There's never been a more important time to support children to move
There is real urgency here. Pressures around children are increasing and opportunities for child-led play are diminishing. Screen-dominated learning drives an ever more sedentary and disembodied education culture, and as more children need support for a range of additional needs, it has never been more important to come back to the body to ensure that children develop the highest levels of physical confidence and connection.
We need new ways to support complex 21st century lives.
Watch and explore
Principles of the Jabadao approach
The human animal is built to move
Using a developmental framework
Un-learning and re-learning
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Movement play creates powerful experiences that fuel learning development and wellbeing
The Jabadao approach champions free flow Movement Play as a key learning tool.
It’s powerful and joyous body work, good for health, wellbeing, happiness and learning. And it reaches parts that other movement programmes don’t reach.
Children are brilliant at putting Movement Play at the heart of their lives. We adults have an important role in making sure they have all the opportunities they need - and can make the most of them.
Re-imagine physical development
Traditionally, the developmental milestones have provided the framework for understanding physical development. These milestones highlight physical skills that children acquire in a broadly similar sequence.
Contemporary theory encourages a different approach. Look underneath the milestones at the building blocks - early patterns and processes that combine to create complex movement. Understand these and you have a toolkit to support children’s movement in new ways.
This is where the Jabadao approach begins.
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Action Research
Join us to dig a little deeper
We organise research projects with partner settings, to learn more about how movement supports learning and the impact of using a developmental movement approach. Get in touch if you're interested in being a partner setting.
"I don’t think we could make our small busy nursery work nearly as well if we didn't have the Movement Play Area. I would never be without one ... it keeps them calm and engaged in their learning across the whole room.
They all use it at some point ... in different ways. But there are some children who need to access it everyday - all through the day. And there are some who must access it on arrival. They might arrive in the morning ... quite upset and need to regulate themselves. They go on to the Area, run circuits round it, and there will be some sort of sequence, pattern, to what they are doing. They use that pattern for round about 10 minutes and they calm down and then go off and do other things."
Head Teacher
Nancy Farrow
Grace Owen Nursery
"The training has really opened my eyes it has inspired me to look at things differently and to view children’s learning and behaviour differently."
Two Year Old Flying Start Assistant
Charleen Flipping
Ser Bach Y Cwm @ Ysgol Golwg Y Cwm
"When I came into the training I think I had preconceived expectations about physical development. I knew what I was looking for - a checklist, a baseline assessment and some tools. But what quickly jumped out at me was my lack of knowledge ... I had been meeting certain needs, but certainly not all of their needs. I had been very focused on fine and gross motor skills ...and activities in a little PE programme ...I wasn't really looking at children’s emotional/physical need, children’s holistic physical presence in the nursery.
We’d initially thought this would be like an additional needs bolt-on ... but the biggest change was that we saw it coming into the whole of the provision for all of our children - becoming part of our universal provision."
Senior Teacher
Anne-Marie Lewis
Edwardsville Primary School
"We've developed and transformed our approach quite significantly and it's no coincidence that it's alongside the team training we did around Developmental Movement Play."
Marie Whiting
Setting Lead
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Jabadao, 10 Court Farm, Brantham, Manningtree, Essex, CO11 1PW