gross motor development Archives - North Shore Pediatric Therapy

Importance of Tummy Time

in Development, Physical Therapy, Physical Therapy, Specialties and Services

In a national survey of 400 pediatric physical and occupational therapists, two-thirds of those surveyed say they’ve seen an increase in early motor delays in infants who spend too much time on their back while awake. Tummy time is an important and essential activity for infants to develop the strength and musculature they need to achieve their milestones in gross motor development.

What is tummy time?

Supervised time during the day that your baby spends on their tummy while they are awake

Why does my baby need tummy time?

Being on his or her tummy will help develop the muscles of the shoulder, neck, trunk, and back. This, in turn, will allow your child to achieve developmental milestones such as independent sitting, crawling, and standing
Tummy time will help prevent conditions such as torticollis and plagiocephaly (head flattening on portions of their head)

What if my baby doesn’t like tummy time?

The sooner you start tummy time, the sooner your child will get used to it!
If your child cannot keep their head up, use a towel roll, Boppy pillow, or small pillows to help prop them up until they can lift their head on their own
Place a mirror or their favorite toys in front of them to keep them entertained
Put them on your lap on their tummy

How much time do they need on their tummy?

You can start putting them on their tummy from day one for up to 5 minutes, 3-5 times a day. As they get stronger, they will be able to tolerate increased tummy time during the day.
But, always remember – back to sleep and tummy to play!

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Deerfield, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff, and Des Plaines! If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates!

Help Your Child Develop Ball Skills

in Birth-3, Development, Exercise, Parenting, Physical Therapy, Preschool

Pediatric physical therapists and occupational therapists often work with young children on play skills to prepare them for school and sports. Between when a baby first learns to sit on his own and when he starts preschool, many gross motor skills are developing. The ability to catch, throw, and kick a ball often reflect how well a child can balance his body in space, interact with his environment, and coordinate opposing sides of his body. As a prelude to specialized sports, ball skills are especially important for children to master. The questions parents frequently ask me are often related to the development of those ball skills.

When should my child be able to catch a ball?

Catching a ball takes on different qualities when it comes to development. A one-year- old child should be able to catch a ball while sitting down by enclosing the ball with arms and hands, without falling or losing his balance.

By age 2, a child is able to stand and hold his arms in front of his body, with palms up in a receiving position in anticipation. He should attempt to secure a ball thrown from 5ft away by bringing hands to chest.
By age 3, he should be able to catch a ball thrown from 5ft away with hands only, with arms outstretched, without the need to bring his hands to his chest. At four and a half, a child is able to catch a tennis ball from 5ft away using his hands only, with arms bent at 45 degrees, at least 2 out of 3 times.
By age 6, a child can bounce a tennis ball on the floor and catch it with 1 hand.

How should my child throw a ball at different ages?

At 12 months, a baby can roll a ball forward on the floor at least 3ft using his hands. He can also stand and throw a ball in any direction by extending his arm at shoulder or elbow.
By 18 months, a child should be able to stand and throw a ball without falling.
By 2 years, a child will be able to throw a tennis ball forward at least 3ft using an overhand and underhand technique. By two and a half, that distance doubles.
By three and a half, a child will be able to throw a tennis ball forward 10ft in the air and use appropriate technique, such as moving arms up and back using upper trunk rotation, with arms and legs moving in opposition. He can also hit a 2ft target from 5ft away with a tennis ball using underhand toss.
By four and a half, a child can throw a tennis ball underhandedly at least 10ft using trunk rotation and opposing arm/leg movements. He can also hit a target from 12ft away 2 out of 3 trials using an overhand toss.

When should my child be able to kick a ball?

At a year and a half, a child will have the balance and coordination to stand, lift his foot, and contact a ball. By 20 months, he can kick a stationary ball forward 3ft. By 2 years, he would be able to do this without the ball deviating more than 20 degrees to either side of midline, suggesting good control of his body and limbs.
A 3-year-old can kick a ball forward 6ft using opposing arm and leg movements. He should be able to initiate the kick by bringing his foot backwards with knee bent.
By 6 years, a child has the balance, coordination, and strength to kick the ball forward and up in the air at least 12ft, using proper technique.

Okay. So that’s what my child should be doing. How do I help him achieve these developmental milestones?

It is so important to start at a level that your child can achieve and then gradually increase the difficulty. Children respond well to success and praise, and they are more willing to try challenging tasks as they build up their confidence. Break down each task step by step. For example, if kicking a ball is hard or if his technique is off, have your child practice standing on one foot first or kick a balloon instead. If throwing underhandedly is tough, break down the different position of his arms and legs during each point of the motion. Achieving developmental milestones is a matter of practice, timing, cognitive maturation, and understanding the parts of each task.

Look for an upcoming blog about specialized sports for children. If you continue to have questions or concerns about your child’s coordination, development, and ball skills, come in and talk to one of our specialists!

World Health Organization Development Study Results: Gross Motor Milestones In the First Year

in Birth-3, Development, Parenting, Physical Therapy, Preschool

The line between typical and atypical development can be a hazy one. There are standards that pediatricians, physical therapists, and developmental experts use to monitor growth and deviations from the norm, which allow us to recommend interventions when appropriate. In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a whole new set of standards for evaluating and assessing the development of children from birth to 5 years.

What makes this new standard a great tool to monitor the change and growth of infants? This standard is based on data collected from healthy children, over multiple years, in six diverse geographic regions including Southeast and Southwest Asia, Europe, West Africa, North and South America. What is exciting about the new evaluation tool is that now, pediatric specialists have more than just reference curves for physical growth, but curves for motor development as well.

The six gross motor milestones WHO examined in babies were the following:

1.   Sitting without support
2.   Standing with assistance
3.   Hands-and-knees crawling
4.   Walking with assistance
5.   Standing alone
6.   Walking alone

The “windows of milestone achievement” were organized into percentile rankings which pediatricians and physical therapists can use, much like a growth chart.

Without delving too deep into statistics and calculations, the typical age range (in months) for each milestone is listed below:

1.   Sitting without support: 3.8 – 9.2 months
2.   Standing with assistance: 4.8 – 11.4 months
3.   Hands-and-knees crawling: 5.2 – 13.5 months
4.   Walking with assistance: 5.9 – 13.7 months
5.   Standing alone: 6.9 – 16.9 months
6.   Walking alone: 8.2 – 17.6 months

The average (mean) age for healthy children achieving each milestones is as follows:

1.   Sitting without support: 6 months (with 1.1 month standard deviation, SD)
2.   Standing with assistance: 7.6 months (with 1.4 month SD)
3.   Hands-and-knees crawling: 8.5 months (with 1.7 month SD)
4.   Walking with assistance: 9.2 months (with 1.5 month SD)
5.   Standing alone: 11 months (with 1.9 month SD)
6.   Walking alone: 12.1 months (with 1.8 month standard deviation)

(Click here to view this information in chart form from WHO.)

What is most interesting is that about 90% of the children studied met their milestones in a common sequence, and only 4% of the children skipped hands-and-knees crawling. (Read here about the importance of crawling.)

As you read over these standards and timelines, remember that every baby develops differently from another. If you see your baby fall behind on any of the 6 gross motor milestones above, mention it to his pediatrician, and she will most likely recommend a physical therapist to help him along.

Reference:
WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study Group. WHO Motor Development Study: Windows of achievement for six gross motor development milestones. Acta Paediatrica, 2