Physical Development

Physical develop in the early years can be separated into fine motor skills and gross motor skills. While both these skills involve movement, they do have differences:

• Fine motor skills involve movement of the smaller muscle groups in your child’s hands, fingers, and wrists.
• Gross motor skills involve movement of the larger muscle groups, like the arms and legs. It’s these larger muscle groups that allow babies to sit up, turn over, crawl, and walk.

Click on our P.E. page to see how we incorporate both of these motor skills within our weekly P.E sessions:

Both types of motor skills enable children to become more independent. Fine motor skills are especially crucial, not only for the first steps in writing but because strengthening the smaller muscles in the hands allows children to perform self-care tasks without assistance. This includes:

• brushing their teeth
• eating
• writing
• getting dressed

Here are some ways to improve your child's fine and gross motor skills at school and home: