Indicator: Motor Skills (MOT)

Children demonstrate an increased proficiency in motor skills

Motor skills involving large and small muscle movements enable a child to move from one place to another; reach, grasp, and manipulate objects; maintain body position against gravity; orient to people and objects in the environment; and interact with people and objects. In addition, motor skills can affect a child’s ability to perform self-help behaviors, to socialize, and to develop cognitively. Children need gross motor skills in order to control the large muscles that they use for crawling, sitting, walking, running, jumping, and other activities. Children need fine motor skills, which typically refer to small movements of the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, toes, lips, and tongue, in order to have the control they need for such precise activities as manipulating fasteners in dressing, writing and speaking.

Historically, the development of motor skills was viewed from a maturational perspective, which assumed that the rate and sequence of motor development was similar across all children and that the emergence of motor skills was the direct result of the maturation of the central nervous system. As a result, the emphasis was on the attainment of motor milestones. Recent research has challenged some of the assumptions of this maturational perspective. A more contemporary view holds that motor skill development is a dynamic process involving interactions between the child, his activities, and the physical and sociocultural aspects of the child’s environment. Central nervous system maturation is recognized as a necessary component of motor skill development and control, but the contribution of experience is also acknowledged. As a result, the understanding of the development of motor skills in young children has broadened to include considerations of the child’s environment and experiences, in addition to the maturation of the central nervous system.