Activities To Enhance Your Child’s Motor Skills

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months and continued breastfeeding for as long as possible. Growing up milks are formulated to meet nutrition needs of healthy young children older than 1 year and should not be fed to infants.

Gross and fine motor skills are important milestones for a child’s growth and development.

To promote these skills and help your little munchkin practice and acquire perfect control and coordination of large body movements, in addition to small movements of hands and fingers, try this selection of games and play activities:

Activities that promote gross motor skills:

• Running at various speeds.
• Jumping or playing hopscotch.
• Throwing, catching and kicking balls.
• Riding a tricycle or similar toy.
• Playing with push toys, such as cars.

Activities that promote fine motor skills:

• Assembling puzzles of different sizes.
• Playing and drawing with color crayons, brushes, chalks and scissors.
• Stacking and arranging blocks of different sizes.
• Making necklaces and bracelets out of round cereals, pasta and other simple items.
• Playing with dough and using scissors and small plastic moulds to cut and make various models.
• Emptying and filling boxes or containers with cubes, blocks or other small items.
• Holding plastic blocks of different sizes, colors and forms, feeling them and using them to build houses and towers, etc.

Use these easy activities and games to improve your child’s motor development, but don’t forget the positive reinforcement; praising efforts not just accomplishments can be very encouraging!

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