While children are exercising and building their muscle strength and coordination throughout childhood, researchers believe that the years from 2 to 6 are the “golden years” of motor development.^1,2 During this period, most children build up a wide range of manipulative (hand movement) and locomotor (movement from one place to another) skills. They use these skills to develop goal-directed actions, where they put together two or three different actions to help them carry out specific goals.^3,4,5 All this activity is called Active, Coordinated Movement, or motor coordination, and it is the process by which muscles work together to produce a desired activity.

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You will see more goal-directed movements and Active, Motor Coordination skills by the time your child is about 2-3 years old.⁶ He will experiment with a wide variety of movements,⁷ most of which are done with a specific goal in mind. Instead of running just for the pure pleasure of it, he will often run to retrieve a ball or to jump excitedly into your arms. Because his balance and muscle coordination have improved so much over the past six months, he’s better and more successful at the more complicated climbing and large muscle movements that he tries.

By the time he approaches 3 years old, your toddler will likely be throwing with some accuracy, climbing stairs unaided, and running with great proficiency.⁸ His walk will likely be changing from the wide-stance, flailing-armed walk of a toddler to a more straight-legged, steady gait.⁹

This is a great time to introduce cooperative play into your exercise routine. Cooperative play “involves the division of efforts among children in order to reach a common goal.”¹⁰ In other words, working together! Some ways to bring cooperative play and Active, Coordinated Movement together include activities such as going on a scavenger hunt together, tossing toys into a basket as a team, or acting out a story. Your child will enjoy these new goals and interesting ways of playing together with you or with friends.

Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your child’s development of these Active, Coordinated Movement skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Make time for exercise every day!¹¹ Setting an example of the importance of daily movement will start your child on healthy habits for life. In addition, each chance to try out new activities or actions will improve his ability to achieve movement goals.
2. Put the stroller away. As tempting as it is to hurry through the grocery store or mall, the freedom of walking without a stroller is highly motivational to a 2-3 year old child. Allow your child to help you push the grocery cart, find the next museum exhibit that is interesting to him, or act as the leader through the mall, which will assist both his physical and cognitive development. If you are concerned about your child running away or becoming lost, be sure to set clear boundaries with him before starting your walk and tell him of the consequences of not listening. First, describe the rules at home or in the car, and then repeat them again before beginning. For example, you could say, “You need to either hold Mommy’s hand or hold onto the stroller while we are in the park. If you don’t hold on, I will have to put you in the stroller to keep you safe.” Ask your child to repeat the rules and consequences to be sure he understands.
3. Incorporate cooperative games into playtime. Now that your child is becoming good at coordinated movement, the next logical step is learning about taking turns, following rules of play, and the proper ways to use balls and other sporting equipment. Research shows that children who participate in team sports or other physical activities have a health and social advantage over sedentary children. “Underachievement in school, lack of concentration, low self-esteem, poor social competence, and behavioral problems have all been linked to or associated with deficits in motor development in early and later years of childhood.”¹²

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Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Active, Coordinated Movement developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Climbs well.
• Walks up and down stairs, one foot on each step.

Sources:

¹Hayes, A. (1994). Normal and impaired motor development: theory into practice. London: Chapman & Hall Publishers.

²Williams, H. (1983). Perceptual and motor development in young children. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

³Bruininks, R. (1978). Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Examiner’s Manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service

⁴Piaget, Jean (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York, NY: Norton.

⁵Sporns, O., & Edelman, G. (1993). Solving Bernstein’s problem: A proposal for the development of coordinated movement by selection. Child Development, 64, 960–981.

⁶Kenward, Ben; Folke, Sara; Holmberg, Jacob; Johansson, Alexsandra; and Gredebaeck, G. (2009). Goal-Directedness and Decision Making in Infants. Developmental Psychology, 45, 809-819. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.benkenward.com/articles/kenward_goal_dev_psy.pdf.

⁷Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

⁸Nebraska Department of Education (2006). Nebraska Early Learning Guidelines for Ages Birth to 3. 

⁹Women’s and Children’s Health Network (2011). Gait: The Way Children Walk. Women’s and Children’s Health Network: Parenting and Child Health. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.cyh.com/healthtopics/healthtopicdetails.aspx?p=114&np=304&id=1438.

¹⁰Cecchini, Marie E. Encouraging Cooperative Play. Early Childhood News. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?articleid=707.

¹¹National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Active Start: A Statement of Physical Activity Guidelines for Children from Birth to Age 5, 2nd Edition. National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/standards/nationalguidelines/activestart.cfm.

¹²Williams, Harriet, G., and Monsma, Eva V. (2006). Assessment of gross motor development. In B.A. Bracken & R.J. Nagle (Eds.), Psychoeducational Assessment of Preschool Children (4th Edition) (pp. 397-433). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.ed.sc.edu/personnel/monsma/8a9e555517ec8322acee77454347828a.pdf.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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