Motor Skills Development
Motor Skills Development
Motor Skills Development
In the strand of motor skills acquisition, children develop the basic skills for
them to be efficient and effective movers.
Motor Skills Acquisition
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills involve coordination and control of the wrists, fingers and hands in carrying out a specific
task with precision.
Acquisition of fine motor skills helps children to be more independent in carrying out daily activities such as
cutting with a pair of scissors and applying glue on a piece of paper.
Strengthening the fine motor skills also allows children to perform self-help tasks such as tying their
shoelaces and fastening buttons on their clothes.
When children have well-developed fine motor skills, they will be able to use drawing, writing and art tools
such as pencils, chalks and paintbrushes more efficiently.
Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills involve the use of the large muscles in the arms, legs and torso during movement. Using the large
muscles, children are able to perform the fundamental movement skills comprising locomotor, non-locomotor and
manipulative skills.
Learning experiences that allow children to explore a variety of movements and develop their gross motor skills.
Writing requires good Well-developed fine motor skills allow children to
control of the hands. be skillful in using their fingers to create art works.
Strengthening hand muscles helps children to be more precise in
performing more complex skills such as cutting and weaving.
Balancing:
To extend their learning, get children to explore balancing their beanbags on different parts of the body
Throwing and catching
Get children to practise tossing soft rubber balls (body awareness) above their heads (relationship awareness)
and catching them with both hands. The activity can be extended to pairwork (relationship awareness) that
allow them to work with their partners in throwing and catching the soft rubber quoits (relationship awareness).
Health and Fitness
Through their involvement in physical activities, children develop components of fitness such as agility, coordination and
flexibility. Physical fitness is an essential part of children’s learning as it affects their performance in sports and games. For
example, how fast a child runs is related to his muscular strength and endurance.
3-4 year-old Development:
Gross motor (big body and movement) skills Your child is learning to:
•Walk up and down stairs, alternating feet -- one foot per step
•Climb well
Gross motor (big body and movement) skills Your child is learning to:
• Skip, hop on one foot five times, and stand on one foot for 5 seconds.
• Throw a ball for a longer distance both underhand and overhand, and begin to hit a target.
Fine motor (play and self-help) skills Your child is learning to:
• Draw a circle, square, X and a person with three or four body parts.
• Reproduce a line of three to five beads or blocks using the same sizes, shapes or colors.
• Jump forward, taking off with both feet and landing on both feet.
• Jump over an object, taking off with and landing on both feet.
• Stand on one leg for 10 seconds without losing balance or holding your hands for support.
• Hop on one foot for 20 feet or more without losing balance.
• Skip.
• Throw a ball underhand and overhand.
• Hit a target with a tennis ball.
• Catch a large ball.
Fine motor (play and self-help) skills Your child is learning to:
• Copy or print letters, numbers and simple words (though you may not be able to read his or her
writing).
• Copy complex shapes, such as designs with two shapes (overlapping circles), an arrow or a diamond.