Let the Games Begin - at Sochi and at Home

Susan Ramsay | Feb 19, 2014

Sochi takes me there. Though not to Russia, it takes me to a place of awe and inspiration for our Olympians who demonstrate incredible skill, endurance and commitment to their chosen winter sport. I find myself wondering when and how each competitor on that 2014 Winter Olympic stage began.
atching the Olympics reminds me of a term I recently learned called ‘physical literacy’. As defined by Physical and Health Education Canada, “Individuals who are physically literate move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities in multiple environments that benefit the healthy development of the whole person.” (www.phecanada.ca/programs/physical-literacy/what-physical-literacy )
Some describe the ABC’s of physical literacy as agility, balance, coordination and strength – skills that are developed through active living and ones that impact quality of life throughout our lifetimes.
Physical literacy, however, cannot be compartmentalized to one aspect of development. Emergent literacy skills (learning that leads to reading and writing skills) are dependent on physical literacy. Infants and young children must develop balance, coordination and strength to reach for a book, turn pages one at a time, hold a crayon, scribble, and write their name. Engaging in movement is essential to fully understand the meaning of words like “somersault” and “shrug”. Books such as “Clap Your Hands” by Lorinda Bryan Cauley, “Head to Toes” by Eric Carle, and “Walking Through the Jungle” by Stella Blackstone encourage children to shrug, slither, flap, and move purposefully along with the story characters.
Movement is also an important ingredient of learning for children with reading disabilities. Sliding index cards with different onsets (beginning word sounds) in front of and away from the rest of a word that has been written on a separate card, is one small example of how movement can help children physically experience how sounds are combined and pulled apart in print. (e.g. h-op, m-op, st-op, fl-op, sh-op) Children who struggle with the code of print often have strong visual memories for certain words, but need active movement to understand how and why letters and sounds are combined.
The tools of physical and emergent literacy can be the same. A skipping rope held by one end and slithered back and forth along the floor for children to jump over, becomes more playful and engaging for preschoolers when twinned with this rhyme:
Snake, snake, sleepy snake
Sleepy snake won’t hiss.
Snake, snake, wide awake,
Hisses just like this…..hisssss!
With this very simple game, children develop physical literacy through a focus on muscle strength, agility, and coordination as they jump over, not on, the moving rope. They also develop emergent literacy skills through reinforcement of /s/ sounds at the beginning and ending of words, the rhythm and syllables of words in the rhyme, and sequence of this short story telling.
Physical literacy may begin in the arena, rink, toboggan hill, or ski slope. It may also begin with active games we play with our children and with outings we do with our children from birth. Not all of us will ‘own the podium’ but we can all know what it’s like to discover physical literacy that gives us gold in a myriad of ways.

Susan Ramsay is the Early Literacy Specialist for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. You can contact her at 613-354-6318 (ext 32) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.