Very flexible child

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This is something I have been wondering so would like to hear your opinions

My almost 4yo is incredibly flexible! She can do the splits naturally. She has started doing taekwondo as we wanted her sister doing kind of martial arts and she joined as well.

Should I consider a different activity to cultivate her natural ability?

Hypermobility ? Look online there are various signs, eg doing splits, elbows and knees bend back slightly, can touch thumb to wrist...

I’ve got it too, didn’t realise until as an adult after various musculoskeletal skeletal problems. As a child it was fabulous doing splits and reaching past my toes!

Two of my children seem to have have inherited it too, doesn’t seem to be causing any problems for them. Glad your child is ok, just need to be aware it can put extra stress on joints. But absolutely encourage sports that they have a natural talent for.

Good point thanks for the advice. I have some hyper mobility of the arms and shoulders but she's the only one in the family with such flexibility. My mum did gymnastics as a kid but she worked for her splits

Would definitely be an advantage in gym or dance - does she show any interest in either of those?

Gymnastics is the obvious one, or maybe ice skating?

We have hypermobility - possibly to a lesser degree than you describe - in the family as well. IME martial arts can actually be incredibly useful for this, as it helps to build control, strength and stability, all of which is important to avoid long-term musculoskeletal damage. I'm a longtime aikidoka myself but assume its much the same for taekwondo, at least for adults - not sure about kiddie classes. Re other activities mentioned by pp, again I'd look mostly at what can help her build a maximum degree of control. I suspect dance would be good for this as would gymnastics.

Figure skating! If she doesn't have tall genes in the family