Teaching Tipz

Ask the expert about challenges and obstacles associated with your kidz programs. This section is sure to help you improve your skills on and off the training deck!

Teaching Tip: Helping your 3 to 6 year olds to transition from one drill to the next without crashing into each other.

“Dear Melody,

Instructors,
I have a great tip for this situation! Children under the age of seven are still in a stage where they feel the need to be physically stimulated as much as possible, so when they are set free to move about, expect them to get physical with each other. Remember, this is a stimulation issue and not necessarily a behavioral concern.

I discovered that the reason why they sometime crash is because they have “sensory needs”. This basically means that young children (and child with hyposensitivity, ADHD, and some cases of autism) are processing sensory stimulation at a rapid rate and are simply responding to those neurological brain waves.  That is why they wiggle and also why they love to crash, squeeze, push, pull, etc. Their brain is simply registering as much stimulation as they can possibly take in at one time.
With that said, I came up with a few “transitional” ideas to help them remain stimulated as they more about the training deck.

Here’s how it works:

Each time I have my student’s transition from one end of the mat to the next so that I can set up for the next drill I have them move like an animal:

• Crawl slowly like a turtle
• Crawl fast like a cub
• Walk like a duck
• Take tiny hops like a tiny tree frog

I pick the animal depending on my needs. For example, if I need some time to set up for the next drill or their energy level is really high and I want to bring them down a notch then I will ask them to move slowly like a turtle or take tiny hops like a tiny tree frog.

Once they reach their destination I will pick the student that looked the best to go first on the next drill.

This works great because now they have something that meets their sensory needs.