Gross Motor Skills
A child's core strength is the foundation for a child to enable them to maintain their posture. Core strength is needed to control the position of the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers, therefore, a child requires a strong core to enable them to participate in daily activities efficiently.
Below are some exercises to develop a child's core strength.
Where a child has sufficient core strength but has difficulty controlling their arm movements, it is likely that they need to develop their upper limb strength. Poor shoulder stability can often be seen by children using full arm movements when writing rather than engaging just their wrist and fingers. Below are some exercises that can be completed to develop upper limb strength. Upper limb strength can also be developed by games that include weight bearing through the arms such as wheelbarrows or animal crawls. Games or activities that encourage arms to be used above shoulder height such as painting the fence with water and dancing with ribbons will also develop upper limb strength.