The body and mind are deeply and inseparably connected. As modern society nears completion, we have learned to accomplish everything with a single touch, gradually forgetting how to use our bodies.
The side effects of this extend heavily not just to adults, but to children as well. In this episode, we focus on bodily coordination and discuss the issues of delayed potty training and bedwetting from the perspective of Eastern medicine.
We also touch upon the concept of “myelination” covered in Montessori developmental theory.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to share your comments!
Profile
Yati Obara
Editor-in-Chief, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1989. CEO of Motherhand and Co-Director of the nonprofit think tank Polymath Research. Holds an M.Eng. and is an AMI-certified teacher. Focused on Montessori developmental theory and AI. Mother of two.
Hiro Obara
Publisher, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1990. Works as a software developer and a weekend farmer. Father of two.
Moving your body toward what feels good will sort it out
Hiro
I want to talk about an issue for three to six year olds that may not seem related to sports at first, but actually is.
Yati
What’s that?
Hiro
The diaper problem. Bed-wetting, basically.
Yati
Children not getting out of diapers. I’ve been hearing from people whose four or five year olds are really struggling with this. And some elementary-school-age children still use diapers.
Hiro
Right. So where does the cause lie? Why can’t they get out of diapers? Because they leak. So why do they leak? At their age, they should be able to do it. Normally, the bladder sends a notification: “I’m full. Please go to the toilet.” And you can go. But that notification isn’t coming. Or it comes, but by then it’s already too late. They’re at their limit. Why does this happen?
Yati
In Montessori education, around 18 months, when walking stabilizes, is the sensitive period for toilet learning. It’s not officially part of Montessori’s list of sensitive periods, but I think it should be called one. Theoretically, if walking stabilizes around 18 months, it means myelination has progressed all the way to the feet. Myelination is the developmental process where nerve fibers get wrapped in myelin, an insulating sheath that speeds up electrical signals. So myelination should also have reached the bladder. Signals from the bladder can now reach the brain without leaking. At the same time, the language areas of the brain are myelinating, so children can understand and say, “I need to go to the toilet.”
Hiro
I see. For people who don’t know this, it’s eye-opening. The nervous system is like opening roads. If a road isn’t open, vehicles can’t travel on it to transport supplies, and that’s a problem. Nerves convert electrical signals into chemical signals, into neurotransmitters, and release them across synapses. The nerve endings aren’t physically connected, but they communicate by sending molecules across the gap. Basically, the network transmits electrical signals, zing, zing, zing, and stimuli travel along them. So you’re saying the nerves connecting the bladder and the brain are still being built.
Yati
Exactly. Those nerves are like electrical cables. At birth, the inner wires are exposed and signals leak out. Gradually, insulating tape is wrapped around them and they stop leaking. That’s myelination. The substances needed for myelination are optimally balanced in breast milk, which is one reason breast milk is said to be better than formula. And the connection to sports? It comes back to walking more. Moving a lot promotes myelination.
Hiro
Scientifically, it’s clear that walking activates the brain the most. It’s the best for dementia prevention too. So if it’s important even in old age, it’s even more important for newborns. It affects development. As the brain grows healthily, language emerges. And children become what adults would call “well-behaved.” Not rough, not wild, not throwing tantrums. Tantrums are a kind of panic. Stimuli exceed what the child can handle, and they don’t know how to respond. Like a dam breaking. I think that’s what’s happening internally. Neurotransmitters keep arriving, dopamine floods in, the child doesn’t know how to react, and they explode.
Yati
Right now I’m working with a child who tends to have tantrums, and lots of exercise has really helped.
Hiro
Yes. The logic is simple. As the nervous system develops, neurotransmitter release becomes smoother, and the right amount is released. When signals don’t get through, the body releases more: “No response? Send more.” But there’s the “all or none law.” You might remember it from science class at school. Organisms don’t respond in a linear way.
Yati
There’s a threshold. Once neurotransmitter levels exceed a certain value, the response fires.
Hiro
Exactly. It responds like a sigmoid function that jumps up all at once. So that’s why tantrums happen. Theoretically, anyway. When children walk a lot, nerve construction goes smoothly, neurotransmitter release goes smoothly, and everything works well.
Yati
Walking is amazing.
