What age should kids start gymnastics?
Having a child experience movement is critical to brain development. When a child moves (or an infant is moved), it stimulates the vestibular system (balance center). The vestibular system stimulates the cerebellum which contains half the brain’s neurons but takes up only 1 tenth of it’s volume. These balance based movements develop the brain’s capacity to learn more complex things like writing, reading, math and memory. (Ayers, J. Sensory Integration and The Child. Los Angeles, CA. 1991). We cannot overstate the importance of young children getting this type of brain stimulation every day and gymnastics classes are a sure ways to develop skills as well as help with very important brain development in our smallest gymnasts. So at what age is it best to enroll a child in gymnastics?
At 18 months to 2 years old
Kids love exploring, and often find a class like gymnastics the first place where they develop trust with another adult (the teacher), other than mom and dad. This is essential for being open to teachers in day care or when school starts.
At this age kids find midline crossing skills are a little challenging: Crossing the midline is any activity that uses the right side to do something on the left or vice versa; this forces the 2 hemispheres of the brain to talk to each other and heightens cognition. They really think being upside down is an interesting perspective. Kids love to see the world differently whether hanging upside down or supporting themselves with their feet elevated. This perspective change is fun and stimulates the vestibular apparatus in the inner ear even more. Kids are experiencing the joy of independent movement and are ready for more challenges now that their first attempts are “mastered”. Trying to walk on a beam or hop on one foot reinforces the simplicity of walking and running in normal circumstances. Our littlest gymnasts love being at different heights and bouncing, this perspective change and bouncing develops eye tracking skill and vision development. It aids in learning to read later on, as the eyes coordinate together to meet words on a page.
2 year old Developmental Milestones
2 year old kids like to copy others, especially adults and older children. This modeling allows kids to start defining themselves as individuals. They are ready to follow 2-step instructions such as “pick up your shoes and put them in the closet:” This simple development allows teachers to use directions that may include several steps at a given station. Though these little ones may just want to run, and their newfound coordination makes them want to use this locomotor skill all the time, which sometimes bugs us as parents but indicates that they are ready for more physical challenges, and that’s a always good thing.
3 year old Developmental Milestones
Kids 3 years old usually don’t have as much of a problem separating from mom and dad. They can identify safe places to play like the gym, and safe people to play with, like their gymnastics teacher.
This age likes to pretend and fantasize creatively. Often in class we may walk over hot lava, or across rivers on logs instead of over the red mat and across the balance beam. They can also follow more complex directions. This allows 3-year-olds to be in class independent of their parents and that’s a big step for our little ones.
They can now walk forward AND backward. We have kids walking backward and forward on beams and using other locomotor skills as well. Running, hopping, jumping, turning and tip toe walking puts the kids in gymnastics well ahead of the curve on locomotor development.
As you can tell, any age is a good age to get kids started in gymnastics. We feel that an early start allows kids to develop confidently and sometimes confidence is the difference between success and never even trying. If you haven’t yet, check out a gymnastics class with your little flipper.
There will be a part 2 of this topic out soon.