Your child begins by learning basic movement skills. As they get older, they develop and build on these movement skills to do more complex activities. These activities involve more body parts, include steps that must be done in the right order, or involve an object, like a ball. Your child will build on the skill of walking to be able to run. Then build to more complex activities, like running while kicking a ball toward a target.
You may notice your child struggle with activities that use motor coordination as they get older. This doesn’t mean these challenges with motor coordination are new. They just become more noticeable as your child starts to do more complex activities and we expect them to do the activities more quickly. Many parents don’t notice problems with motor coordination until their child is in school.
Your child uses motor coordination in in many ways in their daily life. Daily living skills, like brushing teeth and tying shoelaces, are activities your child does every day. These activities involve combining different movements and involve objects like a toothbrush or shoelaces. The steps need to be done in the right order to be successful. Your child needs to use motor coordination to do these activities.
Active play combines many simple skills and often involves many steps. Active play often includes an object like a bat or ball. This means that when your child is playing sports or games with friends, they use complex motor skills and motor coordination to move smoothly. Many school activities use complex gross motor and fine motor skills. Your child will combine multiple steps that need to be remembered. At school, some of these activities need to be done more quickly. Your child needs to talk to and be understood by their teachers and friends. All of these activities use motor coordination.
