Children need to learn and develop gross motor skills to simply lead ‘a normal life’.
Gross motor skills are the skills that children need to walk, run, climb, swim jump, kick, throw and catch a ball and to be able to play sports and even take part in a school sports day.
Most children have learned to walk between 12 and 18 months ( every child is an individual so age may vary). Before walking many babies will learn to crawl, once this has been mastered they start to climb, often up the stairs and on furniture (use safety gates on stairs), boys especially seem to want to climb everywhere, ( my 3 sons did!).
As children get stronger and more confident a kick about with a football in the garden or park will help to strengthen leg muscles, as will riding a bike or scooter.
When I was working as a child minder we often went to the play park to help with developing the children’s gross motor skills – the climbing frame and slide steps were great for this, I also took along some bats and balls, a tip for helping children to learn to catch is to use a large soft ball rather than a small tennis size ball, because a large ball is easier for small hands to grasp, using a small ball may cause frustration when a child is unable to catch it. I lived within walking distance of a soft play facility so I regularly took the children there too, swinging and climbing on ropes and jumping into the ball pit was fantastic for helping with gross motor skills.
When I was working towards gaining my N.V.Q Level 3 in early years care and education my assessor asked if I would set up an obstacle course in the garden for her next visit to show how I helped the children develop gross motor skills. I was extremely fortunate that the head mistress of my son’s school asked if I could make use of any P.E. equipment while the school was close for the summer break, she said that she didn’t see the point of locking it away if someone could benefit from it, I borrowed hoops, bean bags and skipping ropes ( it may be worth asking at your local school if you can do similar).
I was able to set up a great obstacle course, I used a hoop as a target for the children to throw bean bags into as well as using them as hula hoops. They also had to walk along a skipping rope on the floor with a bean bag on their heads to help practice balance and I set up a bridge to jump over and a lower one to crawl under.
My N.V.Q. assessor was really impressed and the children had a great afternoon.
Trampolines are good for developing gross motor skills ensure that the manufacture’s guidelines are followed regarding suitable ages and number of children allowed on at once to prevent accidents.
Developing gross motor skills in children should enable them to have fun while getting some important exercise.
Please share any experiences of gross motor skills in children.
I would like to thank Sarah Knight, Jade Marie Ryan and Vanessa Willis France for supplying the photos used in this post.
As always questions/comments are welcome.
Until next week
Karen
x
this sounds like a really great mission of yours, any encouragement of physical activity, especially outdoors must have added benefits #thesatsesh
Great Blog, some thing we take for granted that children will just learn their gross motor skills, but with this advise it will definitely help them on their way.
Yet another brilliant informative blog ,I really enjoyed reading it.
My three youngest have had the most trouble with their gross motor skills, With my older girl I realise this is mostly because of her Elhers Danlos Syndrome and we are currently waiting genetic testing for the younger two. Most people don’t think about gross motor skills as they develop naturally, but it’s so important to help them learn more, and even more so when they have developmental issues.
#mixitup
As a teacher in the states I see so many children who are not ready with their gross motor skills let alone the fine to hold a pencil. I get my students outside and climbing as much as possible. #mixitup
Gross motor skills are something I’ve just expected kids to develop naturally, but always good to be aware of ways to encourage this #GlobalBlogging
Really informative piece thank you for sharing X #mixitup
Great info! #Keepingitreal
I’m an FS teacher and I’ve always found the focus to be more on fine motor movements, for me gross motor movements help develop hand to eye coordination and encourage team work #tweensteensbeyond
I am planning on writing a post on fine motor skills this weekend
We love developing our little one’s gross motor skills. She loves to climb and throw balls. She’s not so hot on the catching but she has a pretty good overarm! #TriumphantTales
I loved doing obstacle courses with the kids in my daycare. It was always so much fun to watch them master new skills! #GlobalBlogging
My lot love kicking a football around, climbing and 2 out of 3 of them love to ski too! #thesatsesh xx
What an ineresting read and you made the development of the gross motor skills fun which i think is so important #Blogstravaganza
What a brilliant fun way to develop gross motor skills #Blogstravaganza
Hi Karen, I remember doing all sorts of activities during PE that helped develop gross motor skills and they were fun, which is the most importnat thing of all when it comes to teaching children. It sounds as if your pupils had a fun time too.
Thank you for linking up with #keepingitreal.
xx
Great idea to set up an obstacle course in the garden! Thanks for sharing with #Blogstravaganza 🙂
My Little just had a rock climbing birthday party! We all had so much fun and they all really did very well ! Great post! #triuphanttales xoxo
I love the idea of an obstacle course, Finn loves doing them at the park and his climbing skills are becoming more evident-which is something I’d like to encourage. Thanks so much for sharing #AdventureCalling
A really interesting post with some great ideas for developing gross motor skills! #KidsandKreativity
Yep, I can safely say my boys have a love of climbing! Great read, thanks for sharing with #KidsandKreativity
Thank you for linking up with us at the #BloggingGrandmothers End of the Year Link Party 2018!
I think developing gross motor skills are as important if not more so than encouraging the fine motor skills, yet sometimes get overlooked and are expected to happen naturally. Thanks for linking up to #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time.
Some great tips and definitely something I should do more of. I love the idea of the obstacle course, Finn would love that. He and his brother are definite climbers so I can attest to that! Thanks for sharing with us #AdventureCalling