#motor skill development

[essential-002]

Best Occupational Therapy in Greater Noida West – Expert Care for All Ages

Discover the best occupational therapy in Greater Noida West, tailored for children, adults, and seniors. Our certified therapists offer personalized care to improve daily living and motor skills. With advanced techniques and compassionate support, we ensure the best outcomes. For more information, please visit https://g.co/kgs/sWsJQm4

[neha-pawar]

Enhancing Child Development: How Motor Skills Develop With Toys

Children’s initial years are filled with curious explorations of self and surroundings. They also absorb knowledge and capture loads of love and affection from the people around them.

Their inquisitiveness fosters their growth and development. This is because children are born with around 100 billion cells, which require active outer interactions and stimuli for healthy brain connection and development. 

Therefore, the kids need to navigate their inner natural curiosity by interacting with their environment. Toys form an important part of that developmental phase in children.

The Significance Of Motor Skill Development In Early Childhood

Motor skill development is intricately linked to the overall development of children. This is because it begins with fine motor skill development with toys. 

The reason is, that even lifting a toy requires tiny movements that demand efficient hand-eye coordination, visual stimulation, spatial awareness, problem-solving, cognitive thinking, and social and communication skills. 

With time, these tiny skills polish into much finer skills, like gross motor skills with complex toys, decision-making, leadership, sportsmanship, optimism, and complex problem-solving skills. 

Hence, motor skill development indeed covers the foundational life course for the children’s survival!

Wondering how? Let’s understand.

How Toys Serve As Tools For Enhancing Motor Skills

Consider a baby who is just trying to grab a stacking ring. How do you think he could coordinate to pick it up?

It happens due to the mixed coordinational functioning of the brain, eye, and muscles, working as fine motor skills!

Since children are born curious souls, they naturally try to grab objects in their sight, and this habit enhances their brain-neural connections, along with strengthening their tiny finger and hand muscles.

So, although playing with toys looks like just a pastime, it prepares your child for a much more complex world outside the comfort of your home!

This blog will cover everything from types of motor skills to how motor skills develop with toys to child developmental toys!

Understanding Motor Skills

Let us begin by understanding the types of motor skills. They are divided into two based on their stages of development.

That is, it initiates with fine motor skills, which later on develop into gross motor skills. However, they differ in the following ways.

I. Fine Motor Skills

This includes small muscles of the hands, fingers, and wrists for precise and small movements like eating, dressing, grasping, etc.

It develops in early childhood, that is, around 2-5 years of age. This fosters self-sufficiency for small yet vital tasks in children.

Boost: Problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and cognitive development.

II. Gross Motor Skills

This includes the involvement of larger muscles of the legs, arms, and torso. The movement is also generally large, like running, jumping, swimming, etc.

It begins in infancy and improves during toddler years. It is used extensively during playing, exercising, crawling, etc. Such movements are necessary for healthy fitness and active mobility in children.

Boost: Body balance, posture, body movement, independence, confidence, and flexibility.

The Role of Toys in Developing Motor Skills

Toys have immense potential to upskill the development of the child through its learning phases. This happens due to their interactive play with them that aids their physical, mental, and emotional development.

For example,

Games like building blocks, Lego, and stacking rings enhance hand-eye coordination, visual and spatial skills, problem-solving, and fine motor skills. 

Activities like puzzles, drawing, coloring, etc. enhance creativity, dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.

Pretend plays with kitchen sets, robots, dolls, cars, or superhero capes enhance creativity, social skills, language, and communication skills.

The connection between play and cognitive growth

When children engage themselves in playing and manipulating toys, their full-body interaction with the toy forms several brain-neural connections in the child’s mind.

This further helps them understand the world around them due to their active engagement, upskilling, and participation in various games.

Children who have an active childhood in terms of brain and body exercises turn out to be very confident, smart, independent, and risk-takers in life.

This is because resolving any challenge in their games helps boost their confidence, and constant playing inculcates this habit of tackling real-life challenges as well. Thus, this encourages cognitive development in the children.

Top Toys for Enhancing Motor Skills

Let us now understand the top tips for improving various motor skills in children.

I. Fine Motor Skill Toys: Small Moves, Big Impact

i. Building Blocks: It includes stacking high or forming various structures while trying to fit different complex shapes into each other. They demand precise hand-eye coordination, visual and spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills.

ii. Puzzles: Solving a puzzle of any kind, be it a jigsaw puzzle, shape sorters, memory matching games, word search, or pattern blocks, requires patience, problem-solving, decision-making, and fine motor skills.

iii. Lacing Beads: This activity serves as a mini challenge for those tiny fingers as it improves hand-eye coordination, grasping control, focus, dexterity, and visual-spatial awareness skills.

