Welcome to the Clamber Club DVD commentary!

Thank you for buying our DVD. My name is Liz Senior. I am an occupational therapist and I started the Clamber Club in 1990 aiming to provide children with sensory motor experiences using music and equipment that promote exercise and learning through movement.

This Clamber Club DVD aims to promote the physical side of learning in the young child through movement to music. Many children do not have the basic skills required for learning effectively in the classroom.

Researchers are only now beginning to understand the complex relationship between physical and intellectual development, but it is widely recognised that there is a relationship between the two. A child that is exposed to a balanced and appropriate variety of sensory- motor stimulation is more receptive to education and communication.

Movement and exercise can play an important role in the learning process of your child. From a perceptual and academic perspective as well as psychologically and socially.

Clamber Club has 2main aims:

• To promote the joy of movement and exercise in young children, using occupational therapy principals as a base.
• To promote learning through appropriate movement activity.

Commentary on each song:

1. Clamber Club opening song
This song summarises what Clamber Club is all about. Get your child to follow along with the actions he sees on screen. Help your toddler to get the actions right by initially doing the actions with him so that he gets the feel.

2. Jog the Frog’s song
Jog the frog is the Clamber Club fitness mascot. He wears red running shoes to show that he loves jogging. He gets a real thrill from exercise and action, although he’s not terribly coordinated himself. Jog exercises daily with his jog round the Clamber Club garden, and he loves his fruit and vegetables.

So, get your child to stand up instead of sitting on the sofa, and move to the music with Jog the Frog! Jog on the spot as Jog jogs around the garden, and then copy his actions for the in between bits. You can also use Jog as a reference as to why it is important to exercise. For your baby, pick him up and dance around the room with him, doing the actions as Jog suggests.

Actions to music can help to promote all kinds of skills. Sequencing, auditory closure, motor planning, rhythm and of course PERCEPTUAL MOTOR SKILLS

Jack Capon in his perceptual motor lesson plans tells us that that all communication skills… reading, writing, speech and gesturing are motor based abilities. Children who are deprived of a wide variety of movement experiences, especially through natural play opportunities, run the risk of perceptual and motor impairment.

Since maximum development of perceptual abilities takes place between the ages of approximately 2-7 years of age, the preschool child needs perceptual motor experiences to build a strong base on which to build future academic learning.

Capon states that:
 “Movement experiences have become a vital part of the normal development for all children. We cannot afford to leave motor development to chance”

“The child who climbs, rides a bicycle, skates, balances on a balance beam, tumbles on the carpet and jumps on the bed has a better chance for good coordination  than does the well-behaved child who sits placidly in a chair “mining his manners” or watching television.”

3. We exercise
Exercise should be part of your child’s daily routine. This song is an aerobic march, aimed at getting the blood pumping and the muscles working!

For the chorus of the song, get your child to march on the spot, and show his muscles.

We run – run on the spot
We roll – roll your hands
We climb – pretend that you are climbing up a mountain or a tree
We crawl – crawl around on the floor
We spin – spin around and around
We swing – swing your arms
We jog – jog on the spot
We jump – see how high or far you can jump!

For your baby, lie him on his back and march legs for run on the spot, roll his hands, spin around with him in your arms, and jog on the spot with him in your arms.
 
4. Shake your hands
This song promotes body awareness – what our body parts are called and what they can do. We can shake our hands – what else can you do with your hands? Tap your feet – lifting one foot – even momentarily promotes balance.
Stamping feet promotes the coordination of the left and right sides of the body, more so when swinging the arms at the same time.
Falling on the floor is great tactile stimulation and tells your child about where his body is in space.
Can you tickle each other? This stimulates the sense of touch.
Let your older child do the actions himself, but with your baby or toddler, hold him close to your body at `fall on the floor’ and rock back with your toddler in your arms, then tickle him all over.

