Motor development in children

Motor development – a finely tuned system

Grasping, running, clapping hands: What you first learn in the course of motor development feels child’s play. But motor actions require a precisely coordinated interplay of many different muscles. These must be correctly controlled by the nerves. This in turn requires different areas of the central nervous system (CNS) and feedback from different sensory organs – all within a few milliseconds!

First movement already in the womb

The motor development of a child begins long before birth. Spontaneous movements can be observed as early as the 10th week of pregnancy. However, the first twitches remain unnoticed for a long time, because initially the movements are too weak and there is still enough space in the abdomen.

Movement is important for mental development

Training then continues diligently after birth: grasping, crawling, sitting, standing and walking. But motor development involves much more. It requires motor skills so that babies can have important sensory and physical experiences: without eye or mouth movement, there is no vision, speech or laughter.

This means that motor development is also immensely important for social interaction and is also closely linked to mental abilities. And with every new physical skill learned, the little person’s independence grows!

Reflexes ensure survival

Reflexes are innate involuntary reactions triggered by a specific stimulus. They occur in the same way in every human being. Baby’s innate reflexes ensure its survival.

In addition to the search, suck, and swallow reflexes that enable drinking at the breast or bottle, there are numerous reflexes that accompany motor development during the first two years. These include:

  • Grasp reflex: When touching the palms of the hands, the baby closes the hand into a fist and grasps.
  • Cry reflex: If you hold the baby under the armpits and place the soles of the feet on the floor, the baby automatically makes crying movements.
  • Clasp reflex (Moro reflex): This is a survival reflex that is triggered, for example, by sudden jolts, abrupt changes in head position, loud noises or bright lights. The baby jerks its arms out to the side and spreads its fingers. He then slowly brings his arms together over his chest.

Like the sucking reflex, these reflexes also disappear over time. Other reflexes, on the other hand, remain throughout life. These include, for example, the automatic squinting of the eyes when a bright light source hits them.

During the U examinations, the pediatrician checks the child’s reflexes and motor development steps. This allows him or her to detect any abnormalities or delays and get to the bottom of them.

Gross and fine motor skills

Motor skills are divided into gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills concern body motor skills and locomotion, i.e. large-scale movements of the whole body. Fine motor skills include the small movements of the hands and feet.

Important gross and fine motor skills that a child steadily improves in the first years of life are:

  • Body control: holding the head, rolling onto the stomach, sitting up, learning to sit down
  • Locomotor skills: Sealing, crawling, learning to walk
  • Hand-mouth coordination: grasping, holding, releasing, bringing objects to mouth, eating.
  • Hand and finger dexterity: grasping tweezers, using tools, drawing and painting

Motor development – chart: When does what happen?

Right after birth, arms and legs are in motion. With each month, motor development progresses in the baby, and he develops new skills. Motor development phases can be clearly identified. This is shown in the table below. Please note, however, that the monthly figures are only rough guidelines. The older the child gets, the greater the deviations. So don’t let yourself go crazy if the neighbor’s child of the same age is already walking in contrast to your offspring. A few weeks delay is still completely normal.

Age

Gross motor skills

Fine motor skills

1st month

Reflex creature, lifts head slightly in prone position

Hands mostly clenched to fists

2. month

Babies kicking with arms and legs, raising head in prone position briefly

3. month

Babies can hold head in arms or in prone position head up to 90 degrees and can lean on arms if necessary, muscle training by busy kicking

Bringing hands together above head in supine position, finger movements, individual fingers land in mouth

4th month

Baby pushes legs through with resistance, head holding in prone position gets better, tries to turn himself for the first time

Development of hand-mouth coordination, targeted grasping, leading objects to mouth, holding on works, targeted letting go not yet

5th month

Sitting with help, first turn on side, supporting upper body in prone position

Targeted grasping perhaps with first hand change

6th month

First turn in prone position, first attempts to crawl or to sit down on one’s own

Flat pincer grip, bottle to mouth, grasping in prone position, changing from hand to hand

7th month

Sitting independently, changing from prone to supine position, quadruped stand and first crawling attempts, standing with holding on

8. month

Rapid crawling, standing up freely or standing up with help, sitting freely without support, first attempts to pull up

Hand games, waving and clapping, knocks two objects (e.g. blocks) together

9. month

First attempts to stand, first attempts to hang from furniture or objects, first attempts to climb.

