Kids milestones: growing in Gymnastics (part 2)

As we discussed in the previous post, getting kids in gymnastics earlier can help develop the tools in the brain that assist them in learning as they grow. It can be a great foundation of confidence in moving and help refine skill development like throwing, catching, running and jumping and more. In the last post we talked about kids up to 3 years old. We know that as kids develop there are notable milestones at each age and this post will explain the benefit of gymnastics for the kids as they grow.

4 year old Developmental Milestones

4 year old kids like to cooperate with other children and adults. You will see less separation anxiety and less tantrums with babysitters, teachers, or at the gym. They love to talk about what interests them and can better express themselves.  Skipping, hopping, rolling, and other vestibular (inner ear) stimulating activities have given your child a head start on speech development. For parents of kids who have been in the gym  this likely means your kids are probably talking up a storm.

Cognitively their  attention span is so much better now: This is always gets longer as they age, but in the gym we take into account how long we spend explaining activities in relation to actually doing them. When teaching we use more specific body part terms with our instructions: “Straight elbows” as opposed to “straight arms”. It seems like a small difference but it’s important that parts are labeled, and kids understand their own form.

Kids now are more confident hopping over obstacles and landings on two feet. Not only hopping over but jumping up and down, and jumping for distance have been in the curriculum from the beginning.

5–7-year-olds

When kids reach 5, and up to 7 years, they will continue to show you more of their independent side. By this age, coaches can interact with specific skill stations while others can be self-directed. The kids  become more aware of others’ feelings (empathy) at this age.  Some time is given in class for team building activities, things like team challenges, or games can help develop a sense of feeling for, and with, other people. They are beginning to understand cause and effect relationships. Classes help them understand that certain movements or patterns will cause specific results. For example putting the arms out to the side while turning makes the turn slower and often can lead them to be off center. Understanding these relationships allows them to understand why they have specific techniques to skill performance.

Everyone learns differently and now they are beginning to show a preferred learning style. It is important when working with kids to utilize many different strategies when implementing lessons.

8-11 Year Olds

By age 8 they enjoy being with friends and might even have a best friend. The gym is a great place to come and play with a friend or spend time at open play. Because of their self-confidence, instilled through acquiring skills and having a fitness level that may exceed their peers, gym kids  are seldom subject to bully behavior in school or on the playground. Mentally they still have a black and white perspective about most things, which can make it difficult for them to understand some complex issues, but many concepts of sports are very concrete. Gymnastics and Trampoline both fulfill that description not only with rules for performance but with cause/effect of performance as well.

They may have developed a good sense of endurance for activities such as running and bike riding. Sadly, many children don’t get as much activity in these years and that makes a program like Gymfinity an even more important part of a child’s development.

Gymnastics is not only a fun activity, but it has been shown to benefit a child’s development physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Kids should be enrolled in 2 activities at an early age: gymnastics and swimming.  Swimming for lifelong safety and confidence around water, and gymnastics because it builds a foundation of success as kids grow. After all, isn’t safety and success what we want for all of our kids?