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Promoting Motor Skills -Why it’s so important

Your baby’s first year of life is an amazing time of discovery, growth, change and questions. During this time, your baby will transform from a dependent bundle of joy to an independent, confident, mobile infant. As parents, we want to provide the best opportunity for our baby to successfully achieve all the expectations of their first year. The success of your baby’s first year is directly linked with the success of many years to come. You can create the foundation for a strong and confident child now.

Your baby’s development is a natural process of exploration and experience bringing new achievements with each day. With each new achievement, new questions are bound to arise. As parents, we may have read books or turned to our pediatrician to help us understand our baby’s grow and develop. No matter how many books we’ve read or videos we’ve watched, we are still bound to be stumped at times by these amazing little creatures.

As a pediatrician, I see children at all levels of developmental ability. While most children progress naturally through each stage, some require additional help through physical therapy. Two of the most frequent reasons for referrals to physical therapy during the first year of life are plagiocephaly (flattening of the head due to positioning) and torticollis (head tilt due to neck muscle imbalance). Working closely with Michelle Clark, Pediatric Physical Therapist at Wm Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak, I have realized that many of the things families learn in physical therapy would benefit all children. Often families who have been to therapy will return stating “I wish I would have known these things with my first child,” or “Why can’t everyone go to therapy…its great!”

One of the most important parts of my job as a pediatrician is educating parents about their children’s health and development. In response to this, the following information was prepared to help you make the most of your child’s developmental potential during the first year of life.

Making the Most of Your Baby’s 1st Year
By Michelle Clark, Pediatric Physical Therapist-Wm Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak

Babies possess an innate desire to explore and discover the world around them through all their senses. It’s a natural process that helps to develop strength and fine/gross motor skills. Each child is different and likes to interact with their surroundings in their own way. The best results come when we understand our baby’s temperament. Learning to read their signs and finding out “good times and bad times” for certain activities will help to ensure success.

The activities a baby naturally participates in during the 1st year of life are very influential in the development of your child’s coordination, strength, balance, confidence and overall performance throughout their life. The first year is the only time in life when we rely on our core body and upper body strength for stability. It is critical that we take advantage of this “once in a lifetime” opportunity. Remember, it’s never too early to start working with your child to help them develop to the best of their abilities.

0-3 months: Building blocks for Success
The goals of this stage are to improve head and neck stability, increase core muscle tone and upper body strength so that your baby can tolerate non-dependent positions (we want to begin to get them off their backs and the backs of their heads).

• Strive for success-pick times in your baby’s schedule that are good for them; a rested, fed baby is much more likely to want to explore their world than an overtired, hungry baby
• Learn your baby’s signs-they will let you know when they have had enough
• Practice the concept of “Back to Sleep, Front to Play”
• Start “Tummy Time” immediately it’s the foundation for the essential development of strong neck and trunk muscles that become your core stabilizers throughout life. There are lots of ways to do this:
  Lay your baby across your lap, across your chest, on edge of chair/couch/bed or on floor with a boppy-pillow or towel roll under his chest for support.
• Engage all of the senses: sight, sound and touch
• As your baby becomes more aware of her surroundings, provide opportunities to interact with her world on her own-sitting in bouncy seat, floor time, swing
• Encourage midline play in all positions to help develop body awareness
• As head control improves, carry your baby in a forward facing upright position and hold him sitting forward on your lap with support under the arms for stability

3-6 months: Sitting Pretty-Transitioning to Upright Positions
The goals of this stage are to transition out of supine (lying down), dependent positions into more upright seated postures. Core abdominal muscles will be used to stabilize the trunk.

• Tummy time, Tummy time, Tummy time- develops head control, strengthens back and shoulder muscles, teaches weight shifts to help with crawling and mobility, engages balance systems, provides sensory input to hands, visually stimulates, enhances core stability
• Rolling from side to back, side to front, front to back, and back to front
• Discovering all parts of their own bodies-hands, feet, left, and right.
  Encourage body exploration and visual interaction with a mirror; lots of midline awareness and hands together play; a time of optimal feedback from their environment as well as their own bodies
• Supported sitting-use pillows, boppys and blankets for support; prop their hands onto toys, steps, pillows to encourage a sense of independence with sitting skills. Let them “fall” to teach awareness of boundaries and protective reactions
• Attempting floor mobility with rolling and pivoting and spinning on their tummies
• Provide brief opportunities for supported standing (exersaucer) to prepare legs and feet for weight bearing and improve trunk tone
• Continue to encourage “independent” exploration of their environment

6-9 months: Moving Forward
The goals of this stage are to improve steadiness in upright positions and begin to move forward into a crawling stance.

• Get ready to move!
• Tummy time, tummy time, tummy time! May not last for very long if baby can roll off tummy, but don’t stop – keep encouraging her back onto her tummy
• Place toys just out of your baby’s reach to encourage mobility in all forms-commando crawling, combat crawling, butt scooting, pivoting, spinning, scooting forwards and backwards
• Independent sitting encourages continues development of balance and protective reactions-toys out of reach with help to develop weight shifting skills and “transition” skills
• Transitions-process of getting out of one position and into another; the most beautiful and amazing part of development; the age of graceful and not so graceful movement patterns for babies
• Enjoys standing with your help and furniture’s help-great opportunity to strengthen legs and feet
• Great time to use activity centers that encourage standing with support as long as baby has good head and trunk control
• Constant development of cognitive skills-cause and effect, object permanence

9-12 months: Ready or not, here I come!
The goals of this stage are moving and exploring.

• Creeping, crawling, cruising, pulling to stand, walking, climbing
• Stage of building confidence in their skills and self-esteem in their own accomplishments
• Learning to be efficient movers; continue to look more and more fluid or graceful
• All senses are on overdrive-babies at this stage are busy explorers. Be sure to make it safe for them by taking appropriate child-proofing measures
• All areas of development are in full force
• Mastering these increasingly complex motor skills is dependent on their core body strength that was developed and facilitated since birth
• Enjoy your babies new found independence…this is the phase when all your hard work pays off

If you are interested in more detailed information on this subject please visit the Products section of our website and click on book link for Baby Steps by Susan Fox –this is an excellent reference guide that has specific exercises for each developmental stage.

Note: All babies do not develop motor skills at the exact same rate. The time frames presented here are meant to provide general guidelines. Regardless of the exact age at which your child achieves each of these milestones, each child should follow about the same order of progression. If, after reading this, you have concerns about your child’s development, please contact your physician.

Copyright 2004 Pediatric Specialists of Bloomfield Hills, P.C., K. Coleman, L.L.C.