af Chloe Heslington 3 år siden
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Moving with young children is important in encouraging children to "form good habits for later years" as well as helping the development of not only the "physical, but also the social, language and intellectual skills" in which will assist them for life (Get Up and Grow Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood handbook, 2009).
The community can sometimes be a great recourse in developing skills within young children, but it can also cause conflict as not every public space or person within the community is child safe or appropriate. Attached to this bubble are some positive community based educational services for young children.
"Active transport involves using physical activity, such as walking, pedalling a bike or using a scooter, to travel" this can be a great alternative rather than using prams and baby carriers in means of transport, this way your child is still learning motor skills even when on the go (Get Up and Grow Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood handbook, 2009).
"Structured play is planned play that may take place at set times, have certain rules or need special equipment" This type of play is more directed at certain skill developments and milestones to reach, for example problem solving activities or guided discovery sessions (Get Up and Grow Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood handbook, 2009).
"Unstructured play Unstructured play is creative and spontaneous play that gives children the freedom to move at their own pace and decide how they will play" This benefits children in all areas of skill development because they can imagine and create and play on their own terms. some example of this are outside play, loose parts play or even dancing to music (Get Up and Grow Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood handbook, 2009).
I am a strong believer in hobbies being a big part of development in movement skills, as I personally have experienced the benefits of it.
Throughout the years there have been many different forms of equipment and tools put into place to help parents keep their children "safe" and close by. These items are heavily advertised to encourage the use of prams and other equipment. Studies have shown that a lot of the time parents overuse this equipment because it allows for a quicker and safer way to get daily tasks done without the worry of a child running off, these have been found to be overwhelmingly restrictive and delimits the child’s mobilities which effects the motor development in the early years of childhood (Horton, Christensen, Kraftl and Hadfield-Hill, 2013).
There are many different songs and nursery rhymes that help to encourage dance and movement within early education, for example the "hokey pokey song" (Strickland, 2021).
Quite often children will want to do what the adults are doing, so to encourage movement you could let the child assist you with chores and household activities because even the smallest jobs can encourage movement.
My experience with developing motor skills as a child was a life changing situation, I grew up in a competitive horse-riding family so before I could even walk, I was taught to ride horses. By the age of four I was riding a horse completely by myself which included advanced motor skills that most children my age could not do. I feel as though most of my movement and physical development occurred on horses which allowed me to be an extremely fit and talented child regarding all sports and movement required activities. I am thankful for the encouragement in movement that I experienced as a child and would use these same techniques on my own future children.
For each age group there is a milestone that is recommended to be reached. This can have positive and negative effects on a child. It can be used to know if the child is ahead or being in the skills they are developing, but can also be used for competitive reasons, and sometimes children will learn at different paces which could cause a parent to think their child is underdeveloped (Developmental milestones and the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards).
Location and place play a huge role in the development of young children's motor skills. Depending on the place that the child is learning in will indicate whether they have the right opportunities to learn and play with movement or if they are overly protected within an indoor setting making it more difficult to develop those motor skills required in early education. A great example of this is the bush kinder, children have endless opportunities to play through movement in any way they desire, this has multiple outcomes of children gaining advanced motor skills, and confidence within every environment as well as becoming knowledgeable in the dangerous areas and situations that most children are protected from (SBS, 2016).
