Motor Skills

When babies begin to participate and engage in the world around them it is indicative of them becoming more and more independant. From the moment a baby is born into this world she will begin the process of developing the motor skills that are necessary for her to take command of that which is around her and for her to relate with her environment.

Because of this, a baby who has mastered the motor skill of sitting up without help, for example, will have a completely different outlook on the environment than the baby who has not yet mastered this skill.

You will find as your baby begins to stack skill upon skill that his experience of the world, and in turn the complexity of newly learned skills will grow. As your baby's motor skills grow and become more complex, so will your baby's overall interaction.

Look out world, here I come!

Physical development can be broken up into three month intervals and divided into two categories: Gross motor skills and find motor skills.

Gross motor skills are the term used to describe your baby's ability to control different parts of her own body.

Fine motor skills refer to your baby's level of coordination of different body parts, such as picking up an opject with her thumb and finger.

Infant muscle development starts at the head and works it's way down. Your baby will first develop control over neck muscles. Soon after that he will learn to control torso and finally leg muscles.

Your baby will then roll over by herself, start sitting up on her own, and eventually crawl.

He will enjoy bouncing on your knee which is a great way to promote balance. By the time he is eight months old, he will probably learn how to pull himself into an upright position and walk around the room holding the furniture.

Typically, a baby will start to walk between the ages of nine months and fifteen months. If you baby isn't walking yet but is crawling, sitting up and standing with no problems, he is developing just fine, don't worry. Perfectly normal babies will sometimes walk as late as nineteen months. If you think there is a problem, ask your doctor.

Walkers are another one of those things that you will have to decide to use or not to use. Many people will tell you they are wrong to offer to your baby. Other people will swear it is the only way to go. Do your research and decide what works for you. As I look around me, I don't see any grade school students still using their walkers so I can't see any harm in using them.

To shoe or not to shoe. Babies learn to walk easier without shoes on their feet. If you floors are cold, it's a good idea to put shoes on baby. Otherwise, let him run around barefoot.

Motor skills are not exactly the same as eye and hand coordination but they are pretty close. The development of eye-hand coordination often parallels and/or compliments the development of gross and fine motor skills. There are some activities your baby can do to increase her coordination and develop her motor skills.

Here are a few examples:

• Puzzles. Get your baby started on jigsaw puzzles. There are baby-style puzzles which only have 4 or 5 pieces. As baby accomplishes these easy puzzles, get progressively harder puzzles. Don't move too fast, you don't want to frustrate the new learning mind.
• Duplo Blocks. These are baby sized lego type blocks.
• Plastic building blocks.
• Peg and hole toys. These teach baby to recognize different shapes.
• Plastic donut toy. Teaches eye-hand coordination.

Encourage baby to play and develop his skills. Don't stress correctness right away. Stress fun. Baby will learn to do it right is it is fun to try. Avoid doing it for baby. It is hard to resist the temptation to just do it. Baby can't learn by watching, he has to figure it out for himself. You watch and encourage.