Motor development

Motor development toys

Physical Development is the development of action, how children learn to gain control over their movements. Motor activity can be divided into two types:

• Gross motor skills. This relates to the movement and coordination of large body parts such as arms or legs, in sequence or at the same time.
• Fine motor skills. This is mainly about the hands and these skills are often also called eye-hand coordination. They involve moving smaller parts of the body like hands or fingers.

Most motor skills are acquired through play. Very small children move in an unfocused way. When they grow up, they move in a more controlled way, but their whole body still moves with them. As they grow up, their movements become increasingly stable and better coordinated.

Motor development is one of the four areas of development, together with social-emotional development, cognitive development, and moral development.