JABADAO: A Playful World

I love learning. I just find it interesting discovering new things - sometimes the "whyness" of them is fascinating, or their implications; sometimes it's just pleasing to know a thing I didn't know before. Bees spit at their hive-mates in hot weather (maybe that's what our resident loft-bees have been up to - they seem to be thriving and exceptionally noisy this year!). There was one train journey with 42 different fares from London to Birmingham. In 2016 trips on the London Underground took on average 4 times longer for wheelchair users.

But I digress. I had some lovely opportunities for learning last week and I know no better way to process than by writing a blog post, so here you go!

A Playful World Blog

Running a session for colleagues is a great excuse to reignite my Jabadao-brain and I spent a good couple of hours lost to the world, mostly in avid consumption of this delicious blog from cover to cover (as it were).

A Playful World is a mother's account of her baby daughter's developmental movement from birth to about 18 months, complete with the games they found together, gorgeous clips of video, excerpts from theory/research and insights from observation and participation. I couldn't leave it until I'd finished the lot (oops - another late night!).

If you have any interest in developmental movement and Developmental Movement Play I couldn't recommend a visit more, and if you have an hour and a half you can get through it all! It's a great demonstration of all the things we touch on when I try and introduce people to Developmental Movement Play but don't have the time or the experience or the developmentally-appropriate bodies to hand.

How do you climb if your body can't?

It uses a typically developing body which may or may not show some differences to bodies you and I may be playing with, but the principles of the play - finding games, enjoying what is happening right now, having awareness of what might be trying to happen and conversing simply as two bodies - remain the same. As you will have heard me say if you've ever been unfortunate enough to hear me on the topic of DMP, all bodies are programmed with the same desires and map for movement, from the least mobile to the most. It may be that you spend months, years or a lifetime playing in the early snapshots of developmental movement or it may be that you hurtle through (which is not a goal and can bring challenges of its own), but all bodies long to have meaningful conversation where they are, and to run and to climb.

You would never guess how much is
learnt through tummy play!

The development of our movement supports the development of our senses and cognition: not just proprioception and vestibulation, but vision and touch which are the stepping stones to writing and reading, and interoception (vital if you're ever going to toilet train or look after yourself independently, feed and water yourself at the appropriate times). Our movement development from day one to at least 12 years of age also teaches us science through experimentation and exploration, and inquistiveness. It teaches us perseverance, achievement found through playful struggle and so much more. When joined by helpful, informed, playful adults it brings us the foundations of interaction, conversation, negotiation, shared attention and the joy of sharing space, sharing achievements and sharing life.

A Playful World explores the joys and the challenges of providing for Developmental Movement Play and shows beautifully the theory in practice with ideas, inspiration and a really cute baby!

An excerpt from the first entry:

One of the things I have noticed in these early few days is how much Ruby has enjoyed opportunities to be hanging upside down, and on her tummy right from day one. 

Hanging forward over a helpful adults hand or knee is her position of choice... 

A little theory…

...On a physical level, movement that seeks to establish stability is the most basic human movement and the cornerstone for our physical development. The development of stability takes place in direct relationship with the force of gravity- the gentle and constant force that helps to build bone density and muscle strength.

Physical Development

The organisation and reproduction of movement doesn’t stem, as you might expect from the motor cortex part of the brain. Our movements are directed from the sensory cortex. When we first decide to perform an action we first recall a ‘sensory engram’ created through past repetitions of that particular movement. We remember (in sensation) what it felt like, then our motor systems reproduce the remembered sequence of sensation laid down in that engram… We need to pay equal attention to sensation as well as movement, therefore, if we want to work in depth and detail with the body as a source of learning- enabling our bodies to dance with internal sensation is every bit as important as learning to read and write… we must practice tuning into sensation as a route to using our body thinking processes.

Hopping Home Backwards

Why is this interesting to me…Holding Ruby in this way, and playing with her upside down, from day one, I was often met with ‘watch her little neck’, ‘You’ll make her sick’, ‘I wouldn’t do that, I’d drop them.’

Even though I knew ‘the theory’, I was doing the same as every new parent and muddling through, finding the ways to be with Ruby. Following her lead, and ignoring the voices around me led us to being upside down- so that is where we wallowed.

Most parents will naturally rock babies and children- which is working with the same sensations as being upside down & playing with gravity. Some babies will always indulge in going further than you might think.
When I think about it she has been upside down for the last few months so being up-right all the time must seem strange, why wouldn’t she be happy there!

The second post, Games played in the first week, gives some really early developmental play ideas, and the third, So much more than just feeding or sleeping, is a reminder of what is happening and trying to happen in the really early snapshots of development as well as a snippet of theory and some of the challenges of living in our culture. I will restrain myself from summarising the rest of the blog post by post, but do go and explore: it's a veritable treasure trove!

And for thoughts about how this translates with bodies that move differently, visit the Jabadao website or search for Jabadao on YouTube for a couple more videos of The Tig...

Sensory Series Part I: Sensory Experience can be Shared

I've had a blogging hiatus. No particular reason, but I haven't felt the urge to write anything for a while. It's been an interesting time in my life, blog-writing hasn't seemed to be the right response, and I have perhaps had less space for bloggy thoughts to develop.

The idea has been tapping at my brain cells a little recently though, and I thought autism awareness week would be a good opportunity to make a comeback (missed it slightly!). I've had plenty of food for thought, with some genuinely life-changing training through my job, which will probably come to you soon in some form or another!

What I want to talk about today comes from a bit of a journey of sensory awareness that I've been on recently.

