This class is about understanding the movements of how we develop and progress from infant to adult from on our backs to standing in gravity. It can and would be valuable in applying the understanding to working with children and also to our own personal processes of embodiment and how we got where we are and what we struggle with as adults.

Our developmental movement begins in utero. We carry the beginnings of our movement from prenatal to postnatal and proceed through the course of our entire lives. One of our most important early tasks is to move from our backs to rolling over and progressing to standing. This process is guided by innate reflexes and should ideally be replaced with more voluntary control. The natural developmental process from birth on is to enliven the muscles beginning with the head and neck, then the arms, legs and torso. From there we develop movements from the axial body by stimulating and gaining strength and control of the spine and then to the integration of arm and leg movements with the center. This is a journey from lying on our backs, to moving to our stomachs then getting our legs under us and lifing our spines to vertical and elevating our brains over our feet. This is a process of learning to control and understand our body positions (posture), moving through space (locomotion), and engaging with the environment (reach, grasp, handle).

Primitive reflexes take us to birth and protect us and help us survive. To be successful in the progress of our movement development we are tasked with those reflexes that are de-emphasized or replaced early with more voluntary control. This is necessary for the healthy development of our brains and nervous systems. We will explore this developmental movement process with the help of the movement of the Tuning Board, a movement compatible with that of the pre- and postnatal developmental process.