Motor Skills and Language Development?
Gross vs. Fine Motor
Motor Skills are our body’s ability to move around and complete tasks in our everyday lives. For your baby, his motor skills begin developing right after birth and continues to develop as he grows. Gross Motor Skills – Are movements involving our larger muscles such as your arms, legs, and core. Some examples of Gross Motor Movements are:
- Tummy Time – especially when baby is lifting his head
- Sitting up
- Pulling himself up to stand
- Walking
Fine Motor Skills – As the name suggest, these movements involve smaller muscles. Here are some examples of Fine Motor Skills
- Grasping and Playing with Toys
- Using a Utensil (Fork or Spoon)
- Tuning Pages in a Book
Why Are Motor Skills Important?
Motor Skills allows your child to navigate the world around him. Making sure your baby/toddler gets time everyday to work on his motor skills will help your child:
- Meet developmental milestones
- Move about and play independently
- MY FAVORITE: Promote Cognitive, Sensory, and SPEECH/LANGUAGE development
Activities To Promote Both Motor and Language Skills
Stair-Climbing Activity
Before beginning any activities involving stair, make sure all staircases in the home are child-proof and have Safety Gates
Climbing stairs is a great gross motor skill for your little one to practice, not only does it have amazing developmental benefits such as building up his leg muscles and increasing his coordination skills, it can also be a fun activity to practice his speech/language skills. I know, as a parent we want to avoid possible dangerous situations. However when done in a safe and supervised environment, teaching your child to crawl/walk up and down stairs will actually help reduce the risks of reducing the risk of tumbling.
Speech Time – Using supervision and proper safety measures, assist your child in crawling down the stairs, repeating the words DOWN, For my LO, we begin by getting close to the first step and say “OK, now, we SIT, then Turn, and go DOWN, repeating the word “DOWN” for each step. When going up repeat same steps using the word “UP.”
