Role of parents and teachers in motor development ?
Answers
Answer:
ROLE OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Children become taller, stronger, and their muscles become more coordinated. They acquire gross motor skills, i.e. develop abilities to use the large muscles and fine motor skills i.e. small-muscles abilities in a predictable sequence.
Answer:
Motor skills are a set of actions involving the movement of muscles to perform a particular act. It involves the use of the muscles of hands to do activities like cutting a piece of paper or opening a bottle of water or using pens etc.
Motor skills are mainly of two types; gross motor skills and fine motor skills.
Gross motor skills are the skills that require the movement of a large group of muscles. These skills in children usually require continuous movements and are important as they enable children to do everyday functions on their own. Examples are standing, walking, crawling, hand-eye co-ordination or getting in and out of a chair.
Fine motor skills are skills that require the use of a smaller group of muscles in our hands, wrists, fingers. Children get better at these skills with continuous practice. Non-use of fine motor skills may lead to impairment.
The development of gross fine motor skills usually occurs in the early stage of education being preschool. Hence it is extremely important that the teachers and parents indulge in activities that lead to development of motor skills. The below mentioned activities can be done with children by parents and teachers.
1. STACKING: Stacking is one of the easiest activities to develop motor skills in children. Stacking with wooden blocks is one of the most helpful preschool activities. Children are given coloured wooden blocks to stack on top of other in their school
For improving motor skills at home; you can give your child some coins to stack. To make it more fun, you could turn it into a competition where you or the child stacks more coins in a minute. This activity will improve the stability of hands and fingers in kids.
2. PLAYING IN A SANDPIT: Who knew playing with sand could improve a child’s motor skills. At Shanti Juniors, we have a sandpit for children to play in and have fun. Children often indulge in transferring sand from one bucket to another. This is one of the activities that can improve motor skills. Children could also indulge in writing or drawing shapes on the sand or making sandcastles in the pit which would lead to cognitive development
3. INDOOR BASKETBALL: Aiming a ball so that it falls in the basket leads to the development of motor skills and improvement of stability of hands. You could use a small tub or basket and some plastic balls for this. A variant of this game is you let your child make balls of newspapers by crushing them, add some tape and let them try tossing the balls in an empty dustbin. Sounds fun already!
4. ART ACTIVITIES: Give your child paper and some crayons and let their imagination run wild. The coloured scribbles on paper are a form of art in itself. So many parents save their child’s first drawing no matter how meaningless it may seem. This is way for children to express themselves creatively.
5. STRINGING: Give your child laces or a piece of yarn thread with knots at one end and let them string the beads to the lace. You can make this activity more colourful by using cut pieces of various coloured straws. Different shapes of pasta can also be used for a fun stringing activity.
At Shanti Juniors, we believe that every child is a genius. Every art created by a child will be as unique as him/her. We want to ensure that the overall development of motor skills of children takes place. For this, we encourage our children to play with child-safe clay and play-dough, making all the shapes they want. We also have swings and slides that are a major attraction for children. Children don’t need more things. The best toy a child can have is a parent or a teacher who gets down on the floor and plays with them.
“For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does ‘just for fun’ and things that are ‘educational.’ The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play” ~ Penelope Leach