Gross Motor Skills Development

Gross motor skills involve the body’s large arm, leg and torso muscles for major body movement, such as walking, maintaining balance, coordination and reaching. They also require motor planning—the ability to think through and act upon a plan for motion. A child with poor motor planning may have the strength and muscle tone to climb a ladder, but be unable to place feet in the right spot and in the right order to reach the top.

Gross motor skills connect to actions necessary for daily living, such as getting out of bed or climbing stairs. They are needed for academic success, partially due to the order and sequencing of development—that is, the way new skills build on previous ones and small muscles develop after large ones.

Unlike fine motor skills—the ability to use hands and feet for complex, small muscle activities, such as writing and drawing or standing on toes—gross motor skills are important for play, sports and fitness. Despite similarities, gross and fine motor skills are controlled by different parts of the brain.

Acquiring gross motor skills is key to children participating in activities and achieving age-appropriate developmental milestones.

Treatment can include:

- Therapeutic exercise
- Muscle re-education and strengthening
- Balance and coordination
- Strength, mobility and range of motion with use of hands

Development Guidelines

Since children develop at their own pace, age guidelines are approximate. Generally, however, gross motor skills develop by specific ages and stages—and build on each other.

While children develop at different rates, developmental guidelines help determine whether a child lagging behind developmental milestones merely needs more time to catch up or, importantly, needs to be assessed for physical or other concerns. Current guidelines:

By 3 or 4 months: baby can raise head and chest when lying on belly

At 6 months: baby can roll over from stomach to back and back to stomach

At 7 months: baby can sit up without support

At 8 or 9 months: toddler can crawl

Between 12 and 18 months: toddler can walk without support

At 2 years: child can walk smoothly, start to run, use stairs without support, throw a ball

At 3 years: child can walk on tiptoe, gallop, jump, kick a ball, try to stand on one foot, try to skip, climb on a jungle gym

Between 3 and 4 years: child can pedal a tricycle, swing without being pushed, kick in a directed manner, throw a ball overhand and underhand, hop, lift

Reaching a Development Milestone Later than Expected

Physical factors causing gross motor skills to be delayed or underdeveloped may include:

- Muscle strength/tone
- Balance
- Coordination
- Stability and posture
- Motor learning

Types of Gross Motor Skills

Locomotor skills move the body from place to place, as in walking and running.

Manipulative skills involve moving an object, such as a bat, ball or jump rope.

Stability skills relate to balance and weight transfer, such as standing on one foot or dodging an obstacle.

Early Intervention

Gross motor skills build progressively. A child learns to walk before learning to run and jump. Delays in gross motor skills can also cause problems with fine motor abilities, leading to such difficulties as writing, sitting alert and erect to watch classroom activity or writing on a blackboard. Without early intervention, gross motor development can affect a child’s cognitive and motor abilities as they grow older. A recent study linked poor gross motor skills to learning delays, including problems with reading and math.

Parents, family members or teachers may be first to notice problems in observing a child’s daily activity, while pediatricians can monitor developmental milestones. If there are delays, a physical or occupational therapist can determine the type, severity and nature of the delay—and help establish a course of treatment.

Treatment

Acquiring gross motor skills is key to children participating in activities and achieving age-appropriate developmental milestones. In some cases, gross motor skill delays may resolve as the child grows. In other cases, an intervention involving home exercises or physical therapy can improve strength, muscle tone, coordination, balance and body control.

Treatment at CFI includes:

Therapeutic exercise: A physical activity that contributes to promoting, enhancing or restoring physical health. Within the clinical setting, a physical exercise program can be measured accurately and respond to therapeutic objectives, according to the child’s condition.

Muscle re-education and strengthening: A series of therapeutic techniques to restore and strengthen normal function of nerves and muscles, to improve movement, strength, balance and function.

Balance and coordination exercises: Helps children develop and maintain appropriate controlled body movement during task performance in both static (still) and dynamic (moving) activities, which minimizes the likelihood of injury and helps in self-regulation for daily tasks. This includes attention and concentration, hand-eye coordination, endurance, alertness, postural control and sensory processing.

Exercises to increase strength, mobility and range of motion with use of hands: Encourages self-initiated mobility to facilitate a child’s developmental need to explore and learn and achieve optimal range of motion, including flexibility, balance, pliability and strength.

Encouraging gross motor skills development

For schoolchildren with an Individualized Education Program (IEP), therapy can be offered as a related service.

In addition to gross motor treatment, families can encourage gross motor skills development by helping the child through active play, providing opportunities to exercise and increase balance and coordination.

Learn more about Occupational Therapy at CFI…

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