II. Gross Motor Skill Toys: Moves, Bigger Fun

i. Ride-On Toys: These include toys like scooters, cycles, swing cars, etc. that encourage kids’ physical movements like running, climbing, jumping, etc. They enhance muscle strength and improve balance, coordination, visual and spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills.

ii. Balls: Actions like dribbling, tossing, catching, kicking, or throwing enhance hand-eye coordination, strengthen arms and leg muscles, and improve visual and spatial awareness skills.

Brownie point: Playing catch would not only improve their motor and cognitive skills but also their social, language, and communication skills.

iii. Climbing Sets: These are some of the best tools to strengthen kids’ legs and arms muscles, coordination, agility, sportsmanship, adventure, and confidence in kids.

Age-Appropriate Toy Recommendations

Although toys are important, it is equally essential to provide them according to children’s age and learning phase. This is because it serves as a step-by-step guide towards their full active development.

Let us now understand some age-appropriate toys for children’s stable and stage-wise development.

I. Infants (0-12 months)

The most basic skills developed during these months are sensory and motor skills. This is because of their endless curiosity to understand themselves and their surroundings.

i. Soft Toys: The tactile stimulation triggers the development of a baby's sense of touch.

ii. Rattles: This encourages auditory, visual, and tactile stimulation that enhances the sensory and hand-eye coordination in children.

iii. Activity gyms: Consider it as a baby's “Gym Khanas,” where they can perform their tummy time and also exercise their arms, shoulders, and legs by trying to reach out to different items like dangling mirrors, soft toys, rattles, etc.

II. Toddlers (1-3 years)

This is when they learn to crawl, walk, and run. This stage triggers the development of basic motor skills, thus encouraging balance, coordination, and independence. Toys are an important source to develop these skills.

i. Stacking Toys

This includes rings, blocks, cups, etc., and demands efficient hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and problem-solving abilities.

While playing, the children also understand various shapes, colors, order, etc. This helps them lay their foundational learning skills.

ii. Push-Pull Toys.

Believe it or not, this is one of the most favorite and important child developmental toys to enhance their motor skills.

This is because toys with wheels attached to them for pulling and pushing make kids curious about their actions and reactions. Also, while walking with these rolling toys, they stretch their arms and legs and thus learn coordination, balance, and independence for physical movement.

iii. Shape Sorters

These toys are responsible for developing motor as well as important cognitive skills in children. Such toys include various-shaped holes and different cutouts to fit in.

While doing so, children use their efficient hand-eye coordination and cognitive, spatial, visual, and focus skills. This proves that although motor skills seem simple, they are intricately linked to the coordination of the entire body.

III. Preschoolers (3-5 years)

At this stage, the children are ready to explore the complexities of the real world, which further improves their social, language, communication, leadership, and sportsmanship skills.

Here, motor skills act as a platform for the development of other such essential skills.

i. Tricycles

These are essential for the strengthening of the core and glute muscles of the legs in children. Riding them also enhances children’s hand-eye and leg coordination, along with efficient visual, balance, and spatial awareness skills. It also aids healthy digestion.

ii. Simple Puzzles

Puzzle-solving at any age exercises the mind. Children solve basic puzzles like shape matching, coloring, spotting the difference, finding hidden objects, jigsaw puzzles, etc. This enhances their motor, focus, cognitive, spatial, and problem-solving skills in them.

Besides, they also help in improving social, language, and communication skills in children.

Safety Considerations When Choosing Toys

While toys form an important part of children’s active growth and development, it is also essential to check for their safety while selecting one for your children.

Some of the safety precautions include:

Ensure that the toy is age-appropriate for your child to ensure an optimum step-by-step learning process.

The toys should be non-toxic, BPA-free, lead-free, and phthalate-free to prevent chemical leaching and ingestion by the babies.

Select the toys with round and smooth edges to prevent the kids’ from injury.

Ensure that the toys are devoid of any small hanging or loose parts that could be ingested by the kids.

Immediately discard the broken toys that could cause injury to babies.

Toys consisting of batteries or electric connections present a risk of electric shock or ingestion in the case of button batteries. So, such toys must be instructed to be used only under adult supervision.

Check for warning labels before purchasing the toys.

Tips for Parents to Encourage Motor Skill Development

Parents being the role models can help in fostering essential motor and other important skills in children. Some tips for being a part of their development are:

Motivate them to run, jog, crawl, etc., by engaging yourself with them in the play.

Plan outdoor play in gardens, gyms, trampolines, etc., to enhance their muscle strength, balance, and overall coordination.

Be their play partner until they make friends to prepare them for further social interactions.

