subject: How To Develop Children's Motor Skills [print this page] How To Develop Children's Motor Skills How To Develop Children's Motor Skills
Your child's development is very important but did you know that the way they play has an extremely important role in this? Play assists with the development of motor skills and the ability a child has to move and control muscles.There are two core motor skill groups: gross motor skills are defined as the larger movements involving legs, arms, feet or the entire body like jumping, crawling or running. Fine motor skills are smaller actions like an infant using lips and tongue to taste all those interesting objects which seem to be everywhere, or as they grow using fingers and thumb to grasp objects. These motor skills usually develop together as most activities involve both gross and fine motor skills.Gross motor skills are generally the fastest to develop and are controlled by your child's physical growth. Development usually follows a head to toe principle, children usually gain gross motor skills beginning with the head followed by their shoulders, upper arms, and hands. The next stage involves hips, pelvis and legs. Overtime, infants will start to crawl, pull themselves up and stand holding onto things like furniture before taking their first independent steps followed by the stage where running everywhere is exciting and climbing everywhere they can is a great game to stress parents out.Usually by the age of three children have good posture and can walk without having to look at their feet. They have gained more control, can make sudden stops and change direction quickly. More advanced skills are being learnt such as hopping, riding a tricycle and throwing a ball.By the time your child is a pre-schooler they can catch balls and throw them accurately, jump forward and backwards and some can master skipping. By now children have developed self consciousness about their physical abilities and feel great when they master a new skill.As your school age child grows they will continually learn new motor skills and co-ordination, like riding a bike, swimming or using roller skates, although it may not be until adolescence that good hand eye coordination, endurance and the ability to judge distances are more developed.As play is so important in helping you child develop this skills, at different ages, different activities are needed to give your child the best encouragement. Younger children will pay vigorously and will need some adult supervision to help them learn, they also often have short attention spans and want a lot of variety. The price of toys these days can be very expensive, especially as children seem to "grow" out of them so quickly. Consequently, a fantastic place to take your child is to an indoor playground specifically designed for younger children.These 'Play Centers' tend to have a large variety of activities for pre-teen children aged between 1 and 11 years. Usually, many also have dedicated toddler areas as children of that age have different playing styles and needs than that of older children. With the variety of toys and activities available, children have a great learning experience whilst having fun. It's this variety children have in play that is proven to help them develop the motor skills that we adults often take for granted.
