Gross Motor Skills: Why Are They Important for Baby and How do They Develop
What are gross motor skills? Gross motor skills refer to movements involving large muscle groups like legs, arms, and the trunk. Gross motor skills examples in babies and children include rolling, crawling, sitting up, walking, running, and jumping.
Before baby starts progressing through these movements, they need to build strength in their muscles to gain control. Head control, a strong core, and control of their limbs is a big part of baby figuring out how to move. Though this doesn’t happen right away, baby gets to develop these important muscles while also having fun!
This video covers what gross motor skills are, why they’re important, how they develop, and examples of how to help baby strengthen them!
A few examples of how you can help baby strengthen gross motor skills include:
• 0-3 Months: Put baby on their tummy and get down on their level. Encourage eye contact. Place a mirror in front of baby so they can see themselves in a new way.
• 4-6 Months: Place baby on your lap sitting upright and lightly move your knees up and down and then side to side. Make sure to hold on to baby securely!
• 7-9 Months: Create a tunnel with your legs and encourage baby to crawl through. “Catch” them by squeezing your legs together as they pass. After getting caught a few times, they may speed up to try to get past you.
• 10-12 Months: Let baby stand next to or behind a soft chair or piece of small furniture they can hold on to for support and encourage them to reach to one side for a toy. Then put the toy on the other side and have them reach with the other arm.