Let the children make their mess during their meal time. That is one of their most important yummy lessons.

Encourage creativity and efficient fine motor skills in children by indulging in crafts, origami, drawing, and painting with them.

Include the kids in some household chores to strengthen their motor skills.

Motivate your kids to dance, participate in extracurricular activities in school, and also organize your own “Tiny-tots play mela” as a social gathering.

Keep track of their progress and keep throwing them into more challenging scenarios for their improvement. For example, a kid who has learned to walk requires a walkerto reach the next milestone.

Provide them with various textured toys to enhance their sensory and visual stimulation.

Conclusion

Toys are important tools to accelerate and promote the growth and development of efficient motor and other important skills in children.

Hence, the above blog has provided a clear picture of how toys help in developing various fine and gross motor skills, in addition to other cognitive, social, language, communication, focus, problem-solving, spatial awareness, and decision-making skills in children.

Therefore, as parents, it is important to provide them with various developmentally beneficial toys to help them explore all the possible skills around them for their healthy development.

This content is originally published on R For Rabbit' s Website: Enhancing Child Development: How Motor Skills Develop With Toys

[blusmarty]

50 Coloring pages unique for your kids

Discover a delightful collection of 50 unique coloring pages designed just for kids! This creative coloring book bundle provides hours of fun and educational activities, helping children develop motor skills, improve focus, and spark creativity. Each page offers engaging themes—from animals and fairies to space adventures and underwater worlds—that are perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary-aged children. With high-quality designs and kid-friendly illustrations, these coloring sheets make an excellent gift for birthdays, holidays, or back-to-school. Perfect for both individual play and group activities, this coloring page collection will keep your kids entertained while inspiring their imaginations.

[alphacarephysicaltherapy]

Physical therapy plays a crucial role in the recovery of patients with neurological conditions. This specialized therapy focuses on improving physical functions such as mobility, strength, and coordination, which may be impaired due to brain injury, stroke, or other neurological issues.

[speechandotplano]

Fine Motor Skill Development

Fine motor skills play a vital role in child development. It's crucial to actively engage your child in various home activities to foster their growth. Experts note a decline in the motor skills of today's children compared to previous generations, possibly attributed to changes in early upbringing practices. Additionally, some children may face delays in the development of their fine motor skills, emphasizing the importance of having strategies to enhance these skills.

[femalepope]

the darkness in me started when i was the only girl at school who couldn't make these things

[emotionally-charged-arson]

Vivian(and Arthur)posting No. 9

Spring 1897. Someone inherited Dad’s Stare™

[funkle420]

a great way to combat genAI in the future would be educating kids (and teens and college students and all ppl) on art way more.

[themontessoriacademyofarlington]

Infant - Animals and Nature

Exposure to animals and nature offers numerous benefits, even for our youngest students, including infants. Interacting with animals can foster empathy, compassion, and a sense of responsibility in children. It also provides sensory experiences that are crucial for their cognitive and emotional development. Being outside in our natural environments encourages exploration and curiosity while enhancing infants' physical development through activities like crawling on grass or touching different textures. Overall, these experiences help create a holistic learning environment that nurtures the mind, body, and spirit of young children.

[delicatebluebirdruins]

I was thinking of Mia and the complicated relationship she had with water after the Baker Incident like Mia would not be able to stand the smell or feel of water covering her like in a bath. of course not. she drowned in it, she was locked in a cell next to a stagnant pool with a body in it for a month plus many more reasons

it would take her family to get her this close. Rose being able to sit up by herself was a huge deal breaker holding onto ethan another

[neha-pawar]

Motor Skill Development in Kids: The Role of Toys

Learn how motor skills develop with toys and why they are essential for your child’s physical and mental development with Parent’s Comprehensive Guide.

[feastofsnakes]

I keep seeing this post going around so I have to ask. Are kids really not going to learn writing principals because of ai? Or have students always been cheating on essays and finding ways to not do english assignments? Before chat gpt the cutting edge of cheating was finding essays written in foreign languages and then translating them back to english. Before that it was paying another kid to write one for you. Kids have always been able to cheat, it hasn't caused the downfall of western society yet and I don't think it will any time soon.

