Gross Motor Skills & Fine Motor Skills

Babies start developing their motor skills from birth. Simple tasks such as grasping objects, walking, throwing and kicking require learning and practice. These skills are known as motor skills: gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

  1. Gross Motor Skills

    • Gross motor skills include learned coordination of the major muscles and awareness of the body and balance. Children become aware of their body relative to others and objects around them so they can avoid walking into them. They learn to walk backward, walk up steps, throw balls, jump, and ride bikes and tricycles.

    Gross Motor Skill Practice

    • To encourage development of the gross motor skills, encourage your child to play ball games, mimic animal movements such as hopping like a kangaroo and slithering like a snake, and encourage standing on one leg for short periods. Play statues where the children run around then have to stop at the sound of a whistle.

    Fine Motor Skills

    • Fine motor skills use the smaller muscles and include the learning of manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Writing, typing, drawing, and eye movement use fine motor skills; children learn to grasp and hold onto objects and to dress and undress themselves.

    Fine Motor Skills Practice

    • Children can practice their fine motor skills by playing with dough and rolling it into shapes, drawing, painting, writing, using tweezers to pick up small objects, playing with small bricks, and cutting and shredding paper.

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