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Developing our Motor Skills
A crucial part of tamariki development surrounds their motor skills both gross (large, big muscles) and fine (smaller finger muscles) and therefore is another area of learning and development we focus on here in Prep room Halswell Road. Right from when tamariki are born they start to develop their gross motor muscles and skills with holding up their heads to move their arms and legs, coordinating for crawling and then walking etc.
For us, in Prep room, we focus further on this gross motor development through encouraging play which surrounds climbing, hopping, jumping, skipping, crossing the mid line, catching and throwing a ball, kicking a ball, pulling and pushing and so on to develop their leg, hip, arm, shoulder muscles. Once these muscles have developed then can we begin to focus on the fine motor skills and finger coordination and pincer grip for writing. We do this through a wide range of experiences such as using droppers, cotton buds, paint brushes in art, drawing, opening and closing pegs, threading beads, weaving, using tongs, navigating scissors and cutting around pictures and so much more.
Once your child’s finger muscles have strengthened and they have a strong pincer grip, then we begin to explore writing and letter formation as their interest develops. At home a key way you can support your child’s motor development is to first encourage their big muscles run, jump, climb, hop, kick a ball, catch a ball, go to the park, play sport etc and then nurture fine motor pincer grip development by helping peg out the washing, using tongs to serve their meals, draw, use scissors etc however please make sure when they draw to start to encourage a pincer grip to hold the pencil not a full fist as these habits can be trickier to unlearn.