Sally Goddard Blythe
MSc. FRSA
Consultant in Neuro-Developmental Education
To read this essay published on the Tearm Around the Child (TAC) online journal, Issue 12 please follow the link below:
http://www.teamaroundthechild.com/images/stories/journal-pdfs/Reflexes.pdf
Listen again to one hour teleseminar with Sally Goddard Blythe being interviewed by Pinky McKay about the genius of natural childhood.
This wide ranging interview covers the role of movement, music, socialisation, play, nursery rhymes and fairy stories in encouraging children’s development. It also discusses the effects of electronic media on the developing brain.
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=21409257
Pinky McKay, International Board certified
Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), runs a private practice in
specializing in gentle parenting techniques. Pinky’s books, parenting resources and her free newsletter ‘Gentle Beginnings’
can be found on her website www.pinkymckay.com.
Review of “Secrets of Thriving Children” in “Schooldays” magazine (Australia) can be read by following the link below:
http://www.schooldaysmagazine.com/Featured/secretsofthrivin.html
I am sometimes asked, which of my books is the most useful or important to read. While the answer depends primarily on the interests and needs of the reader, the one which I feel most passionately about is “What Babies and Children Really Need”.
Originally written under the working title “First Love - Valuing Motherhood in Modern Society”, it was written with the intention of explaining why what happens to mothers before conception, during pregnancy, birth and in the first years of a child’s life has a profound influence on the developing child. It was also written to explain how natural physical processes were designed to nurture the developing child and to give parents and parents of the future a sound knowledge of children’s biological needs on which to make parental choices.
As both professionally and personally I witness many of the problems we see in society today, the more passionately I feel about the education of young adults in children’s biological needs. While I still prefer the working title of “First Love”, chosen on the basis that the first love affair of life is a child’s unquestioning love for its mother, and the quality of this relationship will influence the child’s ability to regulate its own emotional state for many years ahead, “What Babies and Children Really Need” covers prenatal, natal and post natal influences, providing a reminder that as human beings we are also members of the species of mammals. Just as other young mammals need physical nurture, opportunity for physical interaction, social engagement and rough and tumble play for healthy development, the human infant also needs these experiences for optimum well being. This book explains how parents and society can create an optimum environment to meet the needs of the developing child.
You can read this article by Catherine Gaunt’s by following the link below:
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/1074731/Motor-skills-gap-hampers-learning/
To read articles in the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph on the 2nd June 2012 follow the links below:
Radio interview also available on BBC5 Live with Victoria Derbyshire 11.05am 2.6.11
You can listen to an interview with Sally about the importance of singing nursery rhymes to babies
BBC Radio Hereford. 20th May 2012. Tony Fisher. Listen Again/1hour and 10 minutes into the programme.
Listen again is available for 7 days from the 20th May.
Please follow the link below to listen to the interview or read the article based on the transcript
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1012&artikel=4499387
Genom att sjunga för barn varje dag, kan föräldrarna undvika att deras små utvecklar språkliga problem senare i livet. När föräldrarna sjunger med sina bebisar, bidrar det till att förbereda barnens hjärnor att lära sig språket. Musik och dans är inte bara nyckel till språkliga färdigheter utan alla andra förmågor, det framgår i en ny brittisk bok.
Sally Goddard Blythe, director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, says that what is important is using music, singing and
lullabies to playfully get a baby ready for language. She suggests using fairy tales to teach moral behaviour and empathy. She shows,
using neuroscience, how movement with singing games such as
Pata-cake, Pat-a-cake and rough and tumble play enable children to
learn motor skills and self control naturally.
Without such activities, a large proportion of five year olds may be held back by baby reflexes, which can stop them holding a pencil properly
or learning to read, for example. A Northern Ireland study found traces of baby reflexes in 48% of first year children and 35% of fourth
years.She says,
‘It’s alarming the proportion of children with immature motor skills when they start school, regardless of intelligence. A
significant percentage of children have problems they don’t need to have. They seem to have missed out on early stages of development.
’Here are the secrets of thriving children - why early movement matters and how games develop children’s motor skills. Sally Goddard Blythe offers a handy starter kit of stories, action games, songs and rhymes and explains:
An inspiration for supporting young children - her engaging use of the latest neuroscientific insights show justwhy the
‘old fashioned ways’ often had it right all along.
‘old fashioned ways’ often had it right all along.
‘old fashioned ways’ often had it right all along.
Sally Goddard Blythe’s delightfully illustrated book is about the natural vitality of young children and how they can thrive.
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Reflexes, Learning and Behaviour, Attention Balance andCoordination—the ABC of Learning Success, What Babies and Children Really Need and The Well Balanced Child - now widely translated. She is also the author of a screening test and movement programme for schools due to be published later this year.Many children are just not ready for school at age 5.
One reason may be that busy parents have abandoned nursery rhymes, bedtime stories, singing lullabies and playing with their children. Sally Goddard Blythe uses neuroscience to show just why such ‘old fashioned ways’ are among the secrets of thriving children in her eagerlyawaited new book,
PRESS RELEASE
To request review copies or arrange an interview with the author, please contact: Martin Large, Hawthorn Press
Tel: 01453 757040 email: martin@hawthorpress.com or claire@hawthornpress.com
The Genius of Natural Childhood
is published by Hawthorn Press in the Early Years’ Series, price £14.99.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1 June 2011 ISBN: 978-1-907359-04-0 Paperback 234 x 156mm 240 pp
Available from all good bookshops, online at www.hawthornpress.com or by mail order from Booksource, Tel (0845) 370 0063
Professor Colwyn Trevarthen, Child Psychology, The University of Edinburgh
SALLY GODDARD BLYTHE is Director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester, a research, training and clinical organisation which has pioneered research into the neuroscience of specific learning difficulties. An international authority on remedial programmes, she has authored numerous professional papers and books such as
Dr Richard House, Roehampton University