What are the main features of massage for children, age from one to three years, learn in the article on the topic "". Pre-school age is a child of three to seven years. During this period the child's organism continues to grow and develop. Its motor activity greatly increases, and the movements become free and conscious. Skin thickens considerably. The skin becomes more elastic and resistant to various kinds of influences: mechanical, climatic, although the child at this age is overcooled much more often than adults. The reason for this is that the surface area of the skin in a child of preschool age is much larger than the surface area of an adult person in terms of one kilogram of weight. Accordingly, a large surface is more susceptible to supercooling or, conversely, overheating. That is why preschool children are often ill with acute respiratory diseases. During this period, parents have a problem - how to protect your baby from numerous diseases that lie in wait for him in the kindergarten, on the street and at home. That is why a child of preschool age must be tempered. As hardening can be used water and air procedures (wiping and dousing, baths and the like) and, of course, physical exercises, sports activities, morning exercises and massage. In combination, these procedures will help to maintain the health of the child, strengthen and temper his body, and, consequently, develop a stable immunity to various kinds of diseases. Before proceeding to gymnastics and massage, it is necessary to focus on the proper care of children and their daily routine. After all, physical exercises and massage can not be useful if the child does not comply with the sanitary and hygienic rules in his room, keep his body clean and observe the daily wakefulness and sleep, moving games and mental work, and the like. Constantly observed the correct regime of the day in combination with regular motor exercises and massage serves as a guarantee of health and proper development of the child.
The regime of the preschooler's day should be planned and established by parents and other adult family members, depending on their individual and age characteristics. By the age of three, the child should develop certain stable skills at the level of reflex and habit. By this time, his body must independently observe the usual rhythm of life, that is, the regime of the day. On the regime of the child's day as such, parents should think much earlier than the child will reach preschool age, that is, from the moment of his birth. It is then necessary to teach the child at the same time to eat, sleep, stay awake, and so on. The regime of the day of a three-year-old child will be qualitatively different from that of a child of six or seven years, since during the period of preparation for school, he will spend more time on passive activities: reading books, drawing, and others. Whereas at the age of three or four years the child moves and plays more. That is why in the preschool period of a baby's life, when it takes less time for active life, it is necessary to spend daily morning exercises and evening massage with him. During the day it is important to constantly monitor the bearing of the child at the time of games and classes. It is necessary to teach the child to the rules of caring for his body and personal hygiene. In addition, for the correct growth and formation of the baby, you must regularly monitor the cleanliness of the air in his room, the sanitary and hygienic conditions in it, maintaining the necessary thermal regime and humidity.
Gymnastics for preschool children
Gymnastic exercises with children of preschool age can be carried out both in a room and under the open sky. The room must be thoroughly ventilated beforehand. To spend gymnastics is better when the windows are open wide or an open window. For gymnastics the child should have a special, best of all natural fabrics, loose clothing. It can be shorts and a T-shirt, a bathing suit and so on. During the training you can use various toys or sports equipment: balls, flags, hoops, skipping ropes and more. Gymnastic exercises are best done on the rug. The complex of gymnastic exercises for the child can be made individually. It is best to take exercises that copy the movements of various animals that the child knows. The child with great pleasure will jump like a bunny, walk like a goose, gallop, like a frog, and so on. When composing a complex of morning exercises, you need to include in it a variety of movements of the body and its individual organs. This will strengthen the entire body of the child and will contribute to the overall development of the baby, all of his muscles and joints.
Gymnastics with a child of this age is best spent in a game form. If the family has two or more children, you can use exercises of a competitive nature. This will cause more interest from the children, and they will be happy to join the game-competition. Complex exercises that require a lot of exercise need to alternate with easier exercises or do small breaks between them. If gymnastics classes are held in the evening, then they are held no later than one hour before bedtime. The meal on the eve of the gym should be at least an hour and a half before her. After performing physical exercises should pass at least forty minutes, when it will be possible, without harm to the child's body, to eat. Swimming, sledging and skiing, skating, biking also contribute to the physical development of the child's body and the strengthening of his health.
Massage for preschool children
When performing massage for preschool children (from three to seven years), you can use all the techniques of massage. It is appropriate to both local and general body massage. Given the fact that the skin of a child of preschool age is very sensitive, it is necessary in the implementation of the massage to ensure that it does not damage the surface of his body. The movements of the hands should be moderately gentle and skillful. Massage should give the child pleasure and help to relax the child's body. Massage begins with stroking. This method is performed with the ends of fingers or palm. Hands of the massage therapist should move when massaging the limbs and trunk of the child up and down. The abdomen is ironed in a circular motion clockwise. After stroking, you should be rubbed. There are more vigorous movements of the hands, which move and stretch individual parts of the skin. You can rub the child's body with the palm, fist or fingers, while observing the precautionary measures, as during the performance of this method, the delicate skin of the child can be trapped. Rubbing can be done in any direction. First, grinding is carried out slowly, and then its rate gradually increases. The most difficult method of massage is kneading, so it requires vigorous movements of the hands of the masseur. When it is carried out, certain areas of the skin and muscles of the child are captured and raised. There is their squeezing. This method can be performed with one hand, since the area of the baby's body is small. This procedure should not bring unpleasant sensations to the baby, so the masseuse must accurately calculate the strength of the hands and the time of exposure to the surface of the child's body.
The next method - vibration - can be omitted and use only some of its elements when massaging the body of a child of preschool age. Vibration is a technique that involves quick and sharp vibrating movements, pattings, rubbles, shakes, and the like, which not all can be used to massage a child's body for three to seven years, since he has a very unstable nervous system that is not completely formed the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Therefore, this method should be used very carefully. After each reception it is necessary to carry out stroking of the body of the baby. The same method should result in a general or local massage. Now we know how to do massage for preschool children.