Strengthen Your Child’s Motor Skills at Zodiac Day Camp

Basic skills such as moving hands for writing or picking things up, or walking and running are often taken for granted. These are vital motor skills that people use daily; developing these will enable your kids to participate in sports if they want to.

Day camps provide an excellent opportunity for children to improve their motor skills and find a hobby as well.

What are gross motor skills?

Gross motor skills use whole body movements and large, stabilizing muscles. This skill enables you to perform daily activities like running, sitting upright, walking and standing. You also use your gross motor skills in eye-hand coordination like ball skills where you catch, kick or throw.

The essential building blocks to improve gross motor skills are:

1. Muscular endurance and strength
2. Motor planning and learning
3. Balance
4. Coordination
5. Body awareness
6. Muscle tone

What are fine motor skills?

Fine motor skills require the use of smaller muscles in the hands and other parts of the body. You use this skill when you do up buttons, open boxes or write. The development of fine motor skills affects the efficiency, quality and speed of a task. A high level of fine motor skill proficiency requires several independent skills to work in unison properly to perform a task appropriately.

Skills where a person uses fine motor skills include:

1. Using a pencil for coloring, writing, drawing or other similar skills
2. Using scissors
3. Self-care

Why are fine and gross motor skills important?

Fine and gross motor skills are important to the development of your child because a lack of any of these may lead to bigger problems such as mental or physical disorders. Both are vital to performing simple, daily tasks that they will need in school and in life.

Gross motor skills enable your child to walk, run, skip or play with other kids in the playground or at school. It also allows them to balance on one leg when they put clothes one. Gross motor abilities also affect some fine motor skills; maintaining proper posture influences a child’s ability to draw, write or use the pencil on a table. It also influences the body’s ability to endure a full day at school such as carrying a bag, moving from classroom to classroom or sitting upright.

Zodiac Day Camp offers a variety of activities that develop both your child’s gross and fine motor skills to help them grow into a holistic person.