What are Gross Motor skills?
Gross motor skills is a term mainly used by schools and Nurseries to describe children’s coordination and strength with large/full body motioned activities. It focuses on the use of larger muscles in the body and overall core strength. Good gross motor skills tend to go hand in hand with sporting activities which will look into further.
Examples of Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills involve the coordination and control of large muscle groups to perform physical movements and activities. These skills play a crucial role in a child’s overall physical development and are essential for everyday tasks, sports, and physical play. Here are some common examples of gross motor skills:
- Running and Jogging: The ability to move quickly and smoothly on foot, maintaining balance and coordination.
- Jumping: Being able to propel oneself off the ground using both feet simultaneously and landing with control.
- Hopping: Executing a series of consecutive jumps on one foot while maintaining balance.
- Skipping: A combination of hopping and stepping, where one foot moves forward while the other foot pushes off the ground.
- Climbing: Scaling objects such as stairs, ladders, or playground equipment using both hands and feet.
- Balancing: Maintaining equilibrium while standing or walking on a narrow or unstable surface.
- Throwing: The skill of propelling an object, such as a ball, with force and accuracy.
- Catching: Receiving and grasping a thrown or tossed object, demonstrating hand-eye coordination.
- Kicking: Striking an object with the foot, like a soccer ball or a kicking a target.
- Riding a Bicycle: Pedaling, steering, and maintaining balance while cycling.
- Swinging: Moving back and forth on a swing, coordinating leg pumping and body weight shifts.
- Tumbling and Rolling: Performing controlled forward or backward somersaults, cartwheels, or rolls.
- Lifting and Carrying: The ability to lift and transport objects of varying weights while maintaining stability.
- Pushing and Pulling: Exerting force to move objects, such as pushing a heavy cart or pulling a wagon.
- Dancing: Performing rhythmic movements and steps in coordination with music.
These examples demonstrate the wide range of gross motor skills involved in various physical activities. Engaging in regular physical play and exercise can help children and individuals of all ages improve their gross motor skills, enhancing overall physical coordination, strength, and agility.
Why are Gross Motor Skills Important?
Gross motor skills are essential for every day tasks and activities. They allow children to become independent and develop in a range of ways. They allow them to successfully perform a range of functions from getting out of bed in the morning, getting dressed, being active during the day and enjoying sports. Having good gross motor skills will also help to improve their fine motor skills so that they can sufficiently perform all activities that they try their hand at during the day.
How to Improve Gross Motor skills
To help your child improve their gross motor skills you would need to first pinpoint the area of most need or where to start. For example, does your child have poor core muscles for sitting/standing or is it their hand eye coordination which they are struggling with. There are many ways to help develop in each of these areas. Most of which can be done very easily and in fun ways.
For example, when a baby is first born they have poor gross motor skills and don’t have the ability to hold their head up themselves due to their poor muscle control in their necks. This can be helped along with tummy time activities. Once your child is able to walk independently, different exercises can help them move each muscle and strengthen them independently until their whole body has better balance and coordination.
5 Gross Motor Skill Activities
I will focus on the best gross motor skills for children aged 4 plus:
1. Ball games
This is a great way to improve hand eye coordination, balance and use a range of muscles all at once. You could start off by just rolling a ball to each other along the floor, then simple throwing and catching between them and at least another person (or enjoy as a whole family). Once they have developed in these areas you could try using a large racket to hit the ball or try kicking the ball back and forth. Try to mix it up so that your child doesn’t get bored of doing the same activity each day.
2. Obstacle courses
This provides an opportunity for your child to help build and design an obstacle course using a range of equipment that you have in your house or garden (let their imagination run wild). Try to make sure that they have different skills to use through the course such as climbing, balancing, jumping, etc…
3. Dancing
Not only is dancing a fun activity to do but it also helps to strengthen your core muscles. Put on some music and just let loose or try following along to some dance moves through children friendly youtube channels or my personal favourite, gonoodle
4. Simon says
When developing gross motor skills the aim is to strengthen all large muscles in your body which includes your torso, legs, arms, neck etc so playing a game of Simon says allows you to try to move each of those areas in a range of motions. It is also fun to make wacky positions and let them take charge too
5. Swimming
It is never too early to take your child swimming and let them enjoy the water. Swimming is a great way to use all of your muscles and strengthen them as you move through the water
What is the difference between Gross Motor and Fine Motor skills?
Fine motor skills are focussed on using the small muscles in our body whilst gross motor skills refer to the larger muscles and movements usually within our arms and legs. Gross motor draws upon the coordination and balance in our bodies to achieve activities such as running, jumping, climbing, kicking.
Gross motor activities/sports – football, cycling, swimming, tennis, gymnastics and skating
Fine motor activities/sports – drawing, sewing, puzzles, threading, planting and catching
For more information about fine motor skills please click the link to take you to our fine motor skills page.
What can I do if I notice my child has poor gross motor skills? If you recognise that your child is struggling with any areas discussed with gross motor skills it is always worth speaking it through with their teacher or other educational professional to hear their opinion. It may also be appropriate to discuss your concerns with you GP. If either your GP or educational professional also have concerns then they can help refer them to an occupational therapist. It may also be worth looking into physiotherapy as another good way to help with poor gross motor skills.
At what age should children be able to achieve different gross motor stages? It is important to remember that all children develop and progress at their own rate and this is not a problem. Sometimes children will take longer to crawl but actually they may skip this stage altogether and move straight onto walking independently.
The chart below is more of a guideline and should not be taken as fact.
The average 2 year old child should be able to:
• Stand on tiptoes independently
• Catch a large ball with arms stretched out
• Jump from a small step
• The average 3 year old child should be able to:
• Walk up stairs by alternating their feet
• Kick a ball forwards
• Stand on one foot momentarily
The average 4 year old child should be able to:
• Ride a scooter, using one foot to push them along and the other to balance
• Walk along a straight line/balance beam
• Begin to throw and catch with more precision
The average 5 year old (end of Early Years age child) should be able to:
• Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others
• Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing
• Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing
How can I use a sensory box activity to help improve my child’s gross motor skills? All activities can be adapted to focus on different gross motor skills, and this includes using sensory boxes. You could collect different objects to use in the box by lifting, pulling and reaching for different things in the outdoor area. You could make the sensory activity larger and add actions (e.g: try moving like a dinosaur, slithering like a snake, etc…)