Pinch grip, turning thick baby book pages

10th month

Raising and standing with help, shimmying along furniture or objects, possibly first steps without help

Eating with fingers, drinking from sippy cup, throwing or dropping things, turning movement, scissor and pincer grasping are working better and better

11. month

Stands alone, first free walking attempts, lateral steps at the hand

First tool use, eating with spoon begins

12th month

Free standing and walking, walking sideways, climbing stairs with holding on, first attempts at bending and standing upright

Eating with spoon in fist grip, throwing ball or stacking blocks

After the first birthday, practice continues diligently. Your baby is now increasingly perfecting his fine motor skills and the daily use of tools such as a toothbrush, spoon or pen. The tweezer grip, i.e. the coordination of thumb and index finger to pick up tiny things, is getting better and better.

Fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination improve, especially when drawing and painting. It is normal for two-year-olds to move the pencil from one hand to the other. It is not until around the age of five that handedness (right- or left-handed) should develop.

The older the child, the more interesting sporting activities become, such as playing soccer or handball, climbing and hopping, and riding a tricycle or running bike. In all these sporting activities, children train their sense of balance and hone their body coordination.

What influences motor development?

Thus, the following factors can negatively affect motor development in babies:

  • low birth weight
  • premature birth
  • cerebral seizures
  • early childhood brain damage (cerebral palsy)
  • low educational level of parents
  • psychological problems of parents
  • unwanted pregnancy
  • problems in the partnership

No influence on how quickly a child reaches a milestone in motor development are these factors:

  • Gender
  • Siblings
  • Mode of delivery (cesarean section / normal birth)
  • Size and weight at birth
  • Transport as baby (sling / stroller)
  • Age of mother
  • size of the home
  • social status
  • Place of residence

Promoting motor skills: What can parents do?

A good sense of body awareness is important for the rest of a child’s life. It is beneficial for a child’s motor development if parents or educators motivate the child to move in a variety of ways.

Promoting gross motor skills

The key requirements for promoting gross motor skills are adequate space and the opportunity to move freely in a safe environment. Let your child walk barefoot or in non-slip socks a lot. This promotes balance and motor skills in children.

Specifically, you can encourage your child’s gross motor skills with the following games and activities:

  • Catching and bouncing games
  • Trampolining
  • Crawling tunnel
  • Balancing
  • Climbing stairs
  • Climbing
  • jumping jack
  • Swimming
  • Games with ball, balloon, bouncy rope

Improving fine motor skills

Promoting fine motor skills succeeds better when the movement environment is rather limited and the child can concentrate on the matter at hand. Depending on age, the following activities can promote fine motor skills:

  • Painting with pencils, paintbrushes, wax crayons or floor crayons
  • Threading games with strings and beads
  • Pin games and puzzles
  • Building blocks
  • Hammering games
  • Kneading
  • Folding paper
  • Playing Mikado
  • Weaving (with the weaving frame)
  • Finger games

Motor development delayed?

These differences can be culturally determined (for example, because certain manners restrict children’s motor skills) or because children have a different developmental focus. For example, children with good motor skills usually learn to speak later and children with good language skills learn to walk later.

However, there are also physical blockages (for example, due to birth trauma) that can affect a child’s motor development. After a thorough medical examination and the exclusion of serious diseases, a visit to an osteopath can sometimes work wonders here. If motor development is clearly impaired or seriously delayed, the pediatrician usually recognizes this quite quickly on the basis of the corresponding tests in the U examinations.

What happens during the examinations at the pediatrician? You can read about this in the text U-Examinations.