This article provides gross motor skill examples. These include jumping, climbing, and running as well as more specific activities like balance beam walking or skipping rope. Find out how you can encourage your child to develop their gross motor skills!
Gross Motor Skills
“All those skills that require whole-body movements are called gross motor skills”. We know the babies learn to crawl, sit, walk, run, and jump with time. It also includes those skills that require eyes and body coordination for proper execution.
All those abilities that require our large body muscle movements for better performance are termed gross motor skills. These skills usually require your arms and leg long muscles movement.
These skills start and grow with time and are learned skills to some extent. For example, a baby develops some skills with time. at the age of six months, babies start to observe their surroundings and they learn to hold things with the help of their hands and with time they learn to maintain balance and can sit, and when they reach the age of nine-month they learn to stand with the help of something like table or chair and then they start maintaining their balance and learn to walk, and these are gross motor skills because they required most of the muscle movement like a hand, leg, foot and involve the related muscles.
Gross Motor Skill Examples
The type of skills that children learn at an early age are;
Crawling
It is the baby’s first milestone and is the first step toward complex gross motor skills. We have discussed that gross motor skills require most of our large muscle movements. Where are these large muscles in our body? our hands, legs, belly, and back have the largest muscles.
What happens when a baby crawls? When a baby crawls it uses all these muscles, he moves his hand and legs with the coordination of the belly and the back muscles.
Sitting
When a baby grows to the age of five and six months it starts perceiving its surroundings and this is the age when most of the healthy babies turn themselves and try to sit and hold a colorful toy that is placed at some distance, for doing this they usually move their hands and legs to push themselves ahead and with time this movement helps them in sitting.
A Child learns with time to sit upright with the use of hand, leg, belly, and back muscles, and all these muscles are large. Hence, sitting is a gross motor skill.
Lifting
When a baby reaches the age of three months he starts to use his finger but it is not a gross motor skill, these skills involve large muscles like lifting our hand and picking up something from the flour, and children at the age of one year.
Walking
It is also one of the gross motor skills and requires our large muscles for its healthy execution. Normally children at the age of ninth or tenth month struggle to walk on their two feet and they try to maintain their balance by holding something and with some support many parents give workers to their babies and this help.
When we walk all our large body muscles coordinate with each other, therefore, walking is a motor skill. At the age of two children learn to maintain their balance even on one foot. Hence standing and balancing on one foot also need gross motor abilities.
Running
After learning to walk, what is the next milestone in learning gross motor skills? Yes, it is running. After maintaining balance during the walk babies try to achieve the next milestone that is “running”.
Running is a whole-body workout. There are lots of body muscles involved in running. Some of these muscles are core muscles, calf muscles, flexors, tendons, and ligaments.
Core muscles are located in the upper part of our leg and the calf muscles are located in the lower part of the leg while Flexor’s muscle is located in the back of the hip, all these large muscle groups must be strong enough and respond correctly when we run.
Jumping
It is a next-level motor skill children at the age of two years learn to jump to a certain height. and they can even jump from a height.
Kicking
Kicking is also an example of gross motor skills. When children kick a ball with their leg they use their back and leg muscles and with the coordination of both these muscles, we kick a ball and any object with the help of our foot. children at the age of two years learn this skill. They can kick a ball and can maintain their balance during the process.
Cycling
It is also one of the child’s motor skills that involve our long muscles. children at the age of two learn to ride a tricycle and they can ride a bicycle accurately at the age of six. They easily learn to maintain their balance while cycling with time they can even manage it without holding its handle.
Catching
It is another skill that involves our muscle’s coordination and children learn to catch a ball and can perceive the position of a ball coming toward them, at their fourth they attain perfection in this skill with time and can do multiple skills at the same time.
Swimming
It is another motor skill that involves the coordination of muscles, children at the age of six can swim, they require little training for mastering the skill. Swimming will make muscles strong and is a refreshing skill.
These and many other related skills are learned skills and specific to child age level. now, here the question is;
what skills do children learn at different ages?
Child’s Gross Motor skills
Kids need to achieve different developmental milestones at different childhood levels and here are the gross motor skills that children attain at different ages;
Toddlers
Kids between one and two years are called toddlers, and they have much of their body awareness and learn different motor skills.