I've discussed before that I don't have too many really troubling sensory problems, but over time and with discussion with people similar to me I have come to realise that my sensory world nonetheless has an enormous importance in my life.

It has the power to make things a bit more tricky (I am thankful that it doesn't generally have the power to render me drastically less functional), but more importantly it has the power to make things amazing! My sensory world (which is really just my experience of the world) can hold the key to calmness, freedom, joy and even connection to others.

Curling up in a blanket always wins!

I learnt fairly quickly after discovering my autism that I can benefit from sensory input. Touch and proprioception are the biggest ones for me: I love to be wrapped tightly in a fleecy blanket or to wear clothes that give tight, even pressure, I love to lie on the floor, I feel safest when curled in a ball, when as much of my body surface is in contact with something else as possible.

Recent training with JABADAO in "Developmental Movement Play" gave me so much insight to the importance of awareness of our bodies' sensory needs - for myself and others - that I will probably write a separate post about it (or several!). It is no exaggeration to say that my life and the lives of those I care for have been changed and will continue to change as a result of the time on this training.

This was the first time that I discovered that positive sensory experiences didn't have to just be for me, on my own. They can actually be an invaluable form of communication between people, much deeper and more fundamental than linguistic communication that people with spoken language naturally turn to.

Upside-down is good too!

Through JABADAO and my work, I also came into contact with Creative Humans, whose director Amy Manancourt not only runs this truly inclusive (a word I'm actually not fond of for many reasons, but Creative Humans really are just a group of people being and creating together) company but provides massage therapy and yoga therapy too. Amy demonstrates a profound understanding of the body and what it needs. Through practising my own movement play and visiting Amy for treatments, I have begun to attend to my body and what it needs, having a greatly beneficial effect on my wellbeing.

At my most recent treatment, Amy suggested that I attend her company's upcoming workshop for an opportunity to move my body. It didn't take much persuasion, and as I knew pretty much what to expect, my excitement overrode any anxieties I would normally have about the new situation. I was not disappointed. My anxiety tends to be primarily social- and communication-based, and I have to say that this is probably the least stressful occasion I have ever attended!

Now, movement play is all about bodies and what they need, and communicating on a fundamental level without words getting in the way or lack of words being a barrier. Words are simply not used. Even (or maybe especially?) for a wordy person like me, this is a perfectly freeing environment. At the workshop, I didn't have to negotiate anything verbally. The session begun when I arrived, and I could just slowly join the area, moving as my body wanted to.

What took me a little by surprise was how much and how easily I connected with the other dancers and participants. There was freedom to observe, to copy, to try things out, to make suggestions, to be alone or to be with others. I was strangely aware of the therapeutic effect of the environment I was in. I was truly me, and actually connecting in the most real, authentic way that I ever have. It was safe, I was real, and I was a part of things without having to pretend or "translate". I had only really experienced that maybe twice before: once during an "experiential" session on my Music Therapy module at University, and then during the JABADAO training when Penny (Penny Greenland; JABADAO founder and director) came and worked with me briefly.

For me it's novel to be calm whilst connecting

Movement play was just the beginning of my journey with sharing sensory experiences. It works with the touch, proprioception and vestibular senses, which tend to be my "best" - my "go-to feel-good" - senses. If I need to put myself right, get myself feeling right in my body, feel real, it's movement, curling up, wrapping up that do it for me. So I suppose it's a bit of a no-brainer that I felt I had found my people when I discovered this area of work.

However, starting from that point has prepared me for an expansion of awareness of my sensory world and the possibilities of connecting through it. The other training I have been on this year has been with Joanna Grace of The Sensory Projects. Jo is a sensory engagement and inclusion specialist and came to my workplace to deliver a training day on Sensory Stories. Just as with Penny from JABADAO, I could have spent days listening to Jo! Some people seem to have an almost endless well of insight, wisdom and experience to learn from, and an engaging manner of presentation to match. These are two of those people!

After the Sensory Stories day (which I would recommend to anybody working with sensory beings - people whose primary experience of the world and understanding thereof is sensory rather than linguistic - or in fact many others in the care or education sectors) I was lucky enough to be able to attend Jo's annual training day on Sensory Engagement for Mental Wellbeing. I was astounded and quite outraged to hear that although one study found 84% of their survey group of people with PMLD (profound and multiple learning disabilities) to be displaying signs of low mood/depression, most of these people have no appropriate mental health support because they are unable to access what is routinely provided. Add to this that the problems are often not recognised due to apparent lack of change in wellbeing, or changes being attributed to pre-existing conditions, and it can make for a pretty dismal state of affairs.

"You have time for me" is another of the
strategies for mental wellbeing

Thankfully people like Joanna are working to change this by finding and sharing strategies to support the mental health of sensory beings: how can we make it true for every person that "I am safe", "I can effect change", "The world is a place I can explore" etc? I'm not going to go into an of the content here, but you can find Jo on her website (see link above), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

My point in all this rambling is that I began to properly link together sensory input with its effect on my mental wellbeing (and to begin to observe that in others). When working with sensory beings, here is a basis for the fundamental connection that I feel so strongly through movement play: a place where people interact as equals, both providing valuable input and opinions. It doesn't only happen through movement - that is just where I found it first, and maybe the most meaningful channel for me.

When we find that point of true connection, we do wonders for the wellbeing of both parties.


P.S. This post had a sequel but I deleted it in a moment of brain malfunction, so you'll have to wait until I've re-written a less good version. Sorry!