Child Development: Motor Skills Overview

Gross Motor Skills

• Young children may struggle with coordinating their movements, sometimes leading to falls or unintentional entry into dangerous situations.
• It is important for caregivers to create a safe environment for children and enforce safety rules like holding hands while crossing the street.

Fine Motor Skills

• Fine motor skills involve using small muscles in the hands and wrists.
• They develop alongside gross motor skills, allowing babies to learn how to use their hands and coordinate movements with their senses.
• Fine motor skills develop gradually as babies build upon previously acquired skills.
• Babies may progress faster in some areas of development than others.

Reaching and Grasping

• Infants are better at reaching during the first month of life compared to two months of age.
• Neonates perform awkward arm extensions towards objects, known as pre-reaching.
• From birth to around two months, babies engage in pre-reaching, attempting to grasp objects but rarely making contact.

Lateralization

• Refers to the localization of functions, skills, and competencies in one or both hemispheres of the brain.
• Language, writing, logic, and math abilities are often associated with the left hemisphere, while creativity, artistic, and musical abilities are associated with the right hemisphere.
• Hemispheres usually work together despite potentially having separate functions.
• The left hemisphere develops more fully in early childhood, while the right hemisphere develops more fully in middle childhood.
• The early and prolonged dominance of the left hemisphere might explain why children acquire language at a young age.

Handedness

• Handedness, or preference for using one hand over the other, becomes strongly established during middle childhood.
• Right-handedness is prevalent in about 90% of the population.
• Left-handedness and ambidextrousness account for the remaining percentage.
• Ambidextrous individuals show no preference for using one hand over the other.
• Right-handedness is typically associated with left-cerebral dominance, while left-handedness is associated with right-cerebral dominance.

Motor Skills Development in Early Childhood

• Gross motor skills include activities like running, jumping, hopping, and throwing.
• Fine motor skills involve tasks like drawing, writing, and tying shoelaces.
• Both gross and fine motor skills develop throughout early childhood, with fine motor skills developing more slowly in preschoolers.
• Bandura's theory of observational learning plays a role in how preschoolers learn both gross and fine motor skills.

Milestones in Fine Motor Skills Development

• Around 3 months of age, babies' eyesight improves, enabling them to reach objects with better accuracy.
• Between 3 and 4 months, babies begin holding objects in a clumsy ulnar grasp, using their palm and enclosed fingers.
• At 4 months, babies reach for everything within their line of sight and practice their grasp.
• At 5 months, babies can transfer objects between their hands, as they are able to sit up and play.
• Around 6 months, babies refine their object manipulation skills, exploring objects with their hands and mouths.
• By 7 months, babies are able to grasp pellet-sized objects crudely between their thumb and forefinger.
• Between 7 and 9 months, most babies can pick up and drink from a cup.
• Around 9 months, babies refine their grasp, holding tiny objects between their thumb and forefinger (pincer grasp) and can now set down larger objects gently.
• By 10 or 11 months, babies can place smaller objects like cereal in a bowl or cup.
• At 12 months, babies can use their hands independently during play, preparing them for tool manipulation in the following year.
• Around 15 months, toddlers begin using tools like cups, spoons, and crayons and can start feeding themselves with utensils.

Explore the development of gross and fine motor skills in young children. This quiz covers key concepts such as reaching, grasping, and the importance of a safe environment for promoting coordination and safety. Enhance your understanding of child motor development stages.