How does play drive learning without trying to learn?

What can children at play teach us about
conditions and qualities that support learning?

The Neurological Wisdom of Play Part 1 & 2

Online Feldenkrais series with Matty Wilkinson

Young children are the world’s most potent learners. This amazing ability is powered not by hard work and force of will, but through play. Play provides the developing brain with rich experiences, which are the raw materials it needs to grow and change.

Play has specific qualities and features which create fundamental conditions that support learning.

Parents and professionals can learn to recognize and harness the neurological wisdom of play to support the children we care for and teach, including those with neurological injuries and other developmental challenges.

And, play is not just for children. Adults can apply the elements of this process to support our own learning and continued development.

In the course, developmental movement will be the point of entry in this process, but you can apply these principles to other domains of functioning, including cognition, language, and social and emotional development.

"It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self .’’
- Donald Winnicott

The Feldenkrais Method® and the Anat Baniel Method for Children® are innovative, developmentally-based approaches to learning that utilize movement + attention to enhance awareness, clarify and support fundamental movement patterns, increase our range of movement and thought, and refine our ability to learn.

Who is this for? Anyone interested in learning and developmental movement. Parents, educators, providers serving babies & young children, and those with a desire to learn and play are welcome.

Sign up for self-paced series

Each Series includes:

6 live online classes with Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons and presentations highlighting fundamental principles of play

Access to videos & downloadable audio recordings

“As a Dance/Movement therapist working with infants and toddlers in Early Intervention, I eagerly signed up for Matty’s Developmental Movement class series. Through the series, I gained useful skills, somatic empathy, and thoughtful questions that now guide my practice with young children. Matty’s teaching conveys a wealth of knowledge and experience working with young children, and insightful perspectives on motor development." -Amorn O'Connor

“Matty is a clear, intelligent teacher. The quality of his course reflects his deep engagement, extensive study and experience with children, their movement and their development. His courses are a great opportunity to learn from him and develop your own thinking.” - Deborah Bowes, PT & Feldenkrais Trainer

About Matty Wilkinson:

Matty Wilkinson is a Feldenkrais Method® and Anat Baniel Method for Children® practitioner in private practice in Boston and online. He is fascinated by the developmental process and believes in the innate potential of each individual to learn. In 2001 Matty began teaching preschool, studying child development, and joined a Feldenkrais training. He earned a MA in Child Development from Tufts University in 2009. As a neurodevelopmental consultant, Matty coaches parents and educators to create optimal conditions for children’s learning, applying his expertise as an early childhood educator, sensorimotor practitioner and father. Since 2016 Matty has traveled several times a year to work with children and families at the Scandinavian Center for Neurodevelopmental Movement in Denmark. He is the father of two young children who love to climb, dance, and explore.

What people are saying about the Neurological Wisdom of Play:

“That was magical. A couple of times I felt almost moved to tears by the sense of discovery, like an explorer in a new land. And with the sense of groundedness, and supreme safety, and a sort of confidence to move, and act, and respond in this new world. Wow. These discoveries and feelings will be really useful in my every day life... very, very empowering” - Jacqueline

“Thank you for such an enlightening experience.. I feel so calm and whole after starting the class feeling hindered by tight places and habitual movements that do not use a soft, full open belly and chest...Thanks for sharing your personal experience, your family. Wonderful to see such patient and respectful parenting from a non-parent.” -Marcella Tancreti

“I feel more interested and patient with my own growth and learning.” -Joey Freeman, Tutor

“The series helped me eliminate more striving from my movements and to allow for and invite more spontaneity -- and more laughter and high spirits.” - Michael Moon

“I found this...so powerful in its light, subtle, non-forceful, almost non-doing approach. It’s exactly the kind of inner attitude I want to cultivate. Matty offers just the right sweet vibe in his guidance” - RS

“I learned to be mindful and not disrupt the exploration of kids.”

“I have come away with a greater appreciation and experience of the potency of exploration and mistakes in learning and the relationship between the two. I loved the focus of the lessons on aspects of play and learning. It was brilliantly orchestrated.” - Dawne Roy, Reading/Learning Specialist and Feldenkrais Trainee

“With a child with CP, it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by all the things he can't do, all the catching up that he needs, all the ways his younger sister has already overtaken him. The course helped me to find ways of working with him where he is for part of each day, and trying to find the qualities of play in how we are”

Watch/ listen to 2 free classes

Talk: Mistakes Curiosity & Learning

ATM: Reaching in Sitting and Cross Crawling

“What a beautiful lesson! I just imagine how much FUN school/life could have been with a teacher like Matty. It’s almost absurd to think what a different person one can become if these ideas are actually applied.” -anonymous

Talk: Risk in Play and Learning

ATM: Lifting Arms and Legs on All Fours