Assuming there are no serious motor problems present, what can you, as an involved parent, do to help promote your childs motor development? To help ensure she becomes a competent, confident mover who enjoys and therefore takes part in physical activity? The answer is: Plenty! Practice is one of the most important factors involved in achieving higher levels of skill performance. But one of the most important factors involved in practice is that it not feel like practice! Its simple, really: All you have to do is play with your child. It should be noncompetitive play, with no pressure whatsoever, and your child should never guess youre trying to improve him. Following are some other general tips to keep in mind: * Keep the sessions short. Its better to have shorter, more frequent sessions than to wear your child out with a few that seem never-ending. * Build on skills in a logical order (walking before running; jumping before hopping, etc.). Remember, too, that performing a skill in a stationary environment precedes performing it in a moving environment. An example is catching a ball tossed to oneself versus catching one hit by a bat. * If youre using equipment (for instance, a bat and ball), be sure its child-sized. Equipment meant for adults can seriously stack the odds against a child. * Keep a progression in mind for equipment, too. For instance, if youre working on catching, start with something simple and nonthreatening that allows for maximum success, like a chiffon scarf. Then work your way up from there, perhaps with a balloon, followed by a small beach ball and then increasingly smaller (soft, easily grasped) balls. * Children need to work on a skill as a whole before attempting its smaller parts. For example, a child needs to feel comfortable with a vertical jump as a whole before she can begin to concentrate on toe-ball-heel landings or the role her arms can play in achieving greater height. * Be sure your child is dressed in clothing that allows for maximum movement and the possibility of dirtying. * Whenever possible, demonstrate a skill yourself so your child has an opportunity to see what it should look like. Children need to employ as many senses in the learning process as possible. Children also need feedback as they practice their motor skills and the most important thing you can remember is to keep it neutral and encouraging. We too often believe we need to tell children what theyve done wrong so they can fix it. But if you do need to make corrections, keep the sandwich approach in mind. First, compliment the child on something shes done right. Then suggest a way to eliminate the error. Finally, end with something positive, even if its to reiterate the first point. To be truly helpful to a child, we must avoid moralizing with our feedback. A jump isnt good or bad. A jump is either high or low, light or heavy. If we use the former descriptors or use such general terms as good job, good girl/boy, or I liked that jump we arent really telling the child anything. He has no idea what was good about what he did. But if we describe what weve seen (You landed very lightly from your jump, with your knees bent. That helps keep your knees from getting hurt.), we not only provide vocabulary for what hes done; we provide useful specifics as well. Finally, when providing feedback, make sure you give it in small amounts. Young children can generally absorb only one bit of information at a time. So, if your child is practicing his long jump and youre instructing him to swing your arms out and up and extend your knees and hips on takeoff; then bring your arms back down and bend your knees in preparation for landing, hell likely miss most if not all of the information! |