5. I open and shut my eyes
The aim of this song is to create an awareness of the eyes, what they can do, and how we use them. Our eyes allow us to look around us, to look up and down, to the sides, we blink our eyes, we can open and shut them and our eyes express emotion – our eyes can look happy, surprised, cross, and of course sad – tears come out of our eyes when we are sad.
We also wear glasses when we can’t see well, or to protect our eyes from the sun.

Of course our eyes play an important role in what is called eye hand coordination, the ability of the eyes and hands to work together. Our eyes are exercised whenever we play with balls, balloons, bubbles, or other moving objects, or when we move our bodies.
The child that enters school with good eye movement skills, has a tremendous advantage.  Clinical reports show that if the two eyes do not synchronise or move quickly and accurately, school achievement is usually low or even lacking. Appropriate movement activities where the eyes and hands work together, or even body movement, can promote occular readiness. 

Easy eye exercises!

• Focus near and far on moving or stationary objects and encourage your child to sustain that focus.
• Encourage the eyes to follow moving objects – up and down, side to side, and diagonally.
• Encourage quick localisation of moving objects using the eyes.
• Peripheral vision – encourage a consciousness of a wider field of vision.
• Depth perception – encourage effective observation of size and distance as well as estimation. This can be achieved by dropping and object from a height, or throwing a bean bag into a bucket from different distances.
• Convergence – encourage the eye muscles to draw together to the center on a focal point immediately in front of the face.

For this song, see if your child can follow along with the words. Ask him to show you a sad face, angry face and a happy face.

6. Five little froggies
For this song, see if you can get your child to hold his own toy and jump up and down with it. The count down teaches number concept. Jumping promotes coordination of left and right, top and bottom, and also promotes balance. Bending over to pick up the toy each time promotes balance and eye had coordination.
If you have a toddler you could even jump your child yourself, holding him under his shoulders and jumping him up high every time a froggie jumps – for fall down lower your child or tip him upside down and them pick him up and give him a big hug.

“All the senses are important in allowing the child to learn effectively. If ears are defective, speech could be affected. If the eyes aren’t working well, hand skills such as writing could be poor. If messages from the skin are not clear the child’s the child’s ability to move is hampered. When eyes ears or speech are defective, learning is made much harder. Good movement however is probably the most basic need. So often an improvement in body knowledge and movement seems to release the eyes, ears and speech muscles begin to work better” From Help your child to learn by Barbara Pheloung.

7. Forwards backwards
See if your child knows what forwards and backwards means. Lean forwards and backwards at first then walk forwards and backwards together. The actions to this song are fairly obvious, so see if your child can follow along with you copying him!

This song teaches spatial skills – our bodies can move in different directions: Forwards, backwards, sideways and around. We can move fast or slowly through space. We can also move spatially on different levels – up high or down low. To make this song more difficult, try to add the dimension of levels – moving high and going forwards backwards and then down low.

Spatial understanding develops when we move through space. Think of:

• Moving in different directions
• Moving at different speeds – fast or slow
• Moving on different levels - high, medium or low

Another way to teach spatial skills is to climb in and out of cardboard boxes, and through big and small spaces.

8. The fairy song
Imaginary play is a very important part of movement activity, and can be used in so many ways to get active participation from your child. For this song, see if you can find some dress up clothes and get your child to pretend that she is flying and flitting about. Both boys and girls can participate in this, just be adventurous with your flying outfits. Batman and Superman can also fly about!

9. Funky monkey
This is a real boogy song – can you do an Elvis jive? Try to get your child to really go for it, this is aerobic activity at it’s best. Get your child to twist his body up and down, pretend to be a monkey and to bounce around.
This song should encourage free movement and emotional expression. There is no right or wrong way to dance to it.

10. Flick fingers
The flick fingers song aims to strengthen little fingers, and to isolate finger movement. For your younger child, it may be easier to follow if you do it together.

While jog does the actions, see if your child can copy him:

• Flicking fingers strengthens the extensor muscles of the hands.
• Opening and closing the fingers strengthens the flexor and extensor muscles of the hands. Try it out, your fingers really do get a workout!
• Squeezing each finger individually promotes body awareness.
• Counting fingers one at a time promotes number concept. See if your child can hold one hand up while pointing to each individual finger. This requires eye hand coordination and promotes the coordination of the left and right sides of the body.