Hiro
What every adult needs to know is that proper development requires a proper environment. Without it, development stalls. If a child has learned to walk on two legs but doesn’t use that ability, they may keep behaving like a quadruped, in a more primitive, animal-like way. And their body just keeps growing larger.
Yati
That’s true.
Hiro
Older people sometimes say from experience, “They’ll straighten out when they’re older.” But that’s not what’s happening now. There are more adults who can’t adapt to their environment, who can’t hold down a job.
Yati
Lifestyles have changed. There were pandemic lockdowns, extreme heat, urban living, car-dependent societies. It’s hard to create an environment for walking.
Hiro
Right. There isn’t as much nature as before. In the past, you could do all this in nature. You could act like an ape, catch fish, spear fish and eat them, burn wood, play in nature in all kinds of ways. That’s how various nerves developed. Now everything is buildings and artificial. You basically can’t live a forest life, a wild life. The nervous system is bored. There’s just TV, digital stuff, little stimulation. People play video games all day, stay shut in at home. The environment is different, so the old rules of thumb don’t apply.
Yati
Right. So back to the diaper problem. Even if the nerves develop and the child can use the toilet, environmental changes or stress can make them unable to again. In Montessori education, this is called “regression.” It’s a common, temporary thing that resolves without special intervention.
Hiro
That’s like a faith healer saying, “An evil spirit has possessed you. Let’s pray. When the spirit leaves, you’ll be cured.” Scientifically, it’s the same nerve-transmission problem. A physical issue. There are sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, the accelerator and the brake. When a signal comes from the bladder, either the brake doesn’t work and they leak, or the brake signal doesn’t get through. The road exists but can’t be used, or the road doesn’t exist at all. Even doctors don’t understand this. If you go to a developmental clinic about diapers, they offer empty reassurance and prescribe medication. If a child starts wetting the bed in elementary school or has frequent urination, it’s called “enuresis” and they get medication, but that’s not a solution.
Yati
Montessori education doesn’t solve it. Modern medicine doesn’t solve it. Is there no hope?
Hiro
I have a solution in my toolkit.
Yati
What is it?
Hiro
Sotai-ho, a Japanese movement therapy, has a method for curing bed-wetting. It’s Eastern medicine. For children, you lay them down and tickle their sides, just a little tickle.
Yati
What? No way. That can’t cure it. [laughs]
Hiro
If it’s psychogenic, it can cure anything. Stomachaches, headaches, unexplained symptoms with a psychological cause. The stuff doctors usually say is “stress-related.” Tickling cures all of it.
Yati
That’s too funny. [laughs]
Hiro
I know it sounds like a trick, but without understanding the principle, you’d think it’s nonsense. It’s an application of sotai-ho principles.
Yati
What’s the principle of sotai-ho?
Hiro
“Move in the direction that feels good.” Plants do this too. If you watch them, they move toward sunlight, away from strong wind, toward what feels comfortable. It’s the same for humans. Would you rather be somewhere cold and damp, or somewhere warm and cozy?
Yati
Warm and cozy.
Hiro
Any living thing, given a choice between a cold, windy place and a nice, comfortable one, chooses the comfortable one. But various circumstances can twist that. Say you think, “This land is cheap, let’s build here even though it’s cold and damp,” or, “These windows are cheaper, let’s face them north.” What happens? You start feeling unwell.
Yati
I see.
Hiro
You’re going against reason. There’s a direction that’s physically easier to move in.
Yati
But hasn’t science advanced precisely because we pushed against that?
Hiro
Humans went from walking on four legs to two, but the skeletal structure hasn’t changed. Fundamentally, there’s a spine. We’re vertebrates. Quadrupeds and even centipedes are the same: a central spine with a big nerve running through it, branching left and right to the limbs. Slender nerves run through. At the head end, the brain forms. The brain picks up stimuli, sends signals to the nerves, the muscles receive them, and we move. This basic structure hasn’t changed. Picture a four-legged lizard: from dragging its belly like a snake, the body rose up slightly. Limbs developed and lifted the body. The limbs extended, it became like a mouse, climbed trees, and the arms, the front legs, stretched out. Then it came down from the trees, stood up like a meerkat, and started walking on two legs. That’s us now. We pushed boundaries, but we didn’t defy reason.
