What Are Motor Skills?
Motor skills are the specific tasks that the kid does with muscles and the neurological system, which work together to complete the activity. The motor skills may include running, jumping, hopping, throwing, and stacking. Every child achieves motor skills at a specific age, but the developmental milestone may vary. Some children may attain motor skills very late and require detailed assessments and therapies to improve their motor skills.
What Are the Two Types of Motor Skills?
There are two types of motor skills:
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Fine motor skills.
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Gross motor skills.
Fine Motor Skills:
Fine motor skills include the small muscles that coordinate between the eyes and hands, called hand-eye coordination.
Gross motor skills:
Gross motor skills include large muscles that improve the more significant actions such as balancing the body, running, walking, jumping, and hopping.
Why Is It Very Important to Have Developed Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills are the coordination of muscles, eyes, and brain, which work together to complete any specific task. Motor skills may include all the daily activities such as shoelace tying, holding things, and using scissors. In adults, individuals are trained from the beginning, but in children, delays in these motor skills may cause them to lose self-confidence.
What Are the Categories of Motor Skills?
The categories of motor skills include
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Cognition: Thinking, problem-solving, understanding, and reasoning.
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Motor Development: Skills such as jumping, hopping, throwing, catching, and stacking come under motor development.
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Social Interaction: Group plays and eye contact.
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Adaptive: Dressing, eating on their own, washing.
What Are the Different Developmental Miles Stones Attained at Different Age Groups?
Birth to Three Months:
Fine motor skills - Watches hand movements and brings them to mouth.
Gross motor skills-Not many gross motor skills are attained at this age.
Three to Six Months:
Fine motor skills -
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Hold their hand.
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Transfers objects from one hand to the other.
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Reaches for toys using both arms.
Gross motor skills-
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Raises arms and legs on their own when placed on the stomach.
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Rolls over.
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They try to hold the neck.
Six to Nine Months:
Fine motor skills -
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They start having objects such as rattles, toys, and begin to grasp.
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Squeezes objects.
Gross motor skills-
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Starts crawling and tries from a sitting position to a standing position.
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Sits without any support.
Nine to 12 Months:
Fine motor skills - Take outs small things from the container, shows pincer grasp, starts turning pages of books, tries to eat on their own.
Gross motor skills-
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Starts walking with support.
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Climbs the stairs with help.
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Climbs low furniture.
Age Two:
Fine motor skills -
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Washes hands independently, stacks building blocks to a nine-block high, manipulates clay and dough.
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They turn on knobs.
Gross motor skills-
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Climb without any support.
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Starts jumping.
Age Three:
Fine motor skills -
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Can draw a circle.
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Fastened buttons
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Will be able to fold a piece of paper in half.
Gross motor skills-
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Will be able to throw a ball to others.
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Rides a tricycle.
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Starts running.
Age Four:
Fine motor skills -
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Uses fork properly. Get dressed and undressed without any help.
Gross motor skills-
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Walk upstairs.
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Runs smoothly by altering the speed.
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Catches ball using arms and body
Age Five:
Fine motor skills -
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Uses knife to cut foods, will be able to make a puzzle, can make tiny structure utilizing the building blocks.
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Hold the pen or pencil firmly.
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Cuts proper shapes using scissors.
Gross motor skills-
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Can climb staircase by holding objects in their hand.
What Are the Ways to Improve Motor Skills in Children?
In some children, there may be a delay in reaching the milestone, and the following are the ways to improve motor skills in children:
1. Play Dough:
The play dough is the oldest tactile method to enhance fine motor skills in children. When they are molding the clay with their tiny fingers, this enhances the strength in the fingers, which enhances the grasp when they grow up. The acts like squishing, rolling, and flattening are the acts that help to strengthen the muscles and help to hold the pencil and other objects firmly in the future.
2. Puzzles:
While sitting with their kids, puzzle-making may be an enormous task for the parents, but sticking to it will have various benefits. Picking up and placing the puzzles may help improve the child's pincer grasp. Be careful sometimes. The child may put the tiny pieces into their mouth.
3. Drawing, Coloring, and Painting:
Encourage the child to draw, color, and paint .these activities may help in self-controlling and improve the grasp, imagination, and creativity. Painting with a paintbrush helps to hold things firmly in the future, like pencils, pens, etc.
4. Cutting With Scissors:
Cutting with scissors helps improve hand-eye coordination and concentration. Use age-appropriate scissors to cut to avoid injuries. Draw the shapes and encourage the child to cut accordingly.
5. Bathtime Plays:
Bathtime play is one of the fun things the child can enjoy. Use cups to fill and pour out the water. This improves the muscles' strength, developing gross motor skills and sensory skills. Be careful. The child may get wet, and there are chances of slipping.
6.Lego and Building Blocks:
Stacking together and building together with legos and building blocks will help improve pushing and pulling movements. Legos and blocks also improve creativity and concentration. These are effective means of ways to enhance hand-eye coordination also.
7. Learning to Brush:
Learning to brush their teeth will enhance their fine motor skills. The children may not be able to brush correctly, but this will improve hand coordination and motor development.
Conclusion:
Fine motor skills are how the child performs daily tasks. The issue with the developmental delayed milestones may not be noticed until the child reaches school age. As a result, it is critical to engage the child in activities such as clay molding, sketching, painting, scribbling, stacking, and constructing legos, which increase concentration and hand-eye coordination. If there is any delay in the milestones, the child may require proper assessment and therapy.
