Types Of Motor Skills (gross And Fine) And Their Characteristics
Thanks to the locomotor system, human beings can perform a wide repertoire of movements ordered by the brain, which allow us to relate to the world and also explore it to get to know it better.
Motor skills refer to the body’s ability to perform different movements and gestures, which can be of greater or lesser complexity and perform varied functions.
From throwing a ball, writing with a pen or simply running, these movements are within the concept of motor skills, however, they would fall into different categories of it.
We are going to find out what the types of motor skills are, their development throughout people’s lives and the movements that fall within each one.
Basically, Motor skills are divided into two types, gross and fine depending on the types of muscle groups that are involved in the movement being performed.
1. Gross motor skills
Gross motor skills refer to a person’s motor abilities involving large muscle groups The intervention of this type of muscles allows movements in which the entire body or a large part of an extremity is activated, such as crawling, walking, jumping, climbing, cycling, swimming and many others.
This type of motor skills begins to develop at an early age, towards the first weeks of the baby’s life. Its development is continuous although, if it is not put into practice or exercises whose objective is to improve this capacity, there is no loss of gross motor skills. However, it is usual for there to be a progressive development of these capacities throughout life, even in adulthood.
The direction in which the large muscle groups are perfected is from head to toe That is, first you learn how to move your head and neck, then you have greater control over your trunk and, finally, you control your legs and arms.
During the first years of life, the development of this type of motor skills is essential to acquire the ability to control posture, body balance and walking.
Developing sufficient capacity to control posture and balance are fundamental issues to be able to perform actions in which one is upright, such as walking or sitting.
When just born, the baby is not able to voluntarily control its posture, nor hold its head correctly. That is why in the first weeks of life, it is recommended that the creature be lying down.
After two months, the baby has already acquired enough capacity to maintain a certain balance, being able to sit upright with the help of his or her caregivers.
When the first year of life approaches, infants have acquired enough capacity to be able to sit on a chair by themselves.
1.2. Learn to walk
Related to the previous point, in order to be able to walk upright you must first have sufficient postural control to be able to stay upright.
In addition, he will require strength in his legs, which he will have acquired after several months of crawling and putting part of the weight of his trunk on them, with the help of his arms.
It is around the first year of life that babies manage to walk, however, according to research carried out in this field, it has been seen that the neural pathways for this are already possessed before birth.
A fact that would give strength to this is that if a two-month-old baby is placed in an upright position but being held by someone, the baby will alternate legs as if he were walking.
Regardless of how innate this ability may be, it is very important for the baby to see others, both the same age and older, walking in order to develop this ability.
Rise and decline of coarse capabilities
Although the changes that occur during the first years of life are significant, Gross skills also improve during the period between 7 and 12 years At this age, who will soon be a teenager, improves his ability to run, dodge, jump rope and other activities related to the field of sports.
That is why it is quite noticeable to carry out sports activities during adolescence, coinciding with the time in which people notice better dexterity in terms of their locomotor capacity.
However, as everything that goes up must come down, after a few years, especially when approaching 30, a decline in gross motor skills begins to occur. As a result, people older than this age see their movements become slower and more difficult to perform. To prevent this motor decline from occurring early and quickly, it is recommended to perform physical exercise at any age and frequently.
2. Fine motor skills
Regarding fine motor skills, unlike its counterpart, small muscle groups are involved, which are mostly found in the hands, especially the wrists and fingers This ability is notable in the human species, given that there is a high control of the movements of the fingers of the hands, allowing us to grasp objects, write, play the piano or make gestures.
Fine skills develop throughout the life of the entire individual, and it is possible to improve and learn new movements at practically any age of the person, as long as there are no physical or brain injuries.
However, especially in childhood, there are significant changes in the development of these capacities, which go hand in hand with the improvement of certain skills promoted by the educational system.
2.1. First months of life
The first fine movements that can be observed in a baby are reflexes, which appear from the moment they are born. However, as a few weeks pass, many of these disappear.
At eight weeks, the baby is able to make some movements with his fingers, being able to pick up things, although clumsily.
Between two and five months, the baby is already able to coordinate his gaze with the movement of his own hands, this being a decisive point in his ability to explore the outside world.
Between seven and twelve months the most notable point of the baby’s fine motor skills occurs, with an improvement in the ability to grasp objects, point with the index finger, pass objects from one hand to the other and, very important also, clamp with your hand.
When the baby is already one year old, he or she has enough fine ability to handle objects voluntarily and with greater safety.
Thanks to this, you can pick up the objects you want and thus explore them to get to know them better, learning both physically and through stimuli. Thus, learn aspects such as size, weight and shape.
2.2. Preschool
This stage would include between two and five years of age. At these ages, the child is able to close and open his hand making different combinations with his fingers.
Thus, the child can learn to use scissors, paint with pencils, button his shirt and pick up objects more accurately.
In addition, they learn about the environment they are in and the stimuli they receive from it, effectively coordinating their movements to explore it.
23. School stage
Between the ages of five and seven, fine motor skills are already remarkably developed, although they can always be improved. The arms and legs synchronize better.
It is at these ages that children learn to write and read. The first writing attempts, although clumsy, are the demonstration of them, while reading is characterized by using the fingers to direct their gaze to the line they have to read.
