Children develop quickly during the toddler stage of their lives. Motor skills are of two types: gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills refer to the skills that require the coordination of larger muscles for bigger movements while fine motor skills refer to skills that require hands and fingers (Matheis & Estabillo, 2018). Although all babies grow and develop at a different pace, most babies start to grasp and hold things with their hands by 12 months of age. By the age of 18 months, toddlers start to show a preference for one hand. As their age progress towards completion of two years, they develop major fine skills like scribbling, drawing, and dressing. As for gross skills, the first gross skills babies learn are crawling and learning. Most babies start walking by the age of a year. By two-three years, they are capable of handling complex movements like jumping and negotiating stairs.
Motor skill development is a significant part of the overall well-being of a child. Motor skills become ingrained in memory through repetition. A child who can crawl or walks from an earlier stage, he/she can better explore their immediate surrounding which is necessary for the cognitive development of a child (Veldman et al., 2019). Moreover, motor skills enhance the physical strength of a baby. By developing various motor skills like feeding and dressing alone, toddlers achieve greater independence that eventually helps to develop their self-esteem and confidence. In addition, motor skills help increase hand-eye coordination and balance that is important for their development.
References
Matheis, M., & Estabillo, J. A. (2018). Assessment of fine and gross motor skills in children. In Handbook of Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Assessment (pp. 467-484). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93542-3_25
Veldman, S. L., Santos, R., Jones, R. A., Sousa-Sá, E., & Okely, A. D. (2019). Associations between gross motor skills and cognitive development in toddlers. Early Human Development, 132, 39-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2019.04.005
