The Genius of Natural Childhood: Secrets of Thriving Children (Early Years (Hawthorn House)) [Paperback]

Many children aren t ready for school at age 5 and politically correct or just too-busy parents who abandon lullabies, nursery rhymes and fairy tales may be part of the reason, a child development expert says. Our cultural world has changed tremendously in a generation but our biological development doesn t change much from generational to generation, Sally Goddard Blythe, author of the new book, The Genius of Natural Childhood, told the Star on Monday. Children must live in the modern world but we musn t throw away what s important. What s important, the director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology said, is using music, singing and lullabies to get a baby ready for language. She advocates using fairy tales to teach moral behaviour and rough and tumble play to teach a child motor skills and restraint. Without that, said Blythe, a large chunk of children entering Grade 1 still carry baby reflexes that prevent them from holding a pencil properly or learning to read. Blythe, who advocates a national pre-school screening test for children s physical skills, says that one such baby reflex, the grasp reflex, can prevent a child from holding a pencil properly if it remains. The root-and-suck reflex, crucial in newborns, means you can stroke an infant s face and she ll turn her head that direction looking for a nipple. But if it remains, says Blythe, it may mean a child can t separate speaking and hand movements. These things should be inhibited in the first year of life. A small study in Northern Ireland found traces of baby reflexes in 48 per cent of first-year children and 35 per cent of second-year children, she said. In Finland, held up as the gold standard, children delay formal schooling until 7 but spend the years beforehand singing, dancing and playing outside in programs. It s quite alarming the percentage of children with motor skills that are immature at the start of school, regardless of intelligence, she said. A large percentage of children have problems they don t need to have. They seem to have missed out on early stages of development. In particular, she said, there is less physical interaction and social engagement even than 20 years ago between parents and children. Blythe admitted she s learned to develop a thick skin over reaction to her advocacy of tradition: a full-time parent for the first two years, fairy tales long ago dismissed as scary or politically incorrect, lots of outdoor play. She s ready to defend that. This is not a criticism of working parents. We need to go back a step, to the teenagers of today and explain to them that they may have to go back to work after having children but they have to make sure the time and space is available outside of working hours to have one-to-one physical interaction. Stories about Cinderella, Snow White and Goldilocks can be improved on, she admitted, but are key parts of the cultural history of where the child is growing up. Snow White, she writes in the book to be published in June, celebrates the kindness of the physical diverse dwarves while vilifying the celebrity cult of beauty and wealth. As for vigorous outside activity, Blythe pointed out rough and tumble play is a vital part of adolescence in the rest of the mammal species and should be for humans, as well. The mother of three grown children and a new grandmother, she hoped but wasn t certain her 1-month-old grandson will be brought up on her institute s principles. Your own children never do what you tell them to, she said with a laugh. --Toronto Star

Parents should sing to their children every day to avoid language problems developing in later life, according to a consultant. Too much emphasis in the early years is placed on reading, writing and numeracy, and not enough on the benefits of singing, according to Sally Goddard Blythe, a consultant in neuro- --The Guardian

T --Nursery World Book Review

A fabulous new book on the shelves, The Genius of Natural Childhood by Sally Goddard Blythe, Director of INPP in the UK, and patron of KindyROO, helps parents understand the basic mechanisms behind early development, particularly in relation to movement, rhyme and song. --Footprint Books

In this book Sally Goddard Blythe researches the links between young children's learning problems and their increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Children are becoming increasingly obese, enter school developmentally delayed, and need special education. Sally links these problems with over exposure to electronic media, and suggests ways to re-introduc