Boost your child’s gross motor skills
Gross motor skills are vital for your baby’s development. They help him when it comes to lifting and supporting his head, rolling over, sitting up, crawling and walking. Helping him improve them helps him build muscle tone and balancing skills, and also helps his hand-eye co-ordination. They make him more aware of the differences between the left and right sides of his body and make him more spatially aware.
Slacking off when it comes to helping your child boost his gross muscle skills could mean he has balance and strength issues as he grows. A lack of spatial awareness could make him clumsy and unable to use common play equipment such as jungle gyms and tunnels, because he’s unable to climb and move in the ways he needs to in order to navigate them.
These elements can all conspire to put him off using his muscles to their fullest extent. Children with poor gross motor skills often have low muscle tone because of this, and if low muscle tone already exists it can become a vicious circle as it may impede any efforts your child does make to boost his strength and agility. Underdeveloped gross motor skills also may affect your child’s fine motor skills. He may lack hand-eye co-ordination, which could affect him later when it comes to reading and writing.
So just how do you go about boosting your child’s gross motor skills? It’s as simple as having fun, indoors and out!
Explore different environments
Take your just-walking toddler out to practice his new skill in different environments and terrains. Walking on different surfaces – grass, sand, wood chips, gravel – helps develop his balance and work out how to place his feet to remain steady on them. Hold his hand and encourage him to alternate small steps with big ones, and try to find shallow gradients that he can walk up and down. At the park, help him make his way up the chute of the toddler slide to strengthen his leg muscles and learn how to co-ordinate his arms as they pull and his legs as they push.
Get him climbing
If you have the space, a jungle gym is a great investment and will see your child through several years of play. Good gyms have a variety of ladders, climbing walls and steps, a sliding pole, rope net and tunnel. Climbing is vital for building your toddler’s upper body strength, which helps when it comes to holding and controlling crayons and pencils.
Play active games
Your just sitting baby will love playing action
games like
Pat-a cake and
Itsy Bitsy Spider and joining in the hand gestures. Give him pots and wooden spoons to bang with and a tightly closed old plastic bottle with dried beans or lentils in to shake. Once he’s sitting, build a tower of blocks just out of his reach and encourage him to lean forwards to knock it over. When he can walk, play marching games, get him to try balancing on one leg (stay close by to catch him!), and teach him
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Your older toddler will love Simon Says, and a preschooler will love trying hopscotch. Play animal pretend: get him to roar and pounce like a tiger, trumpet and plod around like an elephant, with his dangling arm as his trunk, or hop like a rabbit. Throw a blanket on the floor and get him to wriggle under it, like a worm, from one side to the other. Put on a music CD and teach him how to do the twist!
Involve him in chores
Get him his own little broom and have him help you sweep inside the house or the driveway. He can help by dusting too, or by unloading clothes from the drier into the laundry basket – the combined reaching, pulling and twisting movements are great for boosting agility and strength. Toy gardening tools are great too – he can help you rake leaves (and then play in them!).
Get him some wheels!
Ride-on toys, trikes and bikes are wonderful for building strength and improving balance. Set up an obstacle course for him to navigate! Always make sure he wears a safety helmet and protective knee and elbow pads to protect him if he takes a tumble.
Play ball
It’s one of the simplest and best ways to get your child moving and balancing. Vary it by using balls of different sizes and playing kick or handball. Hang a tennis ball from a string (or an old pair of hose!) if you have a tree on your property (it needs to be higher than your child so he can’t get caught in the string) and encourage him to swing at it with a tennis racquet or baseball bat. Invest in a junior basketball hoop, or fuzzy darts for his bedroom wall, or simply get him to throw balls of rolled-up newspaper into a trashcan placed a few feet away.
The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.
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Last Modified: 01/02/2009
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