Activities to Improve Your Toddler's Gross Motor Skills

Certain activities can help children develop and strengthen large muscles in legs, arms and the entire body. The child starts developing muscles and skills gradually. Read on to learn how you can help develop gross motor skills in your toddler.As an infant your child learned to roll over, raise hand, sit, stand, walk taking support and even without support. When your child becomes a toddler, you have to help him develop his fine and gross motor skills so that you help in proper development and strengthening of the large muscles of his body.As a toddler it is important that your child keeps on exercising his muscles so that he carries on other activities without much effort. For this, the best thing is that you provide sufficient free area for your child to move around and below are some of the activities and games that you can do with your child so that his motor skills are developed properly. In this articlePushing and PullingWalking and RunningClimbingCrawlingKicking, Throwing and CatchingDancingChoresBuilding BlocksActivities for Development of Gross Motor SkillsHave a quick look at the activities which help in the development of the gross motor skills in toddlers.Pushing and PullingProvide a toy wagon or dodge truck so that your toddler fills in something and pulls it around the room or in the yard. Many push toys also help to teach toddlers how to push by using his muscles. One of the best ways to engage your child in activities that will help him improve and strengthen his large muscles is to provide him a large cardboard box. Children love to play with and in large boxes and even pull or push it.Walking and RunningYou might feel that children walk and run on their own and often do so without even any prompting as well. But, sometimes you should intentionally encourage your child to walk or run. You can ask him to catch you and then run in front of him so that he runs after you. Just make sure the area where you are making your child run is safe and will not injure him in any way.ClimbingHelp your toddler learn how to climb stairs with your help. This will help stimulate your child’s sense of laterality. Hold your child properly and provide proper support while your child is climbing the stairs.CrawlingAlthough you might find that toddlers are almost experts in crawling, they need to be proficient in it. This helps strengthen the muscles of arms and legs differently than walking. Create obstacles with the help of pillows, cardboard boxes and other safe things and let him go over, under and around the obstacles. Monitor your child while he or she is involved in these activities to prevent accidents.Kicking, Throwing and CatchingPlay with large balls. Teach your child to kick, throw and catch by playing with him. Make sure you pay attention that your child makes use of both the hands and takes turn to kick with legs one by one. When throwing and catching, take comparatively smaller ball for your child’s comfort.DancingPut on the music and encourage your child to dance. You can have some random movements or teach your child few steps to develop his skill. This is one of the best and creative ways to help your toddler develop his gross motor skills.ChoresIt sounds unreasonable to make your toddler help you with household chores, but you can take help from your child in doing simple things like handing over the duster or any other simple activities that involve squatting, bending and stretching which will help strengthen your child’s muscles.Building BlocksBuilding blocks are also extremely helpful in developing gross motor skills of your child. Each time your child will put a block to make the tower; he will have to bend, pick up the block and balance it on the other blocks.It is very essential to spend some time everyday with your child to carry out these activities. Such activities will not only help to develop the gross motor skills of your child but also improve your bonding and involvement with him or her.How to encourage the development of gross motor skill in toddlers? Which activities help in development of gross motor skills in toddler? How to involve toddlers in simple household chores or activities to improve their motor skills? Discuss here.