Om:Pop With Family Support H&F: Serve and Return
brain building, mindfulness and serve and return: “back and forth play between children and caregivers”
HERE Om:Pop team member Aoife Baigent helps lead a session at Melcombe Children’s Centre, Family Support
We were delighted to lead two Om:Pop Sessions with Family Support, Hammersmith and Fulham focused on the topic of “Serve and Return.” Our bespoke yoga, brain building and meditation sessions at Cathnor Park Children’s Centre and Melcombe Children’s Centre focused on integrating positive, back-and-forth interactions between caregivers and their little ones.
From Family Support, Hammersmith & Fulham:
“A vital ingredient in a young child’s growth and learning (and brain development), especially from ages nought to five, is the ‘serve and return’ interactions that they have with their parents, caregivers and the people in their communities. Like the serve and return rally in a good game of tennis, young children naturally reach out for interaction with adults through babbling and imitating facial expressions.
This process helps them develop important language, cognitive, and social skills. If adults do not respond by getting in sync with children and returning these kinds of noises and gestures, the serve and return rally breaks down and the child’s developmental process is interrupted. This has negative implications for later learning.”
Brain Building and Serve and Return
Information via Alberta Family Wellness Initiative
how yoga helps with serve and return
“We use yoga with children to help build their emotional awareness and understanding, aka their self-regulatory capacity, to be able to help them acknowledge emotions, express them, and be able to breathe through all that life throws at them.”
family yoga and brain building with jen armstrong, co-founder of Here and team member Aoife Baigent (Melcombe Children’s Centre)
Cathnor Park Children’s Centre
how meditation helps with serve and return
“Meditation is a mindful awareness practice that can help us find calm in the midst of the chaos that is family life. A consistent meditation practice will help rewire our brains to mindfully respond instead of unconsciously react each time our parental buttons get pushed.”
Read more from Karin on this topic below:
Thank you for following our Om:Pop + Brain Building series with Family Support! You can learn more about our Om:Pops via the button below.
Our Om:Pop series with Family Support Hammersmith & Fulham is brought to you by HERE in partnership with Bubble + Sprout, where we bring bespoke mindfulness, yoga and brain building sessions to families. Family Support, backed by the H&F Council, has an incredible mission, which is to help families in Hammersmith & Fulham thrive. This includes their “Brain Builders” initiative with activities and resources to help build your baby’s brain!
