The development of movement skills in young children
Movement is an essential element for young children, to deny children the opportunity to engage in physical activities means they will not reap the benefits and experience the joy of efficient movement like health benefits and becoming comment movers. Development of movement skills during childhood is important because it facilitates the process of learning other life skills. In the first days of their lives, children use their bodies to explore the world. As they mature, they rely on physical contact with objects and people. Motor skills enable children interact meaningfully promoting overall development.
Children develop gradually and require movement skills to help them maneuver through all the stages of development. By the age of 2 to 3 years, children can use their hands to create objects they can perform simple tasks of building items using blocks or mold clay into shapes or simply scribble, hence require motor skills. As they grow, at 4 years children continue refining their life skills using movement, for instance, they learn eating skills using utensils like spoons and cups to drink water. At this stage children can use larger crayons to write or can hold a pencil.
During the ages of 4 to 5-years children develop fine motor skills, they can unbutton their clothes by themselves and improve their artistic abilities. They can draw shapes like circles and copy large letters. In each of the stages of development, physical competence is important because it stimulates cognitive development, especially during the early childhood years. If learning has to reach its potential, the learning needs to be associated with activities that will help children develop their movement skills. The connection between the mental activity and the physical activity facilitates learning since movement influence the task; therefore, children can easily understand a concept using activities that involve movement.
Movement skill is viewed an essential element because it helps children release the pent up energy, for example, physical activity like running or jumping helps children get rid of angry feelings. Art work activities like drawing and painting help release emotions, children engaged in painting or molding are likely to play out their feelings in a more socially acceptable ways which Sigmund feed refers to as sublimation .Sublimation process provides children with positive ways to work through their emotions through movement. Accordingly, children can build confidence and self-esteem when they engage in activities that requires movement. When children learn movement skills, they view themselves positively and become competent.
Engaging young children in various activities that promote movement skills, children feel encouraged to use their skills to help them in coordination, hence improves their overall development. There are a range of activities like swimming, dancing, games and playing with equipment that can be used to promote movement skill. We need to provide children with a positive approach and become a role model by taking part in these physical activities. All young children need to acquire movement skills to help them develop in all aspects of life.
It is important to plan activities that suit different age groups needs because of their limited control that is determined by their age. We need to develop an inclusive approach that accommodates the physical participation of all children to help all children progress from one stage to the other. It is important to provide them with challenging task to help the acquire new skills. Inclusion activities not only promote competence in movement skill, but also help children gain confidence in their movement skills. We need to use a wide range of both outdoor and indoor activities to promote all aspects of development.
