About the Author: Who is the Physical Education Teacher You Are "Talking" to Here?
Discover How A Teacher Brings Sports Training and Movement Education Together

Thank you for visiting Play Builds Children's Brains website. I am glad to serve as author and hostess and webmaster here. The planning I have done to create this website is perfectly topped by your dropping by...

My name is Diane Massad and I have been running, jumping and hanging upside down for over 60 years.

As one thing leads to another, and as LIFE does unfold for all of us, I mixed my competitive artistic gymnastics career as a teenager with dance and blended both through rhythmic gymnastics. Since I was w-a-y ahead of the girls in sports movement and part of the positive shift of U.S. Title IX for women athletes, I have been an advocate for girls and womens athletics all my life. As an undergrad I captained and competed for the Ohio State University gymnastics team but additionally, would participate by lecturing and demonstrating at the state, regional and national levels for sport and physical education associations. Gymnastics instruction was sparse in those old days.

Gymnastics was so rare, in my competitive days when we used to drive to meets with a beam strapped to the side of a long station wagon [bring your own beam ~ BYOB] that we need to explain that the wooden ramrod on the car was a giant sawhorse!

My early days of formal ballet lessons and intense training of gymnastics brought me in touch with many nationalities. I found fun and wisdom in the unique words of my coaches and teachers. These words were little windows into their countries of origin and their diverse cultures. It build a wealth of knowledge that still allows me wide appreciation of our world.

A trip to the first Olympic Games held in Asia, the Tokyo Olympiad in 1964, gave me a wonderful consolation for not achieveing one of my dreams: a team sport. But that trip brought me in touch with a circle of Japanese pen pals whom I met ~ all thirteen of them in their own hometowns.

Gaining Global Vision of Arts and Sport and Education

My passion for the Olympics has given me a global vision of sport, politics and the importance of the Olympic Movement. My pursuit of a role as an official in rhythmics has spun me around the globe. Friendships, knowledge and the wordless linking between people that sport brings are among my most valuable treasures.

As a lifelong educator and a movement specialist, I have found there is no more engulfing JOY than guiding youngsters to find their own skills in movement. With a few hints and basic guidelines, it is easy to show children the keys to the thrills of physical activity and build their self-confidence.

To share the happiness of playing games and trying sporting activites has given me joy and vibrance over five decades of teaching. In my work as a child advocate, I try to bring simple hints to young parents and caregivers as they nurture their offspring and charges.

Blending Motherhood and Grandmother-hood
With the Fundamentals of Movement Training

As author of a set of Physical Training Manuals aimed at skill development for toddlers and preschoolers. In founding KidSKILLS International, I have created an innovative training curriculum for youngsters and media for motor skills development and sport training.

It has been my fortune to have worked and studied internationally in dance and the theater arts, physical education and competitive amateur sports. As an official for the U.S. Olympic Committee, I have traveled and lectured and observed physical skill development systems globally. The information is core to my own KidSKILLS System of training the abilities of young children.

My professional goals include providing materials for young parents and homeschoolers and schools...so our youngsters can learn to move well.

In blending movement education with the brain sciences, I use a computer-based system called Interactive Metronome to increase human performance skills. This training improves timing and rhythmicity for musicians, athletes, students and seniors. It brings muscles and mind into unision.

With an increase in female participation in competitive athletics, I try to serve as an advocate for the use of safe training methods for young girls and women, especially in the prevention of knee/ACL injuries through education on proper preventative exercises. As author of several safety in training articles, I provide relevent education for both the young female athletes and their coaches.

Offering A Critical Eye to Build Strong Movement Skills

Either via submitted video or locally, I invite you to send a 3 to 5 minute video segment of your youngster's current basic skills: marching, jumping, running [including starting and stopping] and standing tall and still [which is not easy]. When you gain some tips and hints [gained by my written assessments], a parent can use the provided information and suggested techniques to improve their child's abilities. Pairing some practice and repetitions with these hints YOU can make a difference and build a solid foundation for physical activity for the lifetime of your child.

I strongly believe we:
Learn To Move
Move to Learn
and then
Learn To LEARN

My goals at this website are to enable adults to teach their youngsters and developing athletes to make the brain-muscle connections progressively solid as they develop and have FUN!

Please get in touch with me to share your views and compare ideas on teaching.

Thanks for Visiting...

Diane Massad