Support children in the early phases of their life to build the core foundations of movement

How do we human beings get from being relatively helpless babies to skilled upright movers? How do early reflexes help to kickstart the way children move into their bodies - and what has Movement Play got to do with it?

Go underneath the milestones and explore...

Working from the ground upwards - reflexes and movement patterns in Back, Side and Tummy play kickstart physical development in early childhood

  • Why back play and side play are as important as tummy play

  • How early reflexes kickstart physical development

  • The detail of the earliest foundations, and how they influence all movement to come

Why are early reflexes important? 

Reflexes are amazing  body processes that are a constant part of our physicality. They are involved in keeping us safe, comfortable and responsive all our lives. They are especially important when we first come into the world - they do a lot of heavy lifting as we get to know this body we live in.

Setting Lead | Highfields Nursery

Marie Whiting

“We’ve developed and transformed our approach quite significantly over the last two years and it’s no co-incidence that it’s alongside the whole team training we did around Developmental Movement Play. Because it sits absolutely beautifully with a child-led play based approach."

Training individually?

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Training as a team or group?

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Setting Manager | Dizzy's Day Nursery

Lizz Nunn

"The training opens everybody’s eyes - it certainly inspired practitioners to see things differently, and to see children’s learning and behaviour differently. We’re able to look at what they’re doing and interpret it in different ways now … and that leads into supporting children in all areas of their development and the Early Years Foundation Stage."

Course curriculum

  1. 1

    • Introduction to Floor Play Foundations

    • Lizzie’s Story
  2. 2

    • Your Pedagogy

    • Pedagogy Check-in
  3. 3

    • A Developmental Movement Approach

    • Infant Experts

    • Helpful Adults
  4. 4

    • Lying and Melting

    • Lying and Melting: Quiz

    • Uncurl, Curl, Extend

    • Uncurl, Curl, Extend: Quiz

    • Connecting up from the core

    • Connecting up from the core: Quiz

    • Connecting up to the edges and finding the midline

    • Connecting up to the edges and finding the midline: Quiz

    • What gets in the way 1?

    • What gets in the way 2?

    • The Mouth

    • The Mouth: Quiz

    • The Neck

    • The Neck: Quiz

    • Reflecting on Back Play

    • Side Play

    • Side Play Quiz

    • Organising the Body

    • Organising the Body Quiz

    • Tummy Play

    • Tummy Play Quiz

    • Skydiving (on the floor)

    • Skydiving Quiz

    • Bellycrawling

    • Bellycrawling Quiz

    • Rolling

    • Rolling Quiz
  5. 5

    • Going Forward

    • And now

    • Your thoughts

Penny Greenland MBE

JABADAO Director | Developmental Movement Play Specialist

Course tutor

Penny is a movement and body specialist, exploring our physical and felt experience across many somatic practices. She’s a thinker, a mover and driven by the goal of developing a learning a culture that supports body and cognitive development equally.  Between 1998 and 2009 she led an in-depth action research project exploring how we support our youngest children’s physicality. Developmental Movement Play was created from this research, which continues to evolve and deepen. Penny loves to share ideas and offer training at all levels.   She is author of Hopping Home Backwards: body intelligence and movement play and a contributor to several early years text books about physical development. 

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