Home
>
Parenting
>
Promoting Your Childs Motor Development

Promoting Your Childs Motor Development

Assuming there are no serious motor problems present, what can you, as an involved parent, do to help promote your child's motor development? To help ensure she becomes a competent, confident mover who enjoys and therefore takes part in physical activity? The answer is: Plenty!

Practice is one of the most important factors involved in achieving higher levels of skill performance. But one of the most important factors involved in practice is that it not feel like practice!

It's simple, really: All you have to do is play with your child. It should be noncompetitive play, with no pressure whatsoever, and your child should never guess you're trying to "improve" him.

Following are some other general tips to keep in mind:

* Keep the sessions short. It's better to have shorter, more frequent sessions than to wear your child out with a few that seem never-ending.

* Build on skills in a logical order (walking before running; jumping before hopping, etc.). Remember, too, that performing a skill in a stationary environment precedes performing it in a moving environment. An example is catching a ball tossed to oneself versus catching one hit by a bat.

* If you're using equipment (for instance, a bat and ball), be sure it's child-sized. Equipment meant for adults can seriously stack the odds against a child.

* Keep a progression in mind for equipment, too. For instance, if you're working on catching, start with something simple and nonthreatening that allows for maximum success, like a chiffon scarf. Then work your way up from there, perhaps with a balloon, followed by a small beach ball and then increasingly smaller (soft, easily grasped) balls.

* Children need to work on a skill as a whole before attempting its smaller parts. For example, a child needs to feel comfortable with a vertical jump as a whole before she can begin to concentrate on toe-ball-heel landings or the role her arms can play in achieving greater height.

* Be sure your child is dressed in clothing that allows for maximum movement and the possibility of dirtying.

* Whenever possible, demonstrate a skill yourself so your child has an opportunity to see what it should look like. Children need to employ as many senses in the learning process as possible.

Children also need feedback as they practice their motor skills ? and the most important thing you can remember is to keep it neutral and encouraging. We too often believe we need to tell children what they've done wrong ? so they can fix it. But if you do need to make corrections, keep the "sandwich" approach in mind. First, compliment the child on something she's done right. Then suggest a way to eliminate the error. Finally, end with something positive, even if it's to reiterate the first point.

To be truly helpful to a child, we must avoid "moralizing" with our feedback. A jump isn't "good" or "bad." A jump is either high or low, light or heavy. If we use the former descriptors ? or use such general terms as "good job," "good girl/boy," or "I liked that jump" ? we aren't really telling the child anything. He has no idea what was "good" about what he did. But if we describe what we've seen ("You landed very lightly from your jump, with your knees bent. That helps keep your knees from getting hurt."), we not only provide vocabulary for what he's done; we provide useful specifics as well.

Finally, when providing feedback, make sure you give it in small amounts. Young children can generally absorb only one bit of information at a time. So, if your child is practicing his long jump and you're instructing him to "swing your arms out and up and extend your knees and hips on takeoff; then bring your arms back down and bend your knees in preparation for landing," he'll likely miss most ? if not all ? of the information!

Rae Pica is a children's physical activity specialist and author of Your Active Child: How to Boost Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive Development through Age-Appropriate Activity (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Rae speaks to parent and education groups throughout North America. To visit her and to read more articles, go to http://www.movingandlearning.com.

expert residential cleaners Park Ridge ..

In The News:

The Omoway Omo X features a modular design, obstacle detection and emergency braking, and can drive itself to charging stations, signaling the future of smart urban mobility.

PillTrek, a tiny wireless smart capsule created by Caltech, provides real-time gut health data by detecting electrolytes, metabolites, glucose, hormones, pH levels and temperature.

Learn to spot fake bank text messages with five warning signs of Chase phishing scams, including suspicious links and urgent deadlines designed to steal your account information.

Robot coyotes built on motorized cars reaching 20 mph are being deployed at military airfields as an innovative solution to wildlife threats to aircraft safety.

Explore Google Drive's strengths and weaknesses as a backup solution, including its encryption security, privacy concerns and comparison to dedicated backup tools.

As environmental challenges grow, underwater habitats gain momentum with DEEP's Vanguard, supporting short missions and Sentinel designed for 28-day stays at depth.

The new Urban Eyes safety vest features dual cameras, reflective panels and a wireless remote to deter harassers and provide peace of mind for outdoor workouts.

The $200 billion data broker industry tracks your personal details across websites, posing privacy risks that can be mitigated through data removal services.

UCC Holding has teamed up with COBOD to create desert-inspired, 3D-printed schools in Qatar, featuring dune-like wavy walls impossible with conventional construction.

Darkling beetles equipped with microchip backpacks can be guided through disaster areas using electrical signals, offering a biological solution for search and rescue.

Scammers use number porting to take control of outdated landlines still connected to financial accounts, bypassing two-factor authentication to steal funds while avoiding detection.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey developed Bitchat, a privacy-focused messaging app that works offline via Bluetooth without requiring email, phone numbers or personal data.

Google is making a push to ensure its AI, Gemini, is tightly integrated with Android systems by granting it access to core apps like WhatsApp, Messages, and Phone.

A new green energy system is set to change how we capture clean power, and it all starts with the ocean. French startup Seaturns has designed technology that taps into the natural motion of the sea.

Cybersecurity researchers are warning that hackers have started exploiting flaws in chatbots to carry out AI phishing attacks.

Google has just made it easier than ever to regain control of your inbox with Gmail's new Manage Subscriptions tool.

Despite the benefits, residential power saver programs come with several potential drawbacks and concerns that have been raised by both customers and experts.

The Blackdot AI tattoo machine is quiet. It's steady. And according to early users, it hurts a lot less.

Attackers have started to exploit the very signals that users assume will keep them safe when it comes to add-ons to improve productivity or entertainment.

Located on Cerro Pachón in Chile, the world's most powerful digital camera is set to transform how we see the universe.

The innovative DQ Tower stands 28 feet tall with 420 square feet of living space, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and premium amenities in a prefabricated design.

A new mmWave imaging system allows warehouse robots to scan and create 3D models of objects inside sealed containers, potentially revolutionizing shipping processes.

Family fraud endangers seniors when relatives exploit their trust, but removing personal data online and monitoring identity can prevent financial harm to aging parents.

A study analyzing 500,000 customer service interactions shows chatbots struggle with complex issues while human agents excel at matching customer communication styles.

Aigen's Element robot uses solar power and AI to provide farmers with a sustainable alternative to herbicides, working efficiently in cotton and soy fields.

Promoting Your Childs Motor Development

Parenting