11. Rolling in the mud
This is one activity that almost every child loves – getting muddy and messy.

Of course your child can’t roll in the mud as he watches the DVD, but get him to pretend he is a piggy in the mud rolling around and rocking from side to side. For slipping, he can rock forwards and backwards. This strengthens the tummy muscles. To follow along with your baby, lie on your back with your baby on your tummy, facing you. Rock him from side to side. You can also put your baby on your knees and ride him up and down like an aeroplane.

Rolling promotes balance, stimulates the balance receptors in the inner ear and promotes brain body feedback. Why not try out the mud play activity on a hot summer’s day? It is good for your child to get messy!

Why is messy play so important?
It stimulates the tactile sense, making the body more sensitive when discriminating between different types of touch. Our hands especially need lots and lots of sensory stimulation in the early years so that we can manipulate objects effectively, and perform precise eye hand activities.

Touch sensations help us to:

• Motor plan - the ability to plan our movements depends on an accurate touch system.
• Learn - touch sensations make it feel good to hold things. They will tell the brain something about things that hearing or seeing does not tell.
• Learn about our body in space. Sensations from the skin tell us where our body begins and where it ends.
• Feel emotionally secure.

Sensory deprivation studies show how development is delayed and the brain disorganised when it doesn’t receive enough touch input.

12. Sitting on my boat
Do you have a bucket or cushion for your child to sit on as he follows along with this song? See if you can find one so that he has something to balance on while he does his actions.

Sequencing:
There is a sequence to this song. Sequencing of actions, words, and visual sequencing helps to develop memory, motor planning, and is important for later reading, writing and arithmetic.

Motor planning:
 Is required as your child follows along. How does he kneel, lie down and wriggle, for example. Any new movement action has to be planned before is happens. Your child has to work out how she is going to do kneel, sit, lie or wriggle on the equipment you have supplied. If you vary the object she sits on, you will encourage more motor planning. Motor planning only occurs when we have to do an unfamiliar or new movement, and is required when learning any new tasks. Through a varied movement programme, your child can develop a `bank’ of experiences on which to draw from, for any new movement activity.

13. Bouncies
Bouncing, simply using your own body, or on a mattress , ball or trampoline helps to promote balance, coordination and is very aerobic. A great way to exercise and strengthen the body, and to get the heart rate up.
Shaking encourages relaxation as you shake all the tension out of your body. See if your child can shake all over from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes!

14. Bend and twist
This song is really all about body awareness, and what we can do with our bodies. What joints do we have? Ask your child to show you his joints. What are they called and what can they do? Our shoulders and wrists can roll, knees can bend, we can tip our bodies from side to side. If you have a littlie, touch his joints as the song names them and ask him to move them.

15. Stretch
Stretching is something we seldom do, especially with our children. This plays such and important role in learning to warm up before we exercise, to help us to relax and to get us to move slowly. Moving slowly is calming and soothing. Stretching relaxes the muscles and promotes flexibility of the body.

We often spend much of our days as parents rushing. Rushing ourselves and our children, and slowing down, moving slowly can help to calm us down and to become re-centered.

Try to encourage slow and stretching movements, with deep breathing. You’ll be amazed at how effective it is when trying to calm your child down, just by using deep breathing and slow movement.

16. 2 Little hands go clap
This song promotes body awareness, what our body parts are called and what they can do.

A thorough knowledge and understanding of the body, including an inner awareness of the body and it’s relationship to other objects. Body awareness forms the foundation on which your child builds his perceptual skills.

How do we  promote body awareness?
Information regarding body awareness is provided to the brain when muscles and joints work against gravity or resistance. This occurs when your child crawls, lifts, climbs, and carries heavy objects or pushes and pulls objects with resistance. Hanging from bars, carrying heavy bags, or pushing against a wall all promote body awareness!
All conscious movement develops some aspect of body awareness. It is therefore important to have a healthy feedback system (of the senses) for this development to take place.

