Learning in Motion with Infants & Toddlers

Learning in Motion with Infants & Toddlers:
Connecting Movement, Play, and Early Development

 

Walk into an infant or toddler classroom and you might notice the rhythm of early learning: a baby’s delighted squeal as she discovers her legs can bounce, a toddler’s giggle as he rolls down a soft ramp, the quiet focus of a child crawling through a tunnel. These moments of movement are joyful and essential.

 

Every roll, reach, and climb helps wire the brain for learning. Through movement and play, infants and toddlers begin to understand their bodies, their environment, and their growing sense of what they can do.

 

Gross motor play, or activities that use the body’s large muscles, builds strength, attention, spatial reasoning, self-confidence, and early communication and social skills. Providing daily opportunities for indoor gross motor play supports healthy physical development and helps children gain confidence as they move, explore, and engage with their environment.

 

The Power of Soft Play

 

A well-designed indoor play space filled with soft ramps, tunnels, wedges, and mats offers a safe and flexible foundation for exploration. These soft play areas allow movement and risk-taking within safe boundaries, encouraging each child to practice new skills at their own pace.

 

• Ramps: Building Strength, Balance, and Perspective
  Crawling or walking up and down inclines strengthens core and leg muscles while refining balance and coordination. As toddlers climb higher, they see the world from new angles and build spatial awareness and perspective. These experiences support early understanding of direction, depth, and mathematical concepts.
• Tunnels: Encouraging Exploration and Spatial Awareness
  Crawling through an enclosed space invites curiosity and confidence. As children move through tunnels, they solve problems such as “Can I fit?” or “Where does it go?” while strengthening their upper bodies and developing spatial awareness. When a teacher’s voice calls from the other end, trust grows along with physical ability.
• Soft Steps and Platforms: Promoting Balance and Independence
  Infants and toddlers seek chances to move between levels—up, down, over, and across. Soft steps and platforms let them practice pulling up, cruising, and stepping independently. These small challenges support both coordination and independence within an indoor gross motor play area.
• Rolling and Sliding Surfaces: Supporting Body Awareness and Sensory Integration
  Rolling down a wedge or sliding across a mat provides rich sensory feedback. These experiences strengthen proprioception, the body’s sense of position in space, and support sensory integration. For some children, especially those with sensory processing differences, these grounding movements can help them feel calm and focused.

 

A Classroom Designed for Movement

 

Thoughtful design transforms any setting into a developmentally appropriate indoor play area where bodies and brains grow together.

 

• • Offer varied levels and surfaces. Combine flat mats, gentle inclines, and small platforms to invite exploration.
• • Ensure stability and safety. Arrange soft pieces so they stay secure and maintain clear pathways for crawling and walking.
• • Follow the child’s lead. Observe how each infant or toddler moves and interacts. Adjust the environment to match emerging skills by adding or lowering ramps and surfaces.
• • Model and describe movement. Use language to reinforce awareness, such as “You’re crawling through the tunnel,” or “You climbed up the ramp and slid down.”
• • Rotate and refresh. Rearranging pieces from time to time keeps the indoor play space engaging and encourages new patterns of movement.
• • Confirm safety requirements. Before setting up or expanding your indoor gross motor area, check with your program director or licensor to ensure your layout and materials meet current health and safety guidelines for your setting.

 

Connection and Confidence Through Play

 

Soft play experiences nurture physical, emotional, and social growth. When a toddler climbs a ramp and looks to a teacher to share their accomplishment, the moment builds both balance and trust. When two children take turns crawling through a tunnel, they practice patience and turn-taking. These shared experiences help children feel capable and seen, laying a foundation for healthy development.

 

Big body play, like pushing, climbing, crawling, rolling, and reaching, also provides a powerful opportunity for sensory and emotional integration. It helps children self-regulate, build resilience, and find joy in what their bodies can do.

 

Quality in Action

 

Movement and exploration are essential components of quality in early learning environments. In tools such as the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) and CLASS Infant and Toddler, educators are encouraged to provide opportunities for safe movement, sensory exploration, and responsive interaction.

 

Soft play and indoor gross motor spaces naturally align with these principles. They promote expansive opportunity for movement, invite supervision that is engaged and supportive, and create opportunities for educators to observe and respond to each child’s developmental cues. When programs design environments with these standards in mind, they strengthen both measurable quality outcomes and the daily experiences of both children and teachers.

 

Bringing It All Together

 

Gross motor play gives children a laboratory for discovery. It is where they test ideas, experience success, and grow more confident in their abilities.

 

Soft play environments provide the foundation for this kind of exploration. They create space for children to move freely, take safe risks, and experience joy in what their bodies can do. These experiences nurture confidence, curiosity, and connection—skills that carry forward into every new stage of learning./p>

 

Designing environments that invite motion, curiosity, and joy allows infants and toddlers to build trust in their own abilities. That growing confidence supports each child’s sense of competence and independence, laying the groundwork for lifelong learning.

 

Design Your Own Soft Play Space!

 

Create your own infant and toddler indoor play and movement space with soft play essentials designed for safe, confident exploration.

 

 

 

Christine Murray is an Early Childhood Education Specialist with Becker’s Education Team.
As an educator, coach and leader, Christine is inspired by the curiosity, joy and wonder that children so generously model for us. She earned her M.A. in Innovative Early Childhood Education at the University of Colorado Denver and loves collaborating with and supporting others in the field. Grounded in relationships and guided by empathy, Christine is always learning, connecting and creating.