Hey mommies, I hope all of you are having a fun roller coaster ride with your little one. As for me, my journey with my little one is much more than a roller coaster ride - with each passing day it’s a new learning for both of us. I know you all will agree with me. Today I’ll be covering a very crucial part/development stage that one must be familiar with. So the topic for today is - How to help your child develop motor skills? I know, many moms are wondering what is – Motor skill? A motor skill is simply an action that involves your baby using his muscles. Motor skills are larger movements your baby makes with his arms, legs, feet or his entire body. It also includes eye-hand coordination skills such as ball skills (throwing, catching, and kicking). I hope now, all moms out there must have understood what actually motor skills are. Each stage of development in your child is very important and we as moms should be familiar with developmental stages and should keep a track. You can see visible motor development skills once your child is almost a year old, there are different sets of skills according to their age. Early motor development skill that one can notice are-
- Your child will be able to stand and sit
- Walk forward/backward
- Catch or throw
- Clap hands
These are the basic or most common motor skills one notices initially. We cannot force a child to develop any skill, as its God gifted, but sometimes we do need to help them, so it becomes easy for the baby to learn fast. As the baby is really very small, we can’t push /force things on them, so we have to help them develop the first motor skill. As parents, we can help them in standing up by holding their hands or buying them walkers(the draggable ones and not the ones where kid can sit), so that they can stand and try to walk and explore. Once the child is comfortable they would try to stand or sit. Similarly, we can give them the small ball(s), which has no weight so that they can throw and their hand muscles have movement and so on. For any motor skill development in toddlers we need to keep in mind the safety one has to follow. As our babies are very small we need to be very attentive all the time, similarly while purchasing toys for them we need to cross check each and every detail. Talking about grown-up babies and helping them to develop motor skill is not as difficult as the first (toddlers) phase. Grown up babies are strong and ready to explore things on their own, they need directions and then they are good to go. We can surely help them with following activities:
- Holding a pencil
- Helping them in drawing lines
- Colouring
- Block building
- Filling & emptying a container
- Dressing and undressing their toys
- Trying to construct sentences
- Playing with others in a park
There are various activities that are important for a child for overall well-being. Why is it important for parents to keep a record or I should say why should we help our children in developing motor skill - all these activities help us to understand the growth/development in a child. No two children are same, so some may start early or late, but we should keep motivating our children. If one fails to show any development after many attempts, then it's best to consult your doctor, so that he can start the medical procedure soon before it becomes something serious.