17. Tap tap
Give your child 2 spoons, hold them at the wide part for easier grip and start tapping!

This song teaches us all about spatial orientation. Where is in front of you, behind you, above your head, to the sides of your body, moving to the front and to the back.

The space around us can be seen as an extension of our own bodies. Without an clear knowledge of how much space we need to move an arm or leg before contacting an object in our environment, we would be continually bumping into things and knocking things over as we move around. Moving their bodies through space gives children experiences in how to control speed of movement and distance of movement. They learn how to move slowly so that they do not fall while walking on a low wall, or quickly to catch a bouncing ball.

18. Let’s go walking
How many ways can we walk? We can walk on tip toes, on heels, with big and small steps and with wobbly zig zag steps.
Walking in different ways can promote spatial concepts of big and small, up and down, over and under, as well as through.

19. Icky and sticky
While the song plays, pretend that you are sticky all over. How would you move if you were sticky? Pat all over your body with pretend sticky hands!
As with the rolling in the mud song, this song promotes the sense of touch. When you’re in the mood, get out some jelly, custard and sloppy spaghetti. Put it out on a plastic table, and squeeze it, prod it, pat it tap it, rub it and explore with it! Think of texture and temperature in the food you use.
Another great tactile activity it to put honey on your hands, pat it on the table and see if you can stick your hands together.

20. I can be big
This song promotes the understanding of opposites. Get your child to copy Jog’s actions and to name the movements they perform.

Moving and using language at the same time can help to consolidate concept development, as you use more than one sense when learning. If you’re a teacher, before you play this song, get the children to show you what the different actions are through visualization and imagination .

For example:

• Big and small – Can you think of different animals that are big and small, how do they move?
• Round like a ball – Who can roll around like a ball. Can you make your arms round like a ball or your cheeks or other body parts?
• Narrow and wide - Soldiers look narrow when they stand to attention. Can you be a soldier? Who can stretch out as wide as wide as can be? See if you can touch the walls on each side of the room.
• Go up and down – Who can jump up high? What animal jumps? What about a grasshopper that jumps up and down?

21. I have 2 feet
As Jog lies in the sun – he recognizes that he has 2 feet!
This song is all about body awareness. How many feet do we have, how many toes. What can we do with our feet? We can tap them we can wiggle our toes, scrunch them up.
As your child lifts his foot up, he has to balance on one leg, quite a feat if you are moving it at the same time! Your older child will find the actions easier to do, but your little ones may need some help. If you hold your child’s  hand while he lifts his leg, try not to give too much support so that he gets the feeling of balancing his own body and is able to correct his balance himself.

 22. Lets turn around
Children love to spin! Why? Because it nourishes their brains! Spinning, swinging, rocking and sliding are all activities that stimulate the vestibular system, which is situated in the inner ear.
The vestibular system is considered to have the most important influence on our ability to function in every day life. It is the unifying system in our brain that modifies and coordinates information received from the visual, auditory, proprioceptive and touch systems. It also plays an important role in our ability to maintain balance and equilibrium. The vestibular system tells us where our bodies are in space and has a strong influence on the muscles that control posture.
Actions that involve rotation, acceleration, deceleration and changing the position of the head, all stimulate the vestibular system.

So, for this song you can either get your child to spin around herself, one way and then the other, or you can pick her up and spin her to the left and to the right. See if you can also tip your body upside down and look at the world from a different angle!

23. Clamber Clubbing
We all know and love this song and what a great way to get the heart rate up and the muscles really working. This song promotes body awareness and laterality and tells us that we have 2 equal sides – 2 hands, 2 legs and 2 sides on our bodies. Encourage real action here – if you join in it will be much more fun for your little one. Your 2 year old will get the actions right if you do it too!

 24. Clamber Club ending song
For this last song get your child to wave goodbye and to follow along with the actions. I hope that you have enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed making it. Thank you for taking the time to read up on the reasons behind our Clamber Club DVD! I hope your child has many happy hours of action filled activity from participating as he watches!

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