Have fun!

Do this often

Especially the last lessons can be repeated many times. They are what a child is experiencing all day long - in regular child's development, children are self-stimulating via movement almost every second they are awake. Your child might have missed out on much of that, even if it is already walking and talking. And chances are, it would need, even more, not less of these experiences! Body awareness will awaken, increase or refine your child`s abilities.

This does not have to be integrated into a "therapy session" - you could do it any time, even if it is no more than a minute.

Be dirty!

There are many games and interactions that support the learning experience of this week. Most of them are in the sensory / interaction realm. Many of them are found in very "normal" interactions with small children: grown-ups provide babies with the right information by instinct.

Bite into toes and tickle your child all over. We do that by instinct within the first months of a baby`s life. Your child might have missed out on it, for lack of movement, prolonged stays in hospitals, because your child didn`t provide you with the right clues that would have triggered those instincts in you, or because you had bigger problems at the time. Your six-year-old boy might need you to play with his toes now!

Provide your child with as many sensory stimulations as possible. Let it be naked. Let it be dirty! Add taste and smell. Therapies use these concepts in approaches like sensory stimulation via a bean bath for the hands or painting with finger paint. You can do that even better at home.

Let your child eat with hands, or support it to do so. This is a brilliant exercise that will improve movements of hands and tongue (speech development), help with feeding (the fingers provide information about food, like heat and substance before the food reaches the mouth). Eating with fingers will put some of the most sensitive areas of the body - fingers, lips, and tongue - together to stimulate the brain. Getting the food into the mouth involves a rotation in the elbow joints.... the list is long.

Make a mess! Progress for a child happens in unexpected situations.

Next week, we will get into more complex movements. There is some reading and watching to do before working with your child - if you want to prepare, you can do that today.

Before doing the first lesson of the next week, you should try it out for yourself. You will need about 45 minutes for this.

Not sure you are doing it right?

You should have made quite a bit of progress in understanding how to work with your child, even if you aren`t sure, or not everything worked out. It doesn`t have to be perfect! If, however, you would like to know a little more, here is another (really, really cheap) course that might support you:

https://feldenkrais-akademie.com/p/how-to-work-with-your-child