You might have heard a lot of terminology thrown around about child development like cognition, social interaction, emotional regulation, sensory awareness and fine & gross motor skills – you might be thinking ‘I’m not a child development expert how am I meant to know what these things mean? How do I know that I’m doing the right things?’ Well don’t panic, this series of articles on child development will peel back the unnecessary jargon and give you practical ways to help your child learn the skills they need.
The first area of child development that we will look at are Fine Motor Skills.
Fine motor skills are the ability to move the small muscles in our hands, wrists, and fingers. These skills are important to do key tasks in our everyday life such as: holding a pencil, using a keyboard, drawing & writing, using scissors and other tools, brushing your teeth, and even getting dressed!
As adults, we do these movements naturally and automatically, but they actually require a lot of practice as the brain and muscles need to be able to coordinate effectively.
Right from birth children are exercising their fine motor skills; their tiny hands have an in-built reflexive grasp (when you touch their palm their hands will close). This soon develops into actively reaching for things and experimenting with holding different shaped and sized objects – soon there is no stopping them, as they explore their world, they are naturally exercising their fine motor skills.
Small children often become quite frustrated at their limited ability to get their bodies to do what their brains want; but we all know that the best way to build up a muscle and to build knowledge is to exercise our bodies and minds regularly – this is true of fine motor development in children as well.
Children need a lot of time and varied, fun opportunities to effectively build their skills; here’s how you can help your child as they move from infancy into toddlerhood and their preschool years.
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