|
Playing sports harnesses the high energy and playfulness of children into activities that grow their minds and bodies. The more children become skilled in the fundamental movement skills, the more successful they will be in sports. Around age seven is when children begin to refine their fundamental movement skills to be able to play sports with others. Read more to learn about these important skills and how you can help your child in their development.
Fundamental Movement Skills
Infants
For the first few months of life, infants are in the reflexive movement phase. Once they learn to sit up, let go of objects and take their first steps, they are in the rudimentary movement phase.
Toddlers & Preschoolers
The fundamental movement phase begins around age two and continues for the next several years. Fundamental movement skills are the building blocks of all movements. If we teach children the fundamentals, they have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of physical activity in different sports throughout their lives. Fundamental movement skills can be sorted into three categories: Locomotor, Object Control and Stability. Check out the video links below that show how to teach these skills.
Locomotor skills are skills used to move from place to another, such as:
Running
Skipping
Leaping
Galloping
Hopping
Jumping
Dodging
Object control skills are the movements used to move objects in a controlled manner, such as:
Swinging a bat
Catching a ball
Kicking a ball
Throwing a ball
Striking underhand
Stability movements are the skills that help us keep our balance while changing positions. Examples include: twisting, bending, swinging, stretching, lifting and walking a balance beam. Below are two videos showing fun games to help children grow these skills:
Balance Games
Balance: Fundamental Movement
If you need more ideas to interact with your little ones, check out Vroom! Vroom is a free app that you can download on your phone that provides activities aimed at children five and under. Once you put in your child’s age, you will have access to different activities that will grow with them as they age! Example:
| 
