Building Resilience Through Movement: Rockford Barbell’s Fall Update

Happy Fall!  Rockford Barbell has been active this school year as we have expanded our mobile based services in addition to our after school programming.  This school year we have partnered with Constance Lane Elementary and Lincoln Middle school to deliver movement based social and emotional programming to students twice a week at each school.  Our school's programs are able to deliver engaging social and emotional programming to students during the school day to support social and emotional growth and foster learning.  This opportunity allows us to connect with even more students using our model of using movement to develop relationship skills and better regulate our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.  Students who develop stronger relationship skills and self-management are better equipped to manage the demands of a classroom.  We are grateful for the opportunity to serve more children, educators, and families as we engage together in this critical work.

Throughout all of our programming we are mindful of the developmental needs of children.  Our programs start with safety.  Helping children feel safe, by providing routines, predictability, an inviting environment, etc. allows for children to better connect in relationships.  Safe-supportive relationships allow us to expand our “window of tolerance” and allow us to try new things, begin new relationships, and stretch ourselves to learn new things.  We use repetition and rhythm found in movement to help children regulate their emotions so that they are better equipped to manage relationships and engage in learning.  Movements done in our classes offer opportunities to regulate ourselves so that we are equipped to challenge ourselves in small doses without becoming overwhelmed.  Challenging ourselves little by little over a period of time allows us to become more resilient and work through other challenges as they arise.  All growth requires an amount of stretching outside of what is comfortable, but our goal is to help children do this in a manageable way so they are able to do this consistently and throughout the course of their development!