Children experience rapid periods of growth, and as they grow, they develop the skills and abilities to complete tasks that only weeks or days before were beyond their reach. Parents and caregivers are in a position to watch the development of a child as she moves through life, experiencing new activities and growing into a skilled adult.
Motor Development
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.
Gross Motor Skills
According to Sean Brotherson, a family science specialist at North Dakota State University, 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.
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.
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.
Encouraging Motor Development
During the first year of life, Betty Lou Barsley-Marra at the University of Missouri's Department of Human Development and Family Studies says to 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, play in sand or balance.
When to Call Your Physician
Barsley-Marra says to contact your family doctor if you notice that your seven-month-old baby cannot hold her head up, if she cannot sit up on her own at 12 months, stand alone at 15 months, walk at 18 months, jump up, across, or down an object at four years or if she cannot hop on one foot at six years of age. Whether your child is typical for her age or behind developmentally, getting advice from a trained doctor can help.
