This document discusses motor development in children. It describes how children develop both gross motor skills that use large muscles like running, and fine motor skills that use small muscles like cutting. Developing these skills gives children the building blocks to engage in activities. The document then provides examples of activities that help develop gross motor skills like jumping rope, and fine motor skills like playing with blocks. It also outlines typical developmental milestones in motor skills from ages 1 to 7.
2. Motor development can be understood as the way
children learn to use their bodies and their ability to
do the tasks they want to do. Children use their
muscles to do small, precise tasks, such as
cutting, which is a fine motor skill. Muscles are also
used for larger tasks such as running, which is
considered a gross motor task. Developing gross
motor skills and fine motor skills gives your child
the building blocks he needs to skip, play or dance.
3. Gross Motor Skills
gross motor skills are the skills your child needs
to move her body and do activities that use her
arms and legs. Children develop their large
motor muscles before their smaller muscles;
therefore, crawling, walking, running or wiggling
will progress before skills such as cutting or
weaving. Simply doing activities that use your
child's large muscles will help further the
development of them.
4. Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills refer to the child's abilities to use
his hands and feet and his coordination with his
fingers and toes. Grasping, using scissors, opening
or closing
hands, clapping, throwing, catching, folding or
unfolding are all examples of activities that use the
small motor skills. Fine motor skills develop well
after the larger motor skills and giving your child
tasks that require skills more advanced than his
developmental range can lead to frustration.
5. Small Muscle Control
Small muscle control is important because there
are many everyday tasks that require dexterity.
Writing, cutting, and tying shoe laces are just a
few of the activities that require small muscle
control. Without small muscle control modern
living would be difficult.
6. How Is Small Muscle Control Developed?
Small muscle control can be developed by
practice. For example, the more a child writes his
or her name the more confident (s)he will become
in forming the letters and writing legible. In the
same vein, the more a child ties his or her shoe
laces the more skilled (s)he will become at
making loops and knots. The same goes for any
activity that requires small muscle control – the
more the activity is practiced, the greater small
muscle control will be.
7. Fine Motor Play
Children use a wide variety of objects to develop small
muscles used for fine motor activities. Building block sets
such as Lego and Duple build fine motor skills as children
put them together and pull them apart. Provide old
newspapers and magazines and let children practice
tearing off strips of paper and wadding them into balls.
Sand, rice and water tables offer an endless number of
play activities for toddlers. A pail and shovel with a pile of
sand turn children into architects and designers; if you add
some small cars, they become race car drivers. A rice table
provides an interesting play surface and a good place to
hide and find small objects. A water table can be a
swimming pool for vinyl or plastic dolls, or a lake to float
boats on. Provide plastic aprons to cover the toddlers
clothing when they play at the water table. Keep sand and
water tables on opposite sides of the classroom or open
only one at a time to avoid having mud tables.
8. How Is Large Muscle Control Developed?
Activities to help children develop gross motor skills are
those that improve coordination in the large muscles and
that help children with control and coordination of their
bodies. These skills include head control, rolling and
walking in very young children, and skills such as running,
jumping and hopping in older children. There are many
different kinds of activities that can help children develop
gross motor skills. The appropriate activities depend upon
the child's age and the level to which skills have developed
in the individual.
For example:
Jump ropes can be incorporated into activities to develop
gross motor skills with different activities depending upon
the child's age level.
9. Preschool teachers often gather toddlers into a group or
circle for fun activities that develop gross motor skills.
Games of Simon Says, Follow the Leader, Duck, Duck,
Goose, London Bridges and Head and Shoulders, Knees
and Toes have been used for years and are still popular
with children today. You can encourage children to engage
in motor play activities by setting up play areas such as a
block area where toddlers can build towers, walk under
them, knock them down and step over them. Lay a sheet
of bubble wrap on the floor and let children walk and jump
on it. Provide soft-textured balls, such as inflatable beach
balls, koosh balls and stress balls, for indoor use. Hang a
beach ball from the ceiling so toddlers can jump up and hit
it and leave one down so children can throw and kick it.
Play a game of hot potato with a ball, tossing it from one
person to the next. Children also love to dance, so provide
music to help them get their groove on. Freestyle dance
works, or you can teach toddlers the bunny hop, chicken
dance and the hokey pokey.
10. Developmental Milestones
Children who are one year of age
should be able to grasp food, reach for
objects, stand by themselves, crawl, and
pull themselves up on their own. Over
the next six months, she should develop
the ability to grasp a pencil, pound
objects together, walk alone, walk
backwards, throw and kick a ball. By two
years, your child should be able to use a
spoon to feed herself, draw lines, run,
kick, jump and use a slide. Before the
three-year mark, your child should be
able to assist in small household
activities, run well and walk up stairs.
Between five and seven years, your
child will be able to do beading projects,
use a toothbrush, change their own
clothes, ride a bicycle and carry out
household chores.
11. Encouraging Motor Development
During the first year of
life, make sure your child's
blankets are loose enough
that he can use his arms
and legs to develop his
muscles. Also, encourage
him to try activities that are
just beyond his
abilities, though not far
enough advanced that it
frustrates him and gives him
a sense of failure. Push him
to crawl, and as he gets
older, to
stand, jump, walk, climb, pla
y in sand or balance.