[pepprs]

i literally need there to stop being situations circumstances events developments complications and happenstances. for the fucking love of god

[prodigal-explorer]

how to write the physicality of children

(this is part of my series, how to write children in fanfiction! feel free to check it out if you want more info like this!)

now, with the physicality of children, we will essentially be describing how children move, and how the physical abilities of children can change overtime. every single child in the entire world is different, but this is a general guide for how to make your child characters look and move more accurately in your writing!

how children move

now, the physical development of children can largely depend on a lot of factors, but this guide is general, so the information i will be using is based on approximated averages. there are a lot of resources out there that can help guide you if you are writing a child character with any sort of disability, or something else that would affect their physical development!

we're going to be looking at motor skills. a motor skill is essentially just a function that allows your body to move and perform tasks throughout your life. motor skills start developing at birth, and they get more and more advanced as you age. there are two types of motor skills: gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

gross motor skills are the skills that use the larger, more prominent muscles in the body. they are typically skills that require strength, coordination, or reaction time. these skills tend to develop before fine motor skills. examples of gross motor skills include sitting up, jumping, and bending at the waist to pick up an object.

fine motor skills are the skills that use smaller muscles in the body. they are typically skills that require precision or high degrees of control. these skills tend to develop after gross motor skills. examples of fine motor skills include unbuttoning clothes, hand-eye coordination, and drinking from a straw.

most children develop most of the motor skills they'll need for life by the time they're around five years old. many children still struggle with certain things after this age, but usually, the majority of things they need to know how to do are at least somewhat mastered.

in the sources, i will link a very detailed guide to what motor skills are developed at what age, but here are some of the biggest ones:

-gross motor skills: children tend to start crawling, standing, and walking with support when they are around 6-12 months old. they tend to start walking without support when they are around 12-18 months old. around 18-24 months, they start to learn how to run and jump, though these skills are still fairly underdeveloped. once they hit around 2-3 years old, running, walking, and jumping are usually considered to be fully mastered, even if they are a bit clumsy.

-fine motor skills: from birth to around 6 months old, children start to learn how to hold objects. from 6-12 months old, they learn how to do more advanced holding skills such as transferring objects from one location to another. from a year old on, their skills with their hands rapidly increase, and they pick up on doing things such as scribbling (12-18 months), turning doorknobs/using zippers (18-24 months), holding scissors correctly/turning individual pages of a book (2-3 years). once they turn around 5 years old and they learn how to write their name and brush their teeth, and other basic things like that, they are considered to have mastered the basics of fine motor skills. also, around this time, they tend to develop a hand preference (right handed or left handed).

how children look/move physically

from birth to the age of 5, there are so many factors that contribute to growth that it is very difficult to determine milestones and averages. but here are some general attributes from 6-12 years old that could be written in to hint at a child's age:

-6-9 years old: growth rate slows, established hand preference, coordination is not fully developed, needs frequent rest (around 11 hours of sleep), can dress and undress completely, able to play ball, tag, and catch.

-9-12 years old: develops more adult-like proportions, may begin growth spurt, eats neatly, starts developing secondary sex characteristics, able to perform more specific motor skills such as running, gymnastics, baseball, swimming, writing, art, music, and crafts.

now, i don't have a lot to say specifically about looks, but here are some tips to writing a child's appearance!

not all children are very skinny. it is common for children to have very high metabolisms compared to adults, but due to genetics, medical complications, and situational circumstances, many children are overweight or obese as well, and many children are somewhere in between. consider writing a child that's on the chubbier side, because they definitely exist, and it is representation that is not written enough.

some children are unusually tall or unusually short. a lot of things contribute to this such as genetics, race, medical conditions, situational circumstances, or just plain chance.

as children grow older, they develop more and more control over their appearance. maybe play around with that! think about the age that you were able to choose your own clothes, or tell your guardians how you wanted your hair to look.

also, a lot of kids don't develop awareness about their appearances and how they look until they reach around 9 years old. as you're writing children younger than that, think about how you felt about your appearance. was it fairly neutral? did you even think about how you looked at all?

---

i hope you guys enjoyed this guide!! it's not quite as detailed as the speech impediment one, but i wanted to write this one in case people struggle with making the child's skills match their age accurately!

sources + additional resources:

defining fine and gross motor skills

detailed guide to motor skill development from birth to adulthood

[uglypastels]

Its always fun to laugh at kids not knowing how to use older technology like a casette or vhs player, or even CD, and then be concerned about their lack of knowledge about these things but the problem can be very easily resolved. Just... show it to them. Literally all youd have to do is play a cd in the living room at the age of 4. Let them pick out what music to play. And keep that up from time to time.

Its a dumb example but i just saw a bunch of 13 year olds stare at a cd as if they were in the caves handling fore given by prometheus himself. And theres so many more examples out there, of subject matters that are probably much more concerning.

I swear to god parents expect their children to just learn shit by themself, forgetting it is their duty to educate and nurture.

[theood]

Idk I think if you're having a child "the aesthetic of the toys they play with" should not be a concern? "Oh this toy is SUCH an eyesore in my living room." Do you hear yourself talking? Just curious