Growing an In-Sync Child: Simple, Fun Activities to Help Every Child Develop, Learn, and Grow [Paperback]

Carol Kranowitz (Author), Joye Newman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 4, 2010

A fresh and timely approach to understanding the profound impact of motor development on children of all ages and stages.

Based on the authors' more than seventy combined years of professional success working with children of all abilities, Growing an In-Sync Child provides parents, teachers, and other professionals with the tools to give every child a head start and a leg up.

Because early motor development is one of the most important factors in a child's physical, emotional, academic, and overall success, the In- Sync Program of sixty adaptable, easy, and fun activities will enhance your child's development, in just minutes a day.

Discover how simple movements such as skipping, rolling, balancing, and jumping can make a world of difference for your child—a difference that will last a lifetime.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A., has been a preschool teacher for more than 25 years. She has developed an innovative program to screen young children for Sensory Processing Disorder, and writes and speaks regularly about the subject. She has an M.A. in Education and Human Development..

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; 1 edition (May 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399535837
• ISBN-13: 978-0399535833
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.5 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Activities

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Parent and ealy educator Should Get This Book October 23, 2010

By Martianne

Format:Paperback

Recently, I devoured Growing an In-Sync Child, co-written by the author of the well-known Out-of-Sync Child and Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun. Why was I able to devour it despite having two preschoolers and one infant with me 24-7? Because it is so easily read! (and it earns its first star for this.)

Written by professionals in the fields of Early Education, Sensory Processing Disorder and Perceptual Motor Therapy, Growing an In-Sync Child makes topics and activities that are often accessible only to experts in classrooms and therapeutic offices around the world easy to understand and implement by even untrained parents and educators. Short chapters, concise information, helpful charts and easy-to-follow "recipes" for activities, as well as examples of the how and why behind the activities, make this handy guide work well for busy parents and educators who want to read it in snippets as time allows or refer to it as needed when observations of children's needs demand a new approach. Plus, hundreds of examples of WHY different skills are necessary make words such as "vestibular processing ("for standing while following verbal directions", "for sitting at a picnic table", "for doing gymnastics", etc.) and "laterality" ("for holding a bag and stuffing it with leaves", "for sliding into home plate", "for talking on the telephone", etc.) easily understood. And, I love the way the book avoids the typical "he" vs. "she" gender issue that so many books of this nature struggle with: For each activity, a name for a child is given - Michelle, Thom, Marvin, Kelly-Ann and so on. The "he" or "she" follows naturally from there. This works to make the activities seem real and personal, as opposed to generic and clinical....

Indeed, authors Carol Kranowitz and Joye Newman did a fantastic job making this book accessible to everyone. Brief chapters, which explain theory and the importance of motor-development activities for young children, a chapter that details the story of three children who required early intervention and how focusing on motor development helped them academically and socially as well, page after page of activity "recipes" and multiple charts make the book an informative, easy read. Without question, these make Growing an In-Sync Child very relevant to anyone living or working with young children.

I can attest that I, with one child who has SPD, one who does not but is a three-year-old sensory seeker and one who is but an infant beginning to master basic motor skills, had many "Ahh, that makes sense," and "Oo, we'll try that," moments while reading this book. I loved the pages in the back, which focus on walking, running, jumping, balancing, hopping/skipping/galloping, throwing, catching, climbing and striking/kicking. These provide a quick inventory on what children can be expected to do for each skill at ages two to three, three to four, four to five and five to six, which, for me, offered comfort about some things I was concerned about with my children as well as direction for skills we might focus on in the weeks and months to come. Also, with the book's brief, yet complete explanations of tactile processing, vestibular processing, proprioception, balance, bilateral coordination, body awareness, laterality, midline crossing, motor planning, spacial awareness, acuity, binocularity and visual tracking, otherwise "technical" terms and related concepts become understandable. After reading the book, even a layperson can explain such terms to others and with 60 or so ready-made activities that are fully laid out for children of beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of motor-skills to try anyone can implement motor development activities with confidence in the everyday life of children. The book gets a star for relevance.

Truly, Growing an In-Sync Child contains a plethora of practical information. It not only offers the aforementioned 60 activities in an easy-to-read and implement format (Helps Your Child Develop and Enhance, What You need, What You Do, Ways to Make It More Challenging and What to Look For), but it also offers instant "menus" of activities to try by In-sync Component (such as body awareness and balance) and Time and Place (such as Doing During Your Nightly Routine and When You Have No Equipment). Additionally, it contains a helpful table of activities by level and necessary equipment. (Another star!)

With three children under five, I know the table will come in handy and I also am confident I can draw ideas from Growing an In-Sync Child for quite a while. Thus, I want to give this book another full star for its longevity potential. However, I also admit that parents and educators whose children are a bit older may not find the book as useful for as long. So, I am only going to give it a half-of-star for longevity. That being said, the book offers enough that I would still encourage those who work with children on the upper end of the "young children" spectrum to check out the book. It is worth it and, when kids "age out" of the activities, the book would make a fantastic pass-along as a donation to a library, school or friend.

Growing an In-Sync Child earns a fifth star from me as it is definitely worth the trouble of ordering from inter-library loan if your own library doesn't carry it. In fact, after doing so just once, I am putting this book on my when-we-have-money-in-the-book-budget list and planning to order it from our Virtual Library service again soon in the meantime. While there are many books I can read once or twice, take notes on and move on, and just as many that offer some good activities, this one stands out as one that invites paging through time and time again. There are just so many activity ideas I want to try in it given different ages and stages the kids will go through. Practical tips, little reminders... I simply cannot take notes on them all. I want the book on my personal shelves!

Obviously, I like this book and encourage others to take a look at it. It is easy-to-use, chock-full-of-ideas and great for families and educators of young children who want to integrate simple, fun motor development activities into life and learning. In my opinion, Growing an In-Sync Child truly lives up to its claims of being an easy to use, portable, expandable, inclusive and economical program that is developmentally-based, flexible and adaptable while addressing many skills simultaneously. Full of riveting, ingenious, "new" ideas? Perhaps, it is not. (How many times can the motor development wheel be re-invented?) Replete with easy-to-implement, targeted, and enjoyable activities? It is! (The wheel can definitely be engineered to work better for today's drivers.) As such, I highly recommend this book to all parents and educators of young children. Get the kids away from the TV, off their bottoms and out of the rut of training just their brains. Move, move, move to enhance their physical, emotional, academic and overall success through sharing some fantastic motor development activities from the book's pages. Read more ›

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Allow your little ones to develop their own motor skills September 13, 2010

By leone b. abroms

Format:Paperback

My CPA husband used to do everything for our grandchildren, thinking he was helping them. Now he understands that to really help them develop important skills, he needs to encourage them to actively use their bodies. New grand-parenting style includes having them open doors themselves and push the grocery cart. When one of our little five-year-old grandsons bumped the grocery cart against a threshold, and the contents went flying, my husband saw it as a learning experience. No problem! Picking up the spilled groceries was actually a fun activity for our grandson! He was probably amazed that he was praised for doing a good job instead of being scolded for being clumsy. My husband would never have thought in this way without reading this wonderful book!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A whole new way of seeing May 22, 2010

By Holly Turton

Format:Paperback

One thing that really helps is seeing examples of how changing activities makes a big difference. So I loved the chapter on "Three Children Get In Sync." This book makes what seems so technical such an easy thing. I really understand now what motor skills are and how important simple things like skipping and jumping are.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars All Parents of Young Children Should Read This Book December 8, 2010

By Sondra Wise

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The authors proclaim that as we continue to get more sedentary as a society, our children may be paying the price for inadequate motor development that affects all areas of their lives. From their 70 years of experience working with children, they explain and provide examples in the book how this is so. This book is brilliantly written and provides so many nuggets and angles about motor development and its impact on a child's success. Every page is valuable. Never have I seen an author put all the whats, whys and hows together so succinctly for what I think can be very complex subject matter. The included demonstrations of the children's copying abilities before and after motor therapy by Joye Newman was profound and one of the best takeaways from this book. It makes it clear how movement and other skills correlate. I wish I had this book 4 years ago when my son was misdiagnosed with an ASD at age 4. It's so clear now that he is not on the spectrum, but he did have motor planning and sensory processing issues which kept him from proper sequential development. This book clarified the specific technical issues that we were experiencing without being overly clinical. Our whole family really enjoys the fun activities which account for about half of the book volume. Both my 4 y.o. and 8 y.o. beg to do them. To them they are like party games, but I can tell their minds and muscles are thinking, processing and acquiring skills. I think this book has broad use. I recommend this book highly to all parents of young children to use as a guide in watching and enhancing their child's development. Each activity gives a "what to look for" section for each exercise that could help in identifying kids that may need closer examination or outside therapy.... I would also recommend it to parents of older children who may have skipped developmental milestones and are now experiencing academic or social problems. I think this book would also be great for occupational or other therapists for kids. It's a true eye opener. I suspect this book will attain classic parenting-book status in time. Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Read for EVERY Parent June 29, 2010

By Sandra Laken

Format:Kindle Edition

We've all heard lots about how kids should stop spending so much time on their computers and in front of television sets. Now, I know why. Getting up and moving is really critical to all sorts of functions that are important in life. And the activities in this book are great! I give a big thumbs up for ALL parents!!!!!

Growing an In-Sync Child: Simple, Fun Activities to Help Every Child Develop, Learn, and Grow

Growing an In-Sync Child: Simple, Fun Activities to Help Every Child Develop, Learn, and Grow [Paperback]

Growing an In-Sync Child