Early years physical development research paper

This paper presents national and international research evidence on early years physical development, motor competency, play and physical activity. It highlights the importance of early years settings as the key place to support early movement, and of early years practitioners who are critical to enabling movement opportunities as part of children’s learning. Children can spend half of their waking hours within early years settings, therefore early years education is a key place to enable habit forming behaviour and develop excitement for movement. The paper also shares a novel evidencebased approach of connecting primitive reflexes to early years physical development and demonstrates how this can help children progress in their physical development.