motor skills
Apr. 29th, 2005 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
library_mamaWhy Motor Skills Matter by Tara Losquando-Little
The answer to the question in the title is easy – motor skills matter because later skills depend on the earlier ones having been mastered. Good motor skills can be helpful in supporting a healthy social life, as all of us who were picked last for the ball team can attest. The tricky part is whether or not to recommend this book. On the one hand, it has really valuable information that I haven't seen other places – what skills develop when, the smaller intermediary steps that are necessary for the bigger things to develop, things that you can do to help or hinder your child's development. On the other hand, the organization is somewhat confusing and the writing not exactly scintillating. The books covers motor development in children from birth to five years. This is split into three big sections: the first year, 1 to 3 years and 3 to 5 years. So far, so good. But then each section is split into multiple smaller sections, on different topics and then smaller age ranges, so that it gets difficult to figure out exactly what age of child she is referring to, and, even more confusing, if she says "older child", whether she means older in the same time frame or the next step up. Yikes! Also, she uses a lot of technical language which she defines once and then keeps using, even when ordinary language would work. For instance, why does she insist that crawling be called creeping and creeping be called commando crawling? Another good thing, kind of – she includes lists of recommended toys for different ages, but doesn't include pictures of them. If you find the topic, see if your library has it before you buy it, and then I'd consider this one a prime candidate for skimming and looking at the boxes, rather than trying to read cover to cover as I did.
For those who don't have patience even for that, here's my list of interesting or important ideas from the book:
Things to do:
- Turn your baby over onto the side before picking up – this helps develop stronger head muscles, rather than overextending them backwards.
- Start working with a real cup at six months.
- Do tummy time lots for short periods, rather than one long period.
- Let your baby explore on the floor as much as possible.
- Use bouncy seats for small babies, and swings are also good.
- Go barefoot as much as possible
Things not to do:
- Don't use, or strictly limit, time in an exersaucer or bouncer – this encourages bad posture, skipping important developmental steps, and stifles curiosity.
- Don't use only sippy cups – regular cups are better for learning to drink.
- Don't scrape the contents of the spoon off onto the upper lip – let baby learn to close his or her mouth around the spoon.
- Don't use shoes with soles that baby can't bend – proper walking involves bending the feet.
The answer to the question in the title is easy – motor skills matter because later skills depend on the earlier ones having been mastered. Good motor skills can be helpful in supporting a healthy social life, as all of us who were picked last for the ball team can attest. The tricky part is whether or not to recommend this book. On the one hand, it has really valuable information that I haven't seen other places – what skills develop when, the smaller intermediary steps that are necessary for the bigger things to develop, things that you can do to help or hinder your child's development. On the other hand, the organization is somewhat confusing and the writing not exactly scintillating. The books covers motor development in children from birth to five years. This is split into three big sections: the first year, 1 to 3 years and 3 to 5 years. So far, so good. But then each section is split into multiple smaller sections, on different topics and then smaller age ranges, so that it gets difficult to figure out exactly what age of child she is referring to, and, even more confusing, if she says "older child", whether she means older in the same time frame or the next step up. Yikes! Also, she uses a lot of technical language which she defines once and then keeps using, even when ordinary language would work. For instance, why does she insist that crawling be called creeping and creeping be called commando crawling? Another good thing, kind of – she includes lists of recommended toys for different ages, but doesn't include pictures of them. If you find the topic, see if your library has it before you buy it, and then I'd consider this one a prime candidate for skimming and looking at the boxes, rather than trying to read cover to cover as I did.
For those who don't have patience even for that, here's my list of interesting or important ideas from the book:
Things to do:
- Turn your baby over onto the side before picking up – this helps develop stronger head muscles, rather than overextending them backwards.
- Start working with a real cup at six months.
- Do tummy time lots for short periods, rather than one long period.
- Let your baby explore on the floor as much as possible.
- Use bouncy seats for small babies, and swings are also good.
- Go barefoot as much as possible
Things not to do:
- Don't use, or strictly limit, time in an exersaucer or bouncer – this encourages bad posture, skipping important developmental steps, and stifles curiosity.
- Don't use only sippy cups – regular cups are better for learning to drink.
- Don't scrape the contents of the spoon off onto the upper lip – let baby learn to close his or her mouth around the spoon.
- Don't use shoes with soles that baby can't bend – proper walking involves bending the feet.
