How to Support the Physical Development of a Child

As a child grows, he grows physically, not only in height and weight but also with his gross motor skills. As the child gets older, he develops fine motor skills to do more detailed movements that need more coordination. You can encourage his physical development by helping him practice motor skills.

Instructions

    • 1

      Help your child develop the skills to hold things in her hand at a young age. Place objects in her hand and allow her to experience the feel of holding it and dropping it. Another idea is to hang an object in front of your child and let her swing at and hit it. This allows her to practice hand-eye coordination and turn reflexes into voluntary actions.

    • 2

      Place your baby on his tummy to enable him to strengthen his back, shoulder, hand and arm muscles when he pushes his body up while lying down. Tummy time also helps to prevent a flat spot on the back of your child's head.

    • 3

      Allow your child to do things herself. This promotes independence and also lets her learn from trial and error and cause and effect, two important parts of physical development of a child. When eating, let her make a mess because it helps her to learn the motions of feeding herself.

    • 4

      Give your child blocks, clay or modeling clay to play with and manipulate. Part of the physical development of a child is for him to develop the fine motor skills of the fingers and hands. These objects let him work his hands to build things and manipulate the objects.

    • 5

      Bring your child to playgrounds or places she can run, climb and jump around to encourage her to develop her gross motor skills. Gross motor skills are a part of a child's physical development that comes more naturally to most children than fine motor skills.

    • 6

      Encourage your child to do everyday tasks such as buttoning and unbuttoning, zippering clothes or opening and closing a door himself. Also encourage him to cut and paste things, draw and write. All of these will help with his fine motor skills.

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