Child Motor Development by Dr Janine Spencer

Until recently babies were thought to be quite passive with little awareness of the world around them.We now know that this is far from the truth.

Babies are born with a sophisticated brain that is pre-programmed to learn and react to its environment. Development in the first three years of life is incredibly quick. For example, at what age can babies distinguish between cats and dogs? Maybe when they learn to say cat and dog? In fact, by 3-months babies can easily tell the difference between images of various breeds of cats and dogs. As a result of the seemingly little effort with which babies learn, it is very easy to take thinking for granted. However, most of the abilities we take for granted are unimaginably sophisticated.

In this first article on child development I will explain some of the incredible developmental changes in motor skills over the first 24-months of life.

Reflexes

Some of the earliest behaviours a newborn infant performs are reflexes. From birth infants have many reflexes. Some of these will disappear in the first few months of life as a result of brain development, others are essential to survival. For example, stroking a baby's cheek will cause the baby to turn and start to suck. These two actions are known as the rooting and sucking reflex. The Moro reflex, where babies make an embracing motion in response to a sudden loud noise, allows the child to grab onto something to stop it from falling.

Motor Development

I couldn't wait for my son to start crawling and walking. This is probably true for most parents. However, before children can move about on their own, they have to learn to control their movements. Walking and talking are probably amongst the most eagerly awaited moments for parents. However, before your child can walk, she has to be able to control her movements. The Tumble Tots Gymbabes programme has been specifically designed to gently encourage the development of motor skills in babies and toddlers. Gentle movement to music is excellent for helping babies to coordinate their arm and leg movement - something which is essential for crawling.

Anywhere from 3 weeks to 4 months babies master the ability to hold their head erect and steady. These early beginnings of motor skills mark a major milestone in development. As soon as babies are able to sit up on their own they get a completely different view of their environment. At around 3-months babies are beginning to grasp and reach and together this gives them new opportunities for learning about objects. However, it is not until they are able to master the pincer grasp (grasping with their forefinger and thumb) that they can really control and manipulate objects.

Between 7-and-12-months babies begin crawling. For the majority of babies this means moving about on their hands and knees. However, some babies do a kind of bottom shuffle and others go straight to walking. As you might expect there is a genetic component to motor development. For example, parents who walked relatively late are more likely to have babies who walk slightly later than the average. However, there is also an environmental contributor to motor development. Moderate stimulation tailored to your baby's needs can result in slightly earlier development of reaching and crawling. Nevertheless, parents often worry if their baby does something later than other children. It is important to remember that the ages given for developmental milestones are only averages and some children do some things earlier and others later. My son didn't start crawling until he was 12 months and when he did crawl he was so fast that he didn't walk until he was 17-months. He did however talk fairly early. This is all part of normal development. My son is three now and walks, runs, jumps, skips and has even learnt to do a backward headstand.

Children will achieve numerous motor developmental milestones by the age of two, most of which are still about actively exploring the environment. At this age, children have developed pretty good hand eye coordination and this is still far better than their language skills. Some of the milestones in the second year are related to more gross motor skills such as dancing and climbing and others to more fine motor skills such as drawing (though most children find holding a pencil with the forefinger, middle finger and thumb difficult to master much before 3). Although gross and fine motor skills seem unrelated this is typically not the case. It is not until children can sit unaided (a gross motor skill) that they can begin to manipulate objects effectively.

Between 17-months and 2 years children are able to throw a ball with both hands. This is something which would be difficult to do without coordinating fine and gross motor skills. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of motor development is that it helps children learn about the world and is therefore intimately tied to social and cognitive development. For example, as soon as children are able to use a few blocks to build a tower, between 14 and 18 months, they begin to learn how things balance at their geometric centre. This relationship between seemingly different skills is a fundamental aspect of child development.

Contributed by Dr Janine Spencer for Tumble Tots (UK) Limited

Suggestions for the home

For gentle exercises to soothing songs, Small People, a CD with 34 songs, suitable for babies, with suggestions on developmental exercises that parents can do with their babies is ideal.

To help with babies development of Fine Motor Skills, Co-ordination items like Balls and Beanbags, bricks and puzzles are recommended.

To help with gross motor skills of balancing try the Activa Disc, and for encouraging crawling, the Caterpillar Tunnels are ideal.

 All available on the Tumble Tots online shop

Of course, not all reflexes have survival value, but that does not mean that they don't have a purpose. If you hold a young baby in an upright position with its bare feet touching a flat surface, the baby will make stepping movements as if trying to walk. This reflex disappears by 2-months of age. However, the mechanism responsible for this reflex is the same one used later when toddlers do learn to walk. Many people believe that some of these early reflexes are related to motor development. For example, it has been shown that if babies receive a series of sitting or stepping exercises in the first few months of life they tend to walk earlier. In other words, the sitting and stepping reflex helps in the development of sitting and walking. It has been suggested that these early exercises help muscle development which in turn facilitates walking. Regardless of whether these early exercises help infants to walk earlier or not, reflexes do indicate that the new infants' brain and body are working normally.