Yati
We look very different, but the basic structure is the same.
Hiro
Here’s the interesting part: you can’t bend your limbs backward. Joints only bend in certain directions. But take modern Homo sapiens constantly using smartphones. The body is fixed in one position. The right arm, shoulder, and neck are always under the same load, and you get stiff. In the past, people did all kinds of movements in nature: climbing trees, carrying things, splashing water. Now we keep making the same movements. Imbalances develop. The spine shifts out of alignment. The most important thing is having a well-aligned spine, because that’s where the thickest nerve runs. What I’m saying is: more than just walking, having proper skeletal alignment might be what matters most.
Yati
How do you walk correctly?
Hiro
You move from the tanden, the center of gravity in your lower abdomen. This goes deep. With shoes, you tend to land on your heel. That’s how modern people walk. It’s wrong. If you jump and try landing on your heels, you’ll see. It hurts. You’ll break bones doing that. Correct landing uses the balls of the feet, below the big toe and the little toe, plus the toes. These three points give balance and cushioning. Try it and you’ll see. Sprinters like Usain Bolt use that cushioning to run like they’re flying. Soccer players like Messi, at the very top level, walk differently. Messi walks with a flat, pattering step.
Yati
Like a baby.
Hiro
Babies are correct. Babies are the masters. When we “correct” them and stop letting them walk barefoot on the ground, their gait gets progressively worse. Babies have potbellies, frog-like posture, and they toddle along. But they don’t have muscles to support themselves. Their heads are incredibly heavy, yet they walk by balance. They don’t get tired. It’s genius.
Yati
Walking geniuses. So shoes are the problem. In Japan, scaffolding workers still wear tabi, split toe shoes with a flexible sole.
Hiro
People used to walk barefoot. The Maasai and other Africans still do. South America is strong in soccer because they play barefoot. The way modern city dwellers walk, striding forward with the legs, is wrong. It’s tiring, hard on the legs, and makes your legs thick. The correct way is to use gravity, not your legs. First the upper body moves forward, as if you’re about to fall. Because you’re about to fall, your leg naturally comes forward to catch you. Everyone does this as a baby. Cheetahs do the same.
Yati
Cheetahs have thin legs but they’re fast.
Hiro
Sotai-ho means moving in the direction that feels physically good for your given skeleton. An easy example: when you do a simple standing stretch and twist your waist left and right, twist more in the direction that’s easier. That releases distortion. By releasing distortions, the body can function as it was meant to, natural healing power increases, and injuries become less likely. If nerves are twisted or warped, signals have trouble getting through. Once that’s resolved, they work normally.
Yati
It could cure all kinds of ailments.
Hiro
So when I say walking is important, I’m only half-saying it. If you walk correctly, just walking naturally corrects distortions and promotes health. Sotai-ho was developed in Sendai, in northern Japan. It’s Eastern medicine. Western medicine tends to cut things away and patch them back together surgically. Eastern medicine draws out the healing power the body already has. That approach is incredibly effective, but so much of it remains unknown. Take moist wound healing, for example. A Japanese doctor devised it and has been spreading it. Instead of cutting away burned skin and grafting new skin on, you keep the wound moist and let the body heal itself. Even in Japan, hospitals still rarely use it for burns. The surgical approach is what’s standard.
Yati
To move in the direction that feels good, the most important thing is to give freedom of movement, and in that sense, it connects to Montessori education. This brings us back to Polymath School of Morioka: we’re using a large park in Iwate, our region in northern Japan, for our activities. There’s a big lawn, a large track for balance bikes, a wide court for ball games, an obstacle course with balance beams. This is exactly the ideal outdoor environment Maria Montessori described. She used the term “racecourse” in some places, and Morioka actually has a large park on a former racecourse.
Hiro
When we give children freedom, they discover things on their own, like grass-sliding on the lawn slopes. We’ll keep adding new sports, like archery and horseback riding, and we can hang hammocks from trees, use the gymnasium. There’s so much more we can do, and the Montessori level at Polymath School will keep rising. We want to establish an Ihatov-style Montessori education model that urban areas can’t replicate. Ihatov is the name the poet Kenji Miyazawa gave to his idealized version of Iwate, his home region.
