motor skills
Developing Motor Skills - how to help your child to develop their gross motor skills
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Why?
Children can be encouraged to develop their abilities and confidence in general co-ordination and movement through everyday play, including visits to parks and play centres. Other activities to develop movement skills are listed below:
Moving Games
- Games where child has to change their position, movements, speed or direction in a controlled manner such as: obstacle courses, crawling, walking, jumping, going backwards, walking in high kneeling
- Musical statues/bumps
- Cat and mouse
- Animal walks such as: jumping like a kangaroo, sneak like a mouse, slither like a snake
- Leap frog over low objects
- Commando crawling along floor/benches
Jumping and hopping games
- Hop scotch
- Bouncy castles
- Trampolines
- Space hoppers
- Jumping / hopping in squares or hoops at different speeds
Obstacle Courses
- Encourage child to choose equipment and layout the course
- Encourage child to move over, under and through objects.
- Encourage child to try out different ways and speeds of moving
- Use tables, chairs, towels, benches and objects that are wobbly are also good
Ball Games
- Use a balloon (slow moving) for ball games initially, moving onto a large soft ball as confidence increases
- Teach child to have hands out in front of them ready for catching
- Rolling ball to each other, stopping it with hand and then foot
- Balloon volleyball (passing balloon back and forth over a line or net)
- Throwing at targets or into boxes Increasing the distance gradually
- Bouncing and catching games
- Skittles
Other physical activities
- Climbing frames
- Swings
- Chutes
- Roundabouts
- Swimming
- ‘Log-rolling’ down a small incline or playing in a toy barrel