Motor Development Discussion
Motor Development Discussion
TAKE A MOMENT… Observe several 2- to 6-year-olds at play in a
neighborhood park, preschool, or child-care center. You will see
that an explosion of new motor skills occurs in early childhood,
each of which builds on the simpler movement patterns of
toddlerhood.
During the preschool years, children continue to integrate
previously acquired skills into more complex, dynamic systems.
Then they revise each new skill as their bodies grow larger and
stronger, their central nervous systems develop, their
environments present new challenges, and they set new goals.
Gross-Motor Development
As children’s bodies become more streamlined and less topheavy, their center of gravity shifts downward, toward the trunk.
As a result, balance improves greatly, paving the way for new
motor skills involving large muscles of the body. By age 2,
preschoolers’ gaits become smooth and rhythmic—secure
enough that soon they leave the ground, at first by running and
later by jumping, hopping, galloping, and skipping. Motor
Development Discussion.
As children become steadier on their feet, their arms and torsos
are freed to experiment with new skills—throwing and catching
balls, steering tricycles, and swinging on horizontal bars and rings.
Then upper- and lower-body skills combine into more refined
actions. Five- and 6-year-olds simultaneously steer and pedal a
tricycle and flexibly move their whole body when throwing

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