This is just a test, but i want a link to my Glossary
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Author: Natasha Boskic
Motor Development: How Development in the Early Childhood Years Affects Development in the Elementary School Years1
The development of more complex skills is not possible without the development of earlier, less complex skills. For example:
- For children, fine motor skills include holding pencils and crayons, eating with utensils properly, tying shoe laces and playing the piano.
- Activities that require gross/ large motor skills and that impact on other skills and activities include the following:
- Moving around the school, up and downstairs
- Participating in PE (Physical education class) and in school sports
- Play and socializing at recess and lunch hours
- For grown-ups, fine motor skills include being able sign one’s name, pour coffee, shell a hard-boiled egg and unwrap and eat a burger.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
As an adult think of what the eye/hand coordination you need in order to get a simple cup of coffee from a coffee shop:
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Motor Development: Fine Motor Skills1
Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the body, usually located in the hands. Eye/hand coordination (see full Glossary) is essential in developing fine motor skills. Fine motor development involves skills that we will need for most things we do through our life.
Motor development also includes the oral/motor area that surrounds the child’s mouth. In order for children to be able to swallow and eat properly, or to pronounce words the right way, they need to have good control over their oral/motor muscles. A child whose oral/motor muscles are either too tight (hypertonic) or too flabby (hypotonic), may require help in learning to talk, and assistance in feeding and swallowing.
Fine motor development includes the following:
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Figure 1: Nesting cups
Vignette
When Maria she was 3 years old she started using her left hand often. The family was concerned. However the pediatrician assured them that being left-handed was the same as being right-handed and they should allow her to use the hand she prefers. By age 5 Maria paints and eats with her left hand and doing well in school. If her parents had forced her to use her right hand, Maria would have probably had a hard time. Luckily, her parents did research, listened to experts and gave her what she needed to grow and thrive.
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Motor Development: Gross Motor Skills1
Gross motor development, also called large motor development, refers to the development of the large muscles in the body. These are the muscles that help us sit, stand, walk, run, go up and down the stairs, and kick a ball, among many other activities.
Typically developing children usually develop gross motor skills in this order:
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Figure 1: Child lifting head while on tummy
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Motor Development: A Brief Overview1
Motor development refers to the development of a child’s bones, muscles and ability to move around and manipulate his or her environment. Motor development can be divided into two sections: gross motor development and fine motor development.
- Gross motor development involves the development of the large muscles in the child’s body. These muscles allow us to sit, stand, walk and run, among other activities.
- Fine motor development involves the small muscles of the body, especially in the hand.
Motor development also involves how well children’s muscles work. This is referred to as muscle tone. Children need a balanced muscle tone in order to develop their muscles and use them with ease when standing, sitting, rolling, walking, running, swimming and all other other postures and actions.
Motor development also involves the child’s vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Both of these are part of the child’s sensory system.
- The vestibular system is located in the inner ear and allows the body to maintain balance.
- The proprioceptive system involves the inner ear, the muscles, joints and tendons. It allows the body to understand where it’s located. Maintaining balance and posture and having coordinated movements are only possible if the proprioceptive system is functioning well.
The typical development of a child’s motor skills usually follows a predictable order or sequence.
- Development occurs from the inner body to the outer body. This means that children usually develop or gain control over their arms before they develop or gain control over their fingers.
- Development also starts from top to bottom. Children need to control their head first, then they will gain control over their legs and feet.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: CONNECTING ALL THE DEVELOPMENTAL AREAS
How well a child’s motor skills are developing will influence how well they do in other developmental areas:
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Adaptive (Self-Help) Development: How Development in the Early Years Affects Development in the Elementary School Years1
Adaptive skills relate to daily habits and routines. The adaptive or self-help skills that children develop in the early years are essential in their overall development during the elementary and high-school years. Developing these skills is important for children because they may influence a person’s quality of life. Here are a few examples:
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Toilet Training
Adaptive (Self-Help) Development: Toiletting Skills for Infants, Toddlers and Children1
Toilet training is an area of development that many parents struggle with. Although we would like to see our children get toilet trained early and quickly, each child has their own timetable with regards to when they are ready to be toilet trained. The ability to hold one’s bowel and bladder is largely a biological/physiological function (see full Glossary) and cannot be rushed. It’s therefore important not to force a child to sit on a potty or a toilet seat before they are ready. Children are also more likely to be toilet trained quickly when they receive praise when they do use the toilet, rather than being criticized when they have a toileting accident. Most children are usually not ready to be toilet trained until they are two years of age or older. Parents who wait until after the second year of life to toilet train their children are usually able to do so much faster and with fewer accidents than parents who choose to start earlier.
In order to develop good toileting skills, children usually go through the following:
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Adaptive (Self-Help) Development: Typical Feeding and Nutrition Patterns for Infants, Toddlers and Young Children1
Children go through specific stages in the development of their feeding skills. Although completely dependent on others at first, they quickly learn to eat and drink on their own, first with baby materials (e.g. baby bottles and sippy cups) then with grown-up materials (e.g. spoons and chopsticks).
Most children develop feeding patterns and skills in this order:
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It’s important to note that some children may go through stages of “food refusal.” This is a typical part of development. Food refusal usually happens when a child is starting to develop a sense of self. They are learning how to talk and communicate and want to let others know that they are the “boss.” They may decide to refuse a certain type of food that they were willing to eat the week before. Parents and those who work with young children should not force children to eat what they do not want to eat. Instead, we should realize that this is a part of growing up and a food that is refused today may be eaten in a few weeks’ time. We should let children exercise a little bit of control with regards to what they want to eat, and reintroduce the refused food a few weeks later. This shows children they can make their own decisions and that they can have a say in what happens to them.
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Sleep Patterns
Adaptive (Self-Help) Development: Typical Sleep Patterns in Infants, Toddlers And Young Children1
Newborns spend a good portion of their time sleeping. As months go by, they spend more hours awake. However, sleep and rest continue to be essential for the healthy physical and emotional development of infants, toddlers and older children. Recent research has also connected good sleep patterns to cognitive skills development. In fact, those children with poor sleeping habits who do not get the minimum 10 hour sleep per night may experience stunted growth and development in children in preschool ages. These children may also be more irritable and cranky when they are awake―very much like adults who have difficulties with their sleep!
Sleep habits and a family’s’ cultural background and beliefs are connected. Different families hold different views of nighttime sleep. They can also hold different views on the “correct” way a baby is put to sleep, where they sleep and for how long they are left asleep.
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Night waking happens at different stages. It’s important for parents to realize there are different reasons a baby may wake up during the night. Parents react and respond differently to night waking based on why the infant or child is up.
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By the time they between 6 and 9 months old, most babies are not hungry when they wake up during the night. At this stage, the recommendation from experts in baby sleep is for parents to give baby a chance to calm themselves down before picking them up, unless the parents learn, through the baby’s cry, that they might be in pain or discomfort. For babies who are not hungry, in pain or discomfort, self-soothing and self-regulation are important skills they need to develop early in life. These skills will help them be able to take good care of themselves when they are older. For some children, it could be more difficult to learn this type of independence if they are not given the opportunity to calm themselves down when they are babies. Giving the baby a gentle pat on the back or singing to them after a couple of minutes of cry generally help babies to calm down. At the same time, parents may want to pick the baby up if crying persists and gets louder. Between 9 and 12 months, most babies are sleeping through the night, or an average of six to eight hours, non-stop.
As babies and toddlers grow older, they may require less continuous sleep. Most babies will benefit from one or two naps per day. As they enter the early childhood years, they may need just one nap (or no naps at all) during the day.
It’s important not to force a baby to eat or play when they are tired or sleepy. Babies will most likely not enjoy these activities and may end up associating these activities with “feeling cranky or tired”, which may cause them to avoid these activities in the future.
Difficulties with sleep have also been linked somewhat to the baby’s temperament. Babies with predominantly “difficult temperament” may have difficulty with regular/irregular feeding or changing habits.
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Adaptive (Self-Help) Development: General Development1
Adaptive skills and behaviors are the skills needed to do everyday tasks. These skills are tools adults use to live independently within our community norms. They include dressing and undressing, bathing and hygiene, toileting, and later cleaning, cooking and maintaining a household.
Like all areas of development, the successful development of adaptive skills relies heavily on the successful development of other skills.
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Like other developmental areas for most typically developing children, the development of adaptive skills follows a predictable order. Learning “simpler” skills is crucial to the development of the more complex skills that are learned later on.
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When developing dressing and undressing skills, children usually go through the following sequence of skills:
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