Motor Skills involve movements of specific body muscles to perform specific tasks. These skills are generally divided into two categories known as gross motor skills & fine motor skills.
The tasks such as standing, walking, running, and swimming that involves arms, legs, and torso fall in the category of gross motor skills, whereas fine motor skills involve the muscles of fingers, hands, wrists, toes, feet, and ankles. Gaining these skills become more complex with the coordination of the hand, eye, and brain. For example, learning to write or read. These skills develop throughout our lives.
Outdoor games and activities are a great source to improve the motor skills of children. As these games engage the children in physical activity and make them physically active, they need to go out and play in the open areas. Over time, outdoor games are getting instinct, because children prefer to stay at home and enjoy playing games on technical gadgets. The good news is that these gadgets are quite very helpful to improve motor skills as well.
Video games are a great source of entertainment and are very helpful to improve motor skills as they involve the coordination of the hand, eye, and brain. Some modern video games now involve such features that whole body muscles could be used at the same time including the complex organs.
Many indoor activities can be performed to enhance motor skills at an early age so that children can enjoy playing under their parent’s guidance.
*Give some play dough or slime and encourage your child to play with it. Let them pinch, squeeze, knead, stretch, roll, or make some shapes with it. This will help to improve the fine motor skills of your child.
*Children are attracted to colors and love to paint. They enjoy getting messy using their hands and dipping their fingers in paint, using a brush to paint is also helpful in gaining control using it as a tool.
*Playing with water is great entertainment for children. Fill a bowl with water and hand them a sponge, give another empty bowl and ask them to dip the sponge in the water bowl and squeeze it into the other bowl. This exercise will help in strengthening their hands and forearms.
*Getting dirty in the sand is also loved by children. Take your child to a sandy place like a beach, and allow them to play with their little shovels and buckets. It will be a terrific experience to develop both kinds of skills.
Many other simple activities like brushing teeth, folding clothes, closing zippers, and cutting with scissors could be supportive in enhancing the motor skills of your child.
