Posts Tagged ‘gross motor skills’
The buzz word around babies is always tummy time! “Make sure they get their tummy time!” “Are you putting your baby on her tummy?” “How much time does your baby spend on her tummy?” Everyone is so concerned with tummy time! and for good reason, too.
Here’s the deal: Babies are born with big heads and weak little muscles. It takes a lot of work to build up the strength in their necks to hold those big heads up. That’s why they sleep all the time! They’re so tired from working on strengthening those muscles.
Tummy time provides the perfect opportunity to help baby develop neck and head strength. My babies, though, are NOT fans of tummy time. Even now, at 8 months, when Elli rolls to her tummy she fusses until we get her sitting up again. But, there are lots of ways to make tummy time work. You can start by laying your baby across your lap on his tummy. Another way to be more involved in tummy time is to lay on your back or recline and put your baby on your chest so you can look at each other. Since babies love faces, this is a great way to make tummy time interesting.
As your little one gets older and stronger, move tummy time to the floor. At first you want to aim for a combined total of 5 minutes a day of tummy time. Once your baby can do 5 minutes in one session, gradually increase the number of times you do tummy time to several a day. Keep tummy time interesting by getting down on your tummy and talking to your baby. You can also put a toy in front of baby to encourage her to keep her head up.
Eventually little ones learn to hold their chest up off the floor with their arms. Then they learn to move their arms to reach for toys. All these aspects of tummy time help babies get stronger and more coordinated which leads to other milestones like crawling and walking.
How does your little one react to tummy time?
A most anticipated motor milestone is walking. We anxiously wait and wait for our little ones to start walking. And then we wish we hadn’t wished so hard because that means child-proofing, chasing them when they try to escape, and so on.
Despite all that, I was so excited for Sammi to walk. Now she could follow me from room to room. She was much happier about keeping up with me, too. It was obvious, though, why newly walking children are called toddler! Her balance was inconsistent. Sometimes she could walk across the room and other times she fell over after just a few steps. Even when she was walking, she had the “characteristic gait of the child who has not fully mastered the skill of walking.” That does nothing to explain how cute it is to see them waddle like a “duck out for a jog!”
It takes about 6 months from the first step to the coordinated smoothnes of an adult’s walking motion. It takes 6 months of practice regardless of the age of the child at the first step! Balance appears to be the factor that affects the smoothness of a walker’s motion. As a child practices and improves balance, steps become more symmetrical and there is less hesitation between steps.
Here’s a video of Sammi’s first full day of walking. What a riot!
The song is Animal Crackers in My Soup by Joanie Bartels’
Sammi loves to throw things! I think it came from another episode of the Sesame Street Podcast: Basketball. She shows me how to throw the ball just like in the video. It’s so fun.
In keeping with the Valentine’s Day theme, since it IS tomorrow, I thought I’d introduce you to a classic game of bean bag toss, Valentine-style. I made these bags (they actually have rice, not beans) out of this cute, soft, pink fabric I found in my stash. Then I found this fun, already-decorated, very pink box and voila, instant Valentine fun!
There are so many variations for throwing the bags into the box. You can see how far your little one can throw. Move the box (or your child) a little each time the bag goes in the box. You can see how high they can throw it and have it land in the box. Try tossing it underhand or overhand. Try standing right next to the box, hold the bag to your nose and drop it in. The box is just a target, something that motivates the action. The bag doesn’t really need to land in the box every time. Help your child experiment with throwing the bean bag.
It takes a lot of fine motor skills to open your fingers to let go, especially when your arm is already moving. Children need to practice letting go just like they need to practice picking things up. Both help develop muscle control in the fingers which is essential for using utensils or writing.
Find as much pink or red as you can today to turn everyday play into Valentine’s Day play! If you are not finding a lot of already-pink things, cut out some pink hearts and decorate a box or bucket so it becomes a special Valentine’s Day toy.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Around two months of age a baby’s movements begin to transition from pure reflexes to more purposeful actions. At this point it is fun to help baby move in a more purposeful way. One of my favorite games for the arms is “So Big!” One reason I like it so much is because it grows with your child to offer new challenges and joys in each developmental stage.
How to Play So Big!
Lay your baby on your legs or the floor. Place your thumbs in the palm of baby’s hands causing them to close around your thumbs. Start the game with your hands resting on baby’s tummy. As you answer the question, raise your hands (with baby’s hands holding on) high above baby’s head. Here’s what you say:
Baby
How big is baby?
So big! (raise hands high above baby’s head)
Older Infant
How big is baby?
So big! (Child starts to raise hands all by himself)
Toddler
How big is (use child’s name)?
So big! (Child will raise hands and say So Big! with you)
Other Variations
- An older sibling can help a baby raise hands high above their head.
- Play with older children using stuffed animals or dolls. They can even throw them up high to see how big they can be!
- Put your name (Mommy or Daddy) in and raise arms up. When you bring them down, encircle baby or toddler in your arms.
Starting between 2 and 5 months babies start to anticipate actions. This game encourages that anticipation because is has the same action with the same words over and over. Babies will start to anticipate the So Big! line and you’ll see their bodies wiggle in excitement as they get ready for their arms to go up. It’s also great for moving the upper body and helping baby recognize a purposeful movement. Another way to encourage this purposeful movement: when you see your baby raise her arms high above her head, say “So big!” and then play the game with her again. Look for your baby to initiate this game with you long before he can talk!
Indoors or out, jumping is a fun activity for toddlers. Many times a day I hear my toddlers voice, “Mommy, want to see how I can jump?” She’s so enthusiastic about it every time that I can’t help but join in with her energy and do a little jumping myself!
Jumping is a gross motor skill, meaning it requires the coordination of large muscle groups. It emerges, generally, between 2 and 2 1/2 years of age. Sammi’s interest in jumping really took off after she watch the Sesame Street Podcast on the word “Jump.” (Find it on iTunes 
) I’m still trying to figure out why my toddler loves jumping so much. Here are some guesses: the wind in her hair, the free-falling feeling coming back down, shear joy in the ability to jump and the fact that she can jump anywhere! I may never know for sure but I do know that she loves it!
I’ve also come across some unexpected benefits from jumping. I recently read about a study in a parenting magazine which found linked jumping with preventing osteoporosis. The study looked at a group of 5-8 year old girls, half of which jumped 100 times a day and the other half who didn’t. The half that jumped showed an increase in bone density. Higher bone density protects the bones from the effects of osteoporosis, a decrease in mineral bone density that leads to increased risk for fracture.
Jumping Activities
Songs:
- If You’re Happy and You Know It: Do a verse with “If you’re happy and you know it jump up and down”
- This Is My Jumping Song from Janeen Brady’s Watch Me Sing Volume 2
Action Plays:
- 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
- Jump Rope Rhymes
Games
- Count the number of jumps
- Jump from one place to another place
- Hopscotch
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