Some theory…

Gross motor skills involve the ability to move the arms, legs and body with a certain amount of control. Although physiological maturation is necessary to meet certain challenges, experience and training have an incidence on these skills. Recent studies on learning have established that like a nursery rhyme can help the child learn the alphabet, the association of an idea to a movement facilitates the learning process.

How to stimulate the child's development through play...

Any activity requiring movement (jumping, throwing, dancing, running) serves to encourage the development of coordination and balance and helps the child to develop a positive view of his body in his environment. The repetition of a movement serves to refine the technique used. Once the movement is mastered, it can be combined with another and become more complex. For example, playing bean toss teaches the child to toss a sand bag and increase the precision of his toss. Miming, agility tests, making a letter with one’s body (in the manner of the famous YMCA song) are ways to encourage gross motor development within a context of play.

To learn more

De Lièvre, B., Staes, L. (2011). La psychomotricité au service de l’enfant, de l’adolescent et de l’adulte, notions et applications pédagogiques, Éditions de Boek.

Article of the subject based on

Shaffer, D. (2010). Developmental psychology: childhood and adolescence, Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. http://www.votre-enfant.com/wiki/Le_d%C3%A9veloppement_psychomoteur_de_l%27enfant_%28partie_1%29

Developed by Audrey Leblanc and Mélanie Martel, psychoeducators ©2011, Groupe Formation Intervention inc., Montréal.