- Hand-eye coordination
- Holding a toy
- Whole-body movement
- Sitting and standing
- Crawling
- Moving ahead
- Moving upward with the help of legs
- Walking with or without support
- Climbing stairs
Early childhood
It is the age between 2 to 6 years and kids learn some foundational skills and some bigger movements. They learn some more complex physical activities that are important for their childhood development. these skills are;
- Reading and writing
- Standing on one foot
- Riding a bicycle with the help of training wheels
- Climbing monkey bars
- Learning ball skills that involve throwing and catching a ball.
- Kicking a rolling ball with anyone leg
- Jumps to a certain height
These are a few skills but there are many that kids during their childhood learn to do. The parents need to encourage their child to learn these skills and by doing this they will usually have a healthy tummy time in their early years and it will keep them healthy.
How to develop gross motor skills?
Many activities can help a child in learning gross motor skills. These activities help in muscle coordination and with practice, kids learn to do complex things without any problem. Here are some of the activities that are important for a healthy child’s development.
Indoor activities
Parents can encourage their kids to do these indoor activities, even toddlers can take part in some of the activities.
- Playing with building blocks
- Pulling and pushing the cars, and trolley.
- Jumping and hoping
- To hit the target
Outdoor activities
There are many games and activities that children can do out of their houses and are called outdoor games.
- Catching and throwing a ball
- Walking, running, and jumping on a trampoline
- Riding a bicycle
- Swimming
- Shooting down through a slide.
- Climbing ladders
- Sand play
- Skipping
Are fine motor skills and gross motor skills similar?
No, both of these skills have differences. Fine motor skills involve the movement of the small muscles like the muscles of our hands and fingers. When we hold things with our hands and pick something up we use our small muscles. Learning writing skills is a fine motor skill. While gross motor skills involve the movement of our large muscles and it involves some complex movement hence is different from fine motor skills.
Delays in the gross motor skills
Many children do not achieve the milestones that are specific at different ages but the kids have to achieve them at different levels for their healthy life. Many peer-reviewed studies have been conducted to evaluate the causes behind these delays.
According to the studies the causes behind these delays are;
Dyspraxia
It is a disease that causes motor delays in children. It is a lifelong condition. It is a neurological disorder that affects physical coordination. Dyspraxia is a developmental coordination disorder that creates difficulty in child motor planning. Children suffering from this disorder cannot perform their gross motor activities accurately.
Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is another neurological disorder that creates problems in performing some of the fine motor skills and creates problems in learning, reading, and writing. Kids with this disorder have unusual writing and they feel difficulty in writing because of the weakness in the hand muscle and brain processing.
Developmental delays
Sometimes developmental delays become a cause of gross motor delays. Children suffering from developmental delays have problems with their gross motor activities. They get this problem by birth. Many incidents have been reported that occupational therapy helps in reducing the effects of developmental delays.
Neurological problems
Many children are born with neurological problems and as a result, suffer from gross motor delays; they cannot perform physical activity and do not even have their body awareness.
Lack of physical exercise
One of the reasons behind these gross motor delays is a lack of physical exercise. children who do not use their muscles can get this problem. physical activity, physical therapy, and proper exercise can help in reducing the symptoms. Encourage your kids to move their bodies and do physical exercise to maintain their health.
Genetic conditions
Some gross motor delays result due to genetic conditions. Achondroplasia is a genetic condition that causes motor delays in children. In this condition they get shorter limbs than a normal one that creates trouble even in small movements.
Treatment of the gross motor delays
The gross motor delays vary from mild to moderate, mild delays can be cured easily without any treatment but the moderate to severe delays need help. Parents should take help from their doctors to resolve the issues that are related to their child’s gross motor skills.
Suggestions
Here are some suggestions for your child gross motor delays;
- Consult with the occupational physical therapist.
- Consult with the pediatric physical therapist, they will suggest the possible medicines and the treatments for your child’s gross motor delays.
- Physical therapy also helps in reducing the symptoms of gross motor delays.
- Regular exercise will help in reducing the severity of the problem.
Parents should keep an eye on their child’s growth and development and observe them. They should cooperate and encourage their kids to learn new skills and if they perceive any abnormality they should consult a doctor and take timely action.
Gross Motor Skill Examples Conclusion
This article has covered a lot of ground. If you are interested in learning more about the different Gross Motor Skill Examples for development, please let me know! I would love to share more articles with you on this subject.
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