The physical development of a child is a continuous process. Generally, parents have a crucial role in the progress. Every parent is very eager for the first roll over, crawl or walk. However, not all parents know that there are specific areas in physical development. In such cases, it is very important that the parents should provide and foster for the child’s need in each aspect of the developmental process. For instance, the child has already learned to walk. It is essential to observe how the child walks. Is his pace steady? Or, how does he make a step?
There are two primary areas in child physical development – gross motor development and fine motor development. Gross motor development is the general motional ability of the child. It involves how the child move around and move the different parts of the body. Gross motor skills are often shown in activities like walking, running and jumping. Such skills generally make use of the entire body. There are factors that measures the extent of gross motor skills. These are muscle tone, muscle strength, quality of movement and range of movement.
Fine motor development require skills for smaller and lesser movements like in intricate situations. Generally, these skills are focus on the child’s capacity to use the hands properly, which should be according to age. However, there are specific fine motor skills. These are visual motor skills, grapho-motor skills and motor planning skills.
Visual motor skills are needed in the coordination of the hands and the eyes. Activities like puzzles can help in the progress of such skills. Grapho-motor skills includes writing tools. This represents the child’s skills with pencils and pens. Activities like coloring and drawing can show the said skills.
Motor planning defines the child’s capacity to interact with the physical environment. This would mean planning, organizing and carrying out unknown motor actions. For example, a child sees a puzzle for the first time. It is expected that the child will perform beyond fitting the pieces together. The child has to display an organized way of constructing the puzzle.
If your child has not yet properly perform the mentioned skills, you need not worry. Remember that children develop and progress at different paces.