Child motor skills: learning and development through play
The game is one of the most common exercises that young children perform during childhood and is an essential part of their learning and development, so we want to tell you how to use the game to facilitate learning according to the age of the child.
HOW TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PLAY
From 0 to 2 years, key period for the use of toys
During the child's first two years and specifically the first 12 months, skills such as manipulation, sensorimotor perception, coordination and the first contacts with people in the context will become the facilitators of learning, stimulation and play.
It will not be until the second year that global motor skills, spatial orientation, the debut of language and walking will take on a very special relevance.
Observing this endless potential is what makes us intuit the importance of play and early stimulation. With them, areas as vital as motor, cognitive, social, language and autonomy will be able to develop adequately in children of these ages.
In order to provide a guide on what type of toys are the most suitable for each stage of development, we propose a list of playful elements:
Joys age 0-6 months
In this first stage we will focus on sensory stimulation and general motor skills. From the first days of birth, the baby is sensitive to any stimulus that attracts her attention and before three months they can capture global images of her immediate environment. Taking this into account, it will be important that the toys have bright colors, varied shapes and different textures. It will also be preferable to provide them with sound and movements.
For this purpose, these types of toys will be preferable:
- Ceiling or wall mobiles.
- Lights and sounds projector.
- Soft, small dolls with a soft touch.
- Toys to fix in the crib or in the stroller of different textures, sizes and colors.
- Soft balls with different textures.
- teethers.
Toys age 6-12 months
From 6 months our baby will begin to manipulate objects, improving rapidly with manual coordination. It will be in this period when she will love to put objects in her mouth and she will love toys with sound and movement. She will love exploring, manipulating, pulling and dragging objects.
The best toys for this age are:
- More or less simple nestables.
- handling activities.
- Books that can be put in the mouth without danger.
- Musical toys and rattles.
- teethers.
- Toys for the shower or bath.
- Balls of different sizes and textures.
- soft dolls
- Seesaws and pull toys.
- Toys that stimulate crawling.
Toys age 18-24 months
At 18 months, a boy or a girl will walk perfectly and there would be an infinite world of possibilities for interaction. An increasingly symbolic game will gradually enter, being able to anticipate, foresee and learn quickly.
The ideal toys for this period are:
- Horses, tricycles, etc.
- Construction games with large pieces and different textures.
- Puzzle
- More complex nestables.
- Dolls with accessories.
- Trade toys: doctor, mechanic….
- Animals, characters, vehicles, environmental objects...
- Remote-controlled or autonomous mobility vehicles of different sizes.
- slides
- Costumes.