Teach your child to be physically superb

p.s.
can you open this file? there are designs of crawling track etc. :slight_smile:

I liked the book but certainly have not implemented even a fraction of it. I read it when my son was about 18 months old (I had just discovered Doman) and loosely implemented some of his suggestions. I started trying to get him to walk to the park, instead of riding in the wagon, and we would walk on different terrains at the park. I try to challenge him physically, but only as long as he is having fun. I also enrolled him in ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) swimming lessons (Doman’s “Teach your baby to swim” is basically the same program except ISR has instructors that go through many hours of training) when he was 13 months old (this was before I read Doman’s book). This was not because of a desire to develop him physically but so he would be safe in the water. He learned to “swim” short distances and float on his back, and eventually also learned to love the water. He was not naturally a water-loving baby. This past summer (21-24 months old) he was enthusiastically jumping off the side of the pool, getting himself into a back float, then flipping back over and swimming the several feet back to the side of the pool. “Swim” is a loose term – he propels himself through the water rather inefficiently and not with any kind of formal stroke. I recently enrolled him in a “mom and tot” gymnastics class and he has been able to catch onto everything very quickly, and other parents comment that he seems very coordinated. He learned to pedal and steer his tricycle by himself at 23 months. I think it’s because he never had one of those tricycles with the push handle, and the pedals don’t “coast” like a lot of the new tricycles. It was hard on my back while he was learning – I was actually wishing then that it had a handle – but now I’m glad it didn’t.

This is all for a child who went through several months of physical therapy at 10-13 months of age because he was a late crawler (was not even pushing up on all fours at 10 months) and was diagnosed with loose joints (can’t remember the technical term) and stiff neck (perhaps because I was always putting him down to sleep in the same orientation, and he tended to turn his head away from the wall when sleeping). If I had read Doman’s book when my son was born and done even some of the infant exercises I’m sure he would not have had the problems he did (reading the book made me feel very guilty for while - now I’m just glad I caught it early enough). I mean, everyone tells you tummy time is important, but I didn’t understand the ramifications. My son hated tummy time and I probably did not give him as much as I should have.

I guess my point is, Doman’s book sort of awakened me to the fact that a child can learn physical things in the same amazing way that they can learn anything else. I have no desire for my son to be a competitive gymnast, or olympic swimmer, or whatever (unless that’s what he wants) – I just want him to be healthy and strong and grow up enjoying active things. Doman’s book helped me understand how I can help with that.

Several people have mentioned yoga mats - but I bought one for that purpose when my son was little and the fumes were horrible! I let it air out for about a week, but there wasn’t any change and I threw it away. I don’t think it could possibly be safe for little babies to take in all those fumes. Just something to consider!! Perhaps you could find one of those organic yoga mats or something?? Please share if you find a good one!