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Help you child with Gross Motor Skills |
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by leashy2  (June 2007) (rank 285th) |
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Now allot of people don't even know what Motor Skills there are or what they should do to help these developments. And if they do know they just think well Fine Motor Skills are small muscle use so Gross must be Large muscle use. Wrong! Gross Motor skills are not just
about muscle use it also includes Balance, Body Awareness, Crossing of the mid-line, Laterality (meaning awareness of the left and right hand side of the body), Major muscle Co-Ordination, Spatial Orientation. We can all help our children with simple activities to help along their Gross Motor Skills right from when they are Infants.
Infants gross Motor Skills don't seem like your doing much compared to other age groups but these things sure will help:
- Give your baby as much tummy time as possible- this works best when you have older siblings for that child as they want to keep up with one another and in return will help you baby to get on his/her knees or even crawl.
- lots of time in a walker is also good- Lots of people i talk to say walkers are dangerous, yes they are but only if you use them wrong, walkers are perfectly safe and must stick to the child safety regulations of your country. Walkers will exercise your infants legs and help control balance.
- Sitting your baby up- This is a great Gross Motor Skill! What sounds like every day life to us is harder for an infant and sitting up not only helps learn Balance but as i saw in another article here it works out the stomach muscles!
Toddlers and PreSchoolers on the other hand have much more:
- Simple Games- Kicking a large ball, playing tag, hide and seek, all these things sound normal for a child and they are! But if your child isn't doing any of these then its time to take action and join in!!!
- Simon says do this- This is a great game for toddlers not only are they playing they are spending time with mum or dad or even both! when playing Simon says do this get a chair out and make it a body awareness game. Say Simon says do this, stand to the side of the chair, or Simon says do this, stand on the chair. This is a good game and a good Gross Motor Skills game!
- Does your child have a bike?- If not then i suggest getting a bike, great way to learn Balance! Which as we know is part of Gross Motor Skills!
- Climbing- OK so ever mother freaks when they see their child on the longest slide or the very top of the jungle gym! But truth behold it climbing is one of the best things for Gross Motor skills. Because in most cases you use allot of upper and lower body strength, Balance, Laterality, and other Body Awareness.
Don't freak Mom!!! Children are pretty good at climbing and fitting their bodies into small places as I'm sure we all know!
- Air Brushing- So this is were you grab a big piece of paper and bright pens, draw a shape on the piece of paper lay it face down and ask your child to come over and choose a piece that she/he would like. When you turn it up the right way ask your child if she/he knows what shape it is. If they don't make them aware that that shape is say a circle or square, if they do move onto air brushing. Draw the shape in the air and see if your child would like to join in even if you have to guide them. After you finish Air Brushing ask them if they would like to draw the same shape on a piece of paper. And remember never say it looks bad or no you did it wrong! Always finish the exercise with something along the lines of WOW you did great! I beat you could draw anything you liked with that crayon, Pencil etc.
These are just a few games and actitives you might like to try. If you need to know anything else about how to entertain your child with Gross or Fine Motor skills just ask or visit for Gross Motor Skills:
ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2000/FINAL/grossmotors.htm
or for Fine Motor Skills:
www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/schools/Beal/readiness/finemotoractivities.html 
