Locomotor Skills

What are locomotor skills? A fifth grader might ask in biology class. He or she would be intrigued to learn that locomotor skills constitute the imperative section of the gross motor skills which inherently demand the cooperation of the large muscles in the body. Isn’t it a marvel how we can callously trudge from our doorstep to the nearby garden and jump over a flight of stairs with utter ease? If it weren’t for the continual exertion of your locomotor skills, you would still be confined to your bed. As babies we adopt the trial and error method till we finally get the hang of the locomotor skills essential to the evolution of any human being. A toddler relentlessly struggles to land on its feet despite crashing upon the floor a hundred times over until one fine day, it learns to walk! Control over the feet muscles is the crucial factor that propels a body to move from one place to another. Keep reading to grasp a wider knowledge base on locomotor skills.

Teaching Locomotor Skills To Children

Walk Like A Man
Under normal circumstances, kids master the art of trotting sometime before their first birthday. However, a little support and encouragement from their parents makes a whole lot of a difference. We must prepare them for the real world and train them to stimulate their instincts. Stop carrying them from room to room every time. Call out to them from a different room and induce them to use their wobbly feet. They will try endlessly to make their way to the destination, that is you! Crawling would be their primal resort but in the long run, they prefer the prospect of walking. Allow them to seek support from a nearby object or furniture as they develop their stride. You will be amazed with the outcome!

Gripping And Letting Go
Bombard them to all sorts of toys and child friendly objects. Let them grab a hold of everything, feel it in their hands and differentiate the textures and everything else. Keep a football size soft ball near their feet as they lie down and provoke them to kick it and understand their leg functions. This incidentally helps them to walk and play a desired sport with excellent tactics. Moreover, a child will learn the importance of gripping objects and not dropping breakable objects. Also, encouraging children to play outdoor games is important in the development of locomotor skills!

Run For Fun, If Not For Your Life
Play catching cook; egg on the baby to chase you. Giggle as you run, do it for fun. The baby wouldn’t want you to be out of its sight unless, of course, the baby has erratically developed grudges against you. Nonetheless, the kid learns to acquire command on locomotor skills and eventually attunes itself to fine motor skills. Take your children to the play ground or garden where they can freely run. The baby picks up speed to match up to yours and then it hits you — the baby can actually run!

Hop, Skip And Jump
Use a narration to explain a particular action as you perform it. Start with jumping and then graduate to skipping. Lucidly state out the difference like “Watch me jump…and now I’m skipping…Skippety skippety skip!” Make the skipping and hopping experience as memorable as possible. Monitor the kid as it imitates you and correct them if wrong. Keep going at it by saying things like –“One, two, three ... jump! One, two, three ... jump!

From Scribbling Doodles To Swallowing Noodles
It is obviously very important that a child learns how to write properly. Handwriting styles and more will be inculcated in kindergarten, but it is up to the parents or guardian to accentuate these abilities. To pick up these essential skills, a firm understanding about coordination, logic, balance, and direction is required. Even holding a spoon and eating meals are basic locomotor skills that a child must develop at the nascent stage of life. Soon after, the child will be confronted with more complex activities which depend largely on the child’s grasp of these locomotor skills. If you have worries, ask the doctor to assess the physical development of the child with the help of locomotor skills checklist.