Motor skills are foundational for a lifetime of movement. For children, they play a vital role not only in facilitating physical activity levels but also for cognitive and socio-emotional development and school readiness.
Motor skills are broadly separated into two groups: fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills are movements that use smaller muscles, specifically related to the hand, like grasping a pen. Gross motor skills are movements that use larger muscles, and these can be categorized into three main groups:
1) Locomotor skills, which include movement co-ordinated in a specific direction, to transport the body from one location to another (like walking, running, jumping, hopping);
2) Object control skills, or manipulative skills, which involve controlling, manipulating or moving objects with the body (like throwing, kicking, catching);
3) Stability skills, which entail maintaining balance of the body when still or in motion.
Motor development experts recommend that children should have adequate competency in motor skills by around the age of seven. This supports children's full engagement in school, from developing fine motor skills for writing to physical activities that require more specialized skills. However, many young children are not achieving adequate motor skill proficiency by this age, with rates declining in the past few decades.
