Let us learn about motor skills developmental milestones. Motor Skills are an individual’s ability to coordinate their actions through muscle control. It is controlled by the nervous system and brain. A child’s upbringing has a great impact on his motor skills development. Willingly moving hands, grasping, making gestures, waving, walking, running, etc. are some examples of fine motor skills. A child learns all this with some time and practice. The wait for watching your baby’s first steps and catching a ball is incredible and totally worth it.
Age, physical ability, atmosphere, and inheritance all these factors play a vital role in Motor Skills development. Though the pattern for every child’s Motor Skill development is quite similar, a child could hit the milestones at different ages. Children who are born premature, or are multiples, take some time, but gradually catch on to their peers of the same age group.
In This Article
Motor Skills Developmental Milestones
At the time of birth, a baby has no significant control over their body. The action of moving arms, hands and legs is random. The baby learns to do many things as they grow up and get on the cruise of discovering their body and various things they can do with their body parts.
Here is the list of obvious and proposed motor skills development in a child with the factor of age. The following improvements in your child can be fast or a bit late behind, but it is not a big deal, as children will learn them with time.
Between 3 To 6 Months
Here are the motor skill development milestones you can expect for your baby between 3 and 6 months of age.
- The baby will be able to grip things and make efforts for the same
- Loosening hands grip will not yet include in his motor skills
- The baby will have significant control over his upper body
- Baby will be able to move his head willingly to both sides
- By the end of this period, the baby will be able to turn on his back and move his head
By The End Of 12 Months
At the end of 12 months, your baby will be able to
- Sit up without any help
- Move the hands willingly
- Hold things and let go
- Progress to getting on his hand and knee position, crawling may take time
- Roll on his back and stomach on a surface
- May even start to rock back and forth on hand and knee position
By The End Of 18 Months
By the end of 18 months, your toddler will be able to
- Crawl around the house
- Stand with support
- Pick tiny things and leave
- Use one hand for lifting things and the other hand to balance while crawling
- Point at things they want and gesture you to give them to them
- Walk with support, or by holding both of your hands
Between 19 To 24 Months
By this time, your baby will be able to
- Move from one place to another.
- Hold tiny things like crayons, spoons, and pencils and scribble on paper.
- Place things on each other.
- Crawling will progress to walking clumsily without any help.
- Fine motor skills will also start to develop in this period.
By The End Of 24 Months
By the time your toddler celebrates their 2nd birthday, your toddler will be able to
- Easily walk though he/she may stumble.
- Make efforts to climb stairs.
- Make efforts to run.
- Throw and kickball where chances of things hitting their aim may be less.
- Eat and drink on their own.
By The End Of 30 Months
At the end of their 30th month, children must be able to
- Run and walk without any help.
- Hop and jump at one place.
- Write and carry things.
- Function well with fine motor skills.
- Perform tasks like folding paper, and scribbling on paper with help of a pencil or crayons
- There will be no difficulty in using his hands for performing any simple task.
- By this time, the child will be ready for school.
By The End Of 36 Months
By the end of their third year, you will observe significant improvement in their fine motor skills
- The posture of walking and running improve at this age and the child has control over his body.
- He is able to perform various tasks simultaneously.
- The child can run and stop in an instant without falling.
- Your child will be able to catch large objects like a big softball.
- The child will learn to button his shirt.
- Using tools like scissors, sharpeners, and erasers will become easy.
It is not necessary that every child develop their motor skills in the same format or in the same age period. For some children, it is difficult to develop motor skills. Children with physical disabilities and weaknesses will take time to perform all these tasks. If your child has difficulty doing simple tasks for his age, take him to a child specialist and get more knowledge about the same.
Disclaimer: Every baby grows differently. This article is for reference purposes only.
FAQ’s
1. What Are Examples Of Motor Development?
Clapping hands, shaking musical instruments, picking up and putting objects down, rolling playdough, putting on shoes, and holding a pen or pencil, are some examples of motor development in children.
2. Which Is The Correct Sequence Of Motor Milestones?
The infant will reach gross motor milestones in the following order: (1) sitting up without help, (2) crawling on hands and knees, (3) standing with aid, (4) walking with assistance, (5) standing without assistance, and (6) walking without assistance.
3. What Are The 5 Motor Skills?
The five basic motor skills are sitting, standing, walking, running, and jumping.
