Gross motor skills are the building blocks of a young child's development. There is a powerful connection between motor skills and cognitive development. More than 50 years ago, brilliant developmentalist J.P. Piaget created a "Cognitive Development Theory," where he suggested "thinking through bodily movement " paradigm. Piaget claimed that a direct connection between physical and cognitive development is especially valid in children under the age of 2 that undergo the sensorimotor stage of development. Thus, multiple opportunities for physical activity are crucial for toddlers and young children.
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Why are gross motor skills important?
Well-developed gross motor skills help children to gain independence in their everyday tasks and activities, like standing, sitting, walking, running, eating, getting dressed, and doing other routine tasks. Feeling independent and capable is essential for the development of healthy self-esteem and self-confidence in a small child. Moreover, gross motor skills influence fine motor skills. Thus, to be able to write, do arts and crafts and even engage in free play on the floor, a child needs to hold his body upright while sitting for a long time.
In school, poor gross motor skills lead to problems in learning maths, writing and reading issues, spatial orientation. Moreover, low physical motor competence in childhood leads to worse physical activity and fitness, cognitive abilities, poor self-perception, and body weight in children and adolescents.
Also, studies revealed that children with learning disabilities had poor physical motor competence in all motor tasks. Moreover, researchers found correlations between poor locomotor skills and reading and poor object control skills and writing.
What are the examples of large motor skills?
Gross motor skills are usually divided into three main groups: locomotor, non-locomotor, and object control skills.
Locomotor skills enable the body to move from one place to another; they are responsible for the coordination of movements, sense of speed, and direction. The main 7 locomotor skills include walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, galloping, and leaping.
Non-locomotor skills enable axial movements of the body in space. For example, bending, stretching, twisting, rotating, swinging, swaying, shaking, balancing. These skills give children information about the spatial movements of the body; they provide body and spatial awareness. The proper sense of the body is essential for the future understanding of math concepts, orientation in the environment, and even reading and writing.
Manipulative or object control skills usually include 4 key actions: catching, throwing, kicking, and striking. Among other gross manipulative skills are pushing and pulling, lifting, rolling, bouncing, dribbling, etc. Studies revealed that object control competence impacted future physical activity in adolescents. For example, ball skill proficiency at the age of 10 predicted the time spend in physical activities at the age of 16. Thus, researchers suggested that "promoting ball skills in young children might contribute to increasing physical activity later in life."
More on fundamental motor skills watch here
Why is physical activity essential for babies?
Movement in the early years is crucial for the development of intelligence and cognitive skills in babies. Upon birth, a baby has an enormous number of brain cells, much more than adults, but these cells are not connected. When a baby starts exploring the surroundings, even when she lays on her tummy, brain cells begin creating connections that later turn into mature myelinated neural pathways. The more experience from the environment the baby receives, the more cells activate and connect. Each move for the baby creates a unique network of brain cells connections. That is why physical activity at an early age is crucial for a baby's brain development.
In the beginning, infants master gross motor skills. Later, these gross skills enable the development of more sophisticated fine motor movements. There are particular milestones that babies hit during their first year. Usually, they reach these new milestones every 3-4 months. Researchers found that earlier skill development within the normal age range leads to higher levels of cognitive development. For example, children who started walking at 10-13 months had more sophisticated interactions with their mothers than children who began walking at 13-15 months, even though both groups of children developed their walking ability in the normal age range. Moreover, children who started to stand earlier than other babies showed better results in different cognitive tests as adults compared to people that began to stand later in infancy.
However, never force your baby to stand or walk as soon as possible. Early walking is even dangerous for the baby's immature joints and spine. But the results indicate that providing babies with lots of opportunities for movement and environment exploration has a tremendous impact on their cognitive development. Consequently, infants should be systematically involved in physical activity. Abnormalities in motor development at an early age lead to developmental disorders.
How do you help your baby develop motor skills?
As your baby moves, she discovers new objects and learns about their properties. Thus, cognition correlates directly with movement. But you never should force your baby to reach new motor skills before her body is fully ready for the new task. Nevertheless, with several exercises, you may help your baby to grow the new skill more easily. Here are video tutorials that are extremely helpful for promoting your baby's development safely:
What gross motor skills should a 1-year-old have?
Typically developing 1-year-olds can:
- get into and out of sitting position without support
- stand up holding on to support
- cruise around the furniture
- some babies can stand without help
- some babies take their first steps without help at this age
More on 12-months old development learn here
Would you like to boost your baby's development even more? Check out our comprehensive guide to baby products that are essential during the first year of life.
Why is good motor development crucial for toddlers?
By the age of 2 to 3 years old toddler begins to improve his language skills and develop more in-depth knowledge about his environment. He now grasps concepts of categories and functions by using various tools in his everyday life. For example, while using silverware, your toddler learns that spoons and forks have different features depending on the food texture even though they belong to the same category. This knowledge promotes further maturation of brain networks and toddler's brain development. To effectively use silverware or other tools, toddlers first need to master the object control skills. Object control competence is the predisposition for the effective exploration of the environment. That's why the cognitive abilities and language skills of your child depend on his motor skills.
Try to help your child as little as possible in everyday tasks and let him master his movements. In this way, he will develop the proper sensorimotor skills for successful learning. Encourage your toddler to feed himself even though it might be too messy at the beginning. Plan your schedule so your toddler has enough time to dress and get ready for the outside. Your life will get much more comfortable when your toddler is able to take care of himself. Such simple everyday tasks boost your child's gross and fine motor skills and directly impact his or her cognitive development.
Should a 3-year-old be able to catch a ball?
The short answer is yes. As you've learned above, good object control skills are essential for proper brain development. But don't be upset if your toddler cannot do it yet; this is just a signal for you that it is time to teach him the ball skill. In this tutorial, you can learn a simple way to teach your toddler to catch a ball correctly. Later, he will be able to master other ball catching methods, but this is a good starting point for learning the skill.
What sports can 3-year-olds play?
All children have different weak and strong sides to their motor development. Some of them may have problems with hand-eye coordination, others with cross-body movements, locomotor skills, or eye-leg coordination. All these problems depend on the delivery conditions, birth weight, integration of primitive reflexes, whether your child went through a crawling stage, and several other early sensorimotor gaps.
The best way to choose a proper sport activity for your toddler would be to get the recommendations from a certified professional. In this case, an OT specialist could evaluate the sensorimotor development of your toddler and prescribe the particular sports to compensate for potential motor problems. For example, if your child hasn't crawled enough when he was a baby, he might have issues with cross-body movements. Then an OT might recommend exercises to improve cross-lateral connectivity and left-right brain integration. For example, yoga for toddlers, rock (wall) climbing, or a particular set of activities that fit your child's needs individually.
In case your family cannot afford professional advice, you might want to observe your toddler's abilities and choose the sports activity accordingly to his weak skills. For example, if your toddler is clumsy and has poor coordination of movements, you might choose martial arts, dances, or yoga lessons. If the balance is his weakest point, choose a longboard, bike riding, or exercises on balance board. In the case of poor hand-eye coordination, mini-golf, basketball, bowling are great options.
If you are still unsure about the specific sport to choose for your toddler, the general physical education lessons are beneficial for all kids. Usually, such lessons focus on the development of a broad range of motor skills. There is a good chance that your toddler will significantly improve his poor motor skill attending these activities.
Several fitness programs develop a whole range of different motor functions in children. For example:
- The Little Gym is our personal favorite. Classes with a great program provide well-balanced physical development of young children.
- Fun Bus
- Gymboree
Fun indoor gross motor activities for toddlers
While staying at home, you may engage your toddler in physical activity and even promote his motor competence with simple and fun games.
Here are some great ideas on fun indoor games for toddlers.
Why are gross motor skills important for preschoolers?
Gross motor skills often correlate with the level of overall physical development of a child. Preschool years are a critical time to work on all motor delays that a child still might have from early childhood (for more info read our article on integration of primitive reflexes). This is also a perfect time to instill a love of fitness and physical activity in your preschooler.
The significance of 3-5-year-olds motor development is one of the highlights in the United States Healthy People 2020 program. Moreover, the National Association for Sport and Physical Activity and Physical Education (NASPE, 2009) emphasized that preschool children should be engaged in 60 min of structure and several hours of unstructured physical activities every day
If you want your child to become a successful learner in school, feel competent, and have a proactive attitude in life, make sure that he or she is in good physical condition. Also, check if your preschooler has reached all the motor milestones for his age (the list is below).
Why is it so crucial for a preschooler to be physically developed?
When a child starts school, he is be required to sit still for long periods and focus on the teacher and writing and reading tasks. To focus on learning, the child needs to have a strong core, back muscles, upper body strength, right balance, and postural control. If the child is physically weak, has poor postural control and weak muscles, he will spend most of his energy in school trying just to sit upright and hold his head and neck in a proper position. By the end of the day, he will be exhausted and have difficulty catching up with the learning topic. The best way to prepare your child for school is to give him as many physical development opportunities as possible at the preschool age.
What large motor skills should a 4-year-old have?
- Walking up and down stairs alternating his feet
- Climbing up and down a ladder on his own
- Standing on one foot for 3-5 seconds
- Standing on one foot with eyes closed for a few seconds
- Walking toe-hill
- Walking on tiptoes
- Walking along the line
- Jumping on both feet
- Hopping on one foot
- Jumping from a small height, like the second or third step
- Jumping over small objects landing on both feet
- Rolling forward
- Riding a bike
- Slaloming around obstacles
- Ball skills: catching, throwing underarm, overarm, overhead, kicking forwards, catching a bouncing ball
If your preschooler still doesn't have some of these skills, do not worry. Just make sure that he/she masters the skill in the nearest future.
How do I teach my 4-year-old to catch a ball?
Ball competence is one of the essential object control skills in preschoolers. It helps to promote many other abilities, like hand-eye coordination, body awareness, motor planning, motor sequencing, etc. When well-developed, these skills allow for a better understanding of math, geometry, spatial orientation, social communication, and executive function in children. Moreover, object control competence at a young age significantly predicts physical activity levels in older kids and teens.
So if your preschooler still doesn't know how to play catch, it is a perfect time to teach him this crucial skill.
What are some fun indoor games to develop large motor skills in preschoolers?
Under the current conditions of self-isolation, it is especially important to provide kids with enough physical activity each day. Here you will find several exercises to teach your children the fundamental motor skills at home. These activities are beneficial for a child's physical condition, health, mental well-being, and even their future sports competence. Gross motor exercises are a perfect way to spend time indoors with the maximum positive outcome.
Also, we have a fantastic blog post about brain exercises, which are both fun and beneficial for kids' cognitive skills. We highly encourage you to check out this blog post: "Brain Exercises For Kids: 45+ Fun Activities To Develop Your Child’s Brain."
Picture books that encourage movement and motor skills
To encourage physical activity in kids, especially indoors or on a play date, you may use movement stories on the topics they love. Such movement stories help children improve their gross motor skills, self-regulation, and social skills. If the story is new, read it aloud first. Then offer your children to move along. Below you will find a list of excellent books for toddlers and preschoolers that are even more fun when reading them with movements and noises.
For more ideas on movement activities for your kids, check out this book written by two excellent pediatric therapists that will provide you with plenty of new ideas on encouraging physical and sensory activities.
