Stimulating the fine and gross motor skills of children as they grow (and up to approximately 6 years) is very important for their physical and mental development also in the future.
Gross motor skills include a series of skills capable of moving the body’s muscles, developing strength, speed, or other aspects such as maintaining balance, while fine motor skills are more related to hand-eye coordination movements . Both types of motor skills are necessary, but it is essential that learning does not become tedious and complex. And to ensure that it is not, nothing like the usual games, in which the little ones have fun and can even accelerate their work and motor development without hardly realizing it.
It is so important to do it in an enjoyable way that we have wanted to elaborate in this article a series of proposals for special games for a fun , positive and effective development of fine and gross motor skills.
Games for fine motor skills according to age
- 1 year old children
For the little ones, around 1 year old, cube games are ideal. Many of them have small geometric figures that they will have to discover and pass through windows in the same way.
Building with blocks is a lot of fun and teaches many skills that children will use later. A study indicates that many of the concepts learned with building blocks are the basis for a more advanced scientific understanding . For example, a child learns about gravity, stability, weight, balance, and systems by building with blocks.
Turning the page of a book is another very stimulating activity, as is touching buttons where a sound is activated.
- 2-year-olds
Opening and closing container lids will also be very stimulating for 2 year olds. Take your little ones to the kitchen with you and let them enjoy this activity (without any kind of danger) while you are cooking.
- 3-year-olds
At 3 years old you can develop art activities with them using hand and finger paint. Fill their hands with paint and encourage them to place it on paper to create directed shapes. You can do it first so that they notice and thus encourage them to do them on their own later. This activity also allows you to develop the ability to follow instructions .
- 4 year olds
At 4 years old, sets with tweezers are an excellent choice. Offer snap-on clothespins and encourage them, for example, to wrap around cardboard.
- 5 and 6 year olds
Between 5 and 6 years of age, activities can be very diverse, from cutting figures or painting, to tying shoes, buttoning and unbuttoning clothes, eating alone or playing the piano (although as a toy), and they are all activities that they stimulate fine motor skills very well.
Games for gross motor skills according to age
- 1 year old children
1-year-olds are just beginning to walk, so pushing toys or their own cart will help them develop their muscles better quite easily and without complications.
- 2-year-olds
At 2 years of age, the most stimulating games for the little ones are all those that involve movement , which can be done with funny phrases or rhymes or doing circuits. For example, try to have the children follow the instructions of the game called “The Giant Dwarf”, which consists of squatting or getting up according to the adult, or another player, make the voice of the dwarf or the giant respectively.
- Children 3 years and older
From 3 years old, racing activities with different obstacles turn out to be the best game. Make sure they can jump, run, kick balls, go through tunnels, cross obstacles … Anything that is movement and speed will be very effective. It will also be important all those games of a more individual type in which they can do this type of movement independently, such as football, gymnastics, jumping rope or climbing stairs.
