4 Ways To Encourage Your Childs Development

Children are continually learning and developing, and they will all do it at their own pace. They start off learning through their five senses, and then as they get older, they can build on these things that they have already learned to develop more complex motor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills, amongst other things. There are many fun activities that you can do with your child to encourage their development, and help to finesse their motor and sensory skills:

Play with play-dough

Play-dough is easy to make and is an excellent way to encourage your child to develop their fine motor skills. When they play with play-dough, they can pinch, stretch, and squeeze the dough into all different shapes and sizes. It can also encourage them to be creative and make sculptures and models out of it while strengthening their fingers.

If you want to add another element to the playdough, you could scent it with flavourings from the baking aisle so that they can begin to identify smells.

Threading items

Whether it is pasta on pipe cleaners or beads onto string to make a bracelet, threading things can be a fun way to help your child develop. It is a great way to help your child be able to concentrate on a task, and it can improve their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. As they get better, the items that they need to thread could get narrower so that it becomes more of a challenge for them.

Gardening

It can be great to get your child outdoors, and digging and planting plants can help to develop both gross and fine motor skills. Not only is it a great skill to develop, but it can also have them using their hands and muscles in a range of different ways to complete the task at hand. To be able to dig, your child will need to learn how to hold the trowel, and to plant a seed in a hole, they will need to use their hands to pick up the seed, and then hand-eye coordination to get it into its new home.

If you don’t want to let your child dig in your garden, you could plant things in plant pots, or buy a sandpit for them where they can dig and play.

Painting

Painting can help to develop your child's hand-eye coordination and their ability to grasp and manipulate objects. Painting with a brush will help them to be able to control it over time better, but you could also allow them to use their hands and some toys to create different effects. It will give them the chance to experiment with the way they use various items and extend their creativity. 

If you notice that your child has trouble with their sensory processing, motor skills, social skills, or anything else to do with their daily lives, it might be a good idea to attend Pediatric Occupational Therapy. An occupational therapist can help your child to develop these skills or adapt to become more independent.