The Importance Of Gross Motor Skills For Young Children

We have a large outdoor activity set in the back with slides and stairs and ladders this helps to build the gross motor skills. Running jumping, climbing all of these things are detrimental to this development. We also have a smaller play ground on the side of the building for the smaller children that contains some smaller equipment such as cars you can sit on and kitchens and small play houses with slides. Young age children can build their gross motor by beginning on these smaller toys before adventuring out to the larger one that we have set up in the back.

Physical development in children is an important area and is usually expected to happen automatically as they grow. The important areas are gross motor skills,

Physical activity encourages children and young people to develop all their physical skills and to practice the skills that they already have. Your role in supporting a child’s physical development will be to ensure that the child has a wide variety of experiences of being in a safe environment. Any setting should offer a wide range of equipment that can be used both indoors and out. It is considered important that children are given opportunities to develop their gross motor skills indoors as well as outdoors. Such opportunities may be provided by designated areas such as soft play area or by activities such as drama.

What began as involuntary movement and reflexes at birth, by 6 months have become voluntary movements. By 2 years the fine motor skills are beginning to develop. Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body that enable such functions as crawling, kicking, sitting upright and rolling over. It is a little harder for an infant to walk because they are top heavy and their thighs are too big to support their little feet. Most infants, starting at nine months begins to learn how to walk. Fine motor skills are necessary to engage in smaller, more precise movements, normally using the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are different than gross motor skills which require less precision to perform. This is the child's ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands and fingers, to pick up small objects, hold a spoon, turn pages in a book, or use a crayon to draw.

Children develop gross motor skills at different age norms which are affected by their culture and can vary (Berger, 2014). In order to gain information, we need to educate and understand this development, we have to conduct research. We are looking for new information and theories. Although surveys are a great way to collect a large amount of data the information gained is only as sound as the subject. This is why we need other avenues for research, and we need parental support to make that happen.

So many children this day in age, are sat in front of a television or a tablet and expected to keep quiet. Children are built to explore, move, and learn from their experiences, and this cannot happen when a child is inside, being distracted by technology. No matter how busy parents are, they should find at least thirty minutes a day to go outside and play with their children. If the weather does not permit outside play, then playing games inside is always a great alternative. Parents should be encouraging their children to develop the motor skills that they are going to need in order to succeed in school and later in life. Many parents encourage the development of their children’s gross motor skills by involving them in sports, dance, or gymnastics. These programs are great for not only teaching children how to be good at something they love, but they also encourage children to develop their motor skills. If parents find that they cannot afford programs such as these, they can focus on providing multiple opportunities for play. For example, one day they could go to the park or they could go over the neighbor’s house to play. Ultimately, the best thing that parents can do to encourage the development of their children’s motor skills is to allow them to play as much as possible and to allow them to try new activities, even if they are

The project is a PowerPoint that focuses on 6 different gross motor milestones that generally occur during the first year of an infant’s life. These milestones are head control, segmental rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and walking. Each milestone is then broken down into phases to show the progression of the gross motor skill and when each phase typically occurs. Each milestone is accompanied by a video clip that demonstrates the progression of the milestone.

As children’s bodies become more streamlined and less top-heavy, their center of gravity shifts downwards toward the trunk. As a result, balance improves greatly, paving the way for new motor skills involving large muscles of the body. (Berk, 1999) During the preschool years until approximately age seven, fundamental motor skills develop including the locomotor skills needed to run, jump, hop, and skip. Also the object control skills such as throwing, catching, and kicking are developing. By the age of six or seven, children begin to integrate two or more of these skills. Though all children will not develop these skills at the same age, they will follow the same sequence.

Motor skills involve movement of muscle in the body (John, 2009). These are larger movements such as crawling, running, and jumping (John, 2009). Most of the gross motor development occurs during childhood (John, 2009). Gross motor skills have two principals that determent how a child will regularly develop (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). Head to toe development this means the upper parts of the body will develop before the lower parts of the body (John, 2009). Children develop these skills throughout play (John, 2009). A tree year old Toddler can be very active therefore participating in activity that require movement, coordination, and balance can be beneficial to help a toddler to develop their motor skills (Jan, Beth & Melissa, 2012). A 3 year old child can throw a ball but catching it is more difficult. They start walking with good posture similar to an adult; they can also walk backwards (Jan, Beth & Melissa, 2012). A 3 year old can run which required strength and balance, during running they should be able to rotate their trunk and swing their arms (John, 2009). By the age of 3 a child walks up and down stairs alternating their feet without support which is possible because their balance has increase (John, 2009). A 3 year old child also learns to jump from a step and learn to jump forward (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). They start hopping at the age of 3 ½ and also can stand on one foot (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). Skipping requires sequencing and rhythm which makes it more difficult this include step and hop patterns.

These skills need to be constantly used and refined in development so that they’re maturing at a steady rate. The development of these skills is of upmost importance because these are the muscles a child will use all day every day, when walking around the house or when playing with friends at school. These muscles will be continually engaged and having a good solid foundation of these working muscles will improve the early stages of a child’s life. The development of gross motor skills will generally speaking grow from inside to outside as well as head to toe, which is consistent of an infant’s same develop in the mother’s womb. As a child is progressing through the first two years of life, many changes will occur. The child will first learn to balance the body and move towards controlling the muscles of the body, then on to crawling and supporting itself, and by the end of that second year of life the child will have mostly refined skills that allow for play and overall being more mobile in moving around and navigating through day to day movements. Along with this increased mobility, a child will be able to get different places like on furniture, or up stairs but getting back down will be the hard part. As well as, the infant’s muscles’ may be progressing but the ability to stop and switch direction in movements is however not fully developed at this point.

A child also starts using gross and fine motor skills in sporting activities. Fine motor skills include using the small muscles that are found in the hands, arms, and fingers to use and control tools and materials. Gross motor skills involve controlling the head, trunk, legs, and arms. An early childhood professional

In the beginning months of children’s lives, they are “introduced” to their little bodies and minds, and start by moving their heads, and then work these movements down and out. When one skill is mastered, they move on to the next area of the body until it is mastered. This process continues so children can control and use their bodies to become strong and active little people. Their brains really connect, control, and communicate with their bodies. Just like children’s first steps; they move one step at a time—slow but

Fine motor skills refer to the ‘small muscles’ in the hands. Proper development of these muscles is crucial for children to succeed academically in writing and self help skills. According to the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC), “Fine motor skills form an important foundation for the acquisition of many other skills, including literacy, numeracy, self-help and the ability to perform many everyday tasks” (2008). Children start to develop motor skills from birth, and the ways in which children’s muscles develop will later affect their motor function. Caretakers often look for the typical milestones that infants develop; however, infants acquire development at different rates benefiting child growth. From birth through the early grades (preschool to second grade) children are constantly using their fine motor skills to eat, dress themselves, and in social settings such as school. These skills link to infancy development and are factors in knowing how well children will succeed. The following sub-topics address fine motor development and the importance of occupational therapy interventions:

This is because they are born with the same set of muscles and bones that they learn how to use – the “nature” part of motor development. However, it is important to notice that the rate of learning these motor skills differ due to the “nurture” side of development. For example, an infant that practices walking with its parent may start walking on its own earlier than another infant that received no help. Also, an infant that receives much visual and auditory stimulation, such as playing with toys, develops its motor skills faster than an infant that received none.

A few examples of Fine Motor activities displayed during the early years include handwriting skills, drawing pictures, making objects out of clay, and even cutting with scissors. Each of these activities is characterized by including the small-muscle developments that involve finger-thumb coordination, hand-eye coordination, and the development of muscle strength in the hand and arm. All in all, motor skills are an important part of the learning process, and as these “fundamental motor skills are learned...[they] serve as the foundation for more specialized motor skills that will be