Kidskills Up and Over! Manual Four

The KidSKILLS UP and Over! Manual Four:  provides a series of progressively organized but fun skills for children, ages 2 to 7 years old. A parent or caregiver can use the 48 illustrated tasks and the cue words to guide children’s playtimes, challenging the youngsters to think and solve problems. 


Children will learn a series of locomotor steps and improve abilities to coordinate these steps into good skills for playing games, engaging in sports and mastering moving well. The book helps youngsters to develop the ability to get off the ground by pushing against the supporting surface, as well as gaining the ability to made a solid, controlled landing.


The KidSKILLS six-part Training Series of tasks leads the child to skills mastery in a logical pathway. As one skill builds upon the previous skills, the child will develop an I Can DO That! confidence as well as have fun!


Play is the way a child naturally explores their world, builds their physical skills, links their body and brain and ignites the imagination to learn through experiences.


The KidSKILLS Training for Movement and Sports Training Series of six Manuals builds the child’s ability to coordinate movement, refine balance, develop agility, gain perceptual awareness as well as embed the mind-body connections for good learning. 


Our Children:  Move to learn, then Learn to move well, and in that process,  Learn to learn. Using brain science to aid cognitive abilities: that is our aim!


Parents and caregivers, including teachers will find the skills development series of exercises and drills easy to use as a daily method of physical activity on playground, in gymnasiums or in any safe space. You will be able to guide your child in their development of balance and posture, as they understand body control and alignment. 


The opportunity to expand the children’s vocabulary comes through the consistent use of specific words to identify body positions, qualities of movement, directions from their place in space.


Throughout the KidSKILLS Training Series of six volumes, emphasis is placed on the careful use of the feet. The feet build balance skills as well as provide the ability to leave the ground and then absorb the return to the ground by landing, in control. These foot skills must be practiced and repeated to recruit the body’s proprioception system.


Each task is illustrated with drawing or photographs. Music and guiding words add to these lessons.The reader will find a carefully written text to use as they guide the child’s activity. Cue words and teaching hints are highlighted for the teacher. The children can press audio buttons to add music and a great beat and rhythm!


For parents, this Up and Over! Training Manual Four will place YOU into the role as the Child’s First Teacher. Yes, you can serve as their parent, guarding their safety but your also can use this Training Series to serve as a coach or teacher enabling their first attempts as exploring movement and motion an their way to physical competency.


In developing abilities to mastery basic movements and sports skills, youngsters will gain the tools to confident and happy participation in groups for a lifetime of physical activity. 


Move to Learn    Learn to Move    Learn to Learn


Diane Patterson Massad has spent a lifetime as an educator and a movement specialist. She brings an international perspective to her work as an advocate for the application of brain science to childhood health and sports training.


As an international official for the U.S. Olympic Committee, Diane travels and lectures and observes physical skills development systems. That information is core to her KidSKILLS system of training youngsters to move well.


At her Brain Train Cleveland clinic, Diane offers the internationally recognized, Interactive Metronome® process to increase human performance skills by improving timing and rhythmicity for musicians, athletes and students as well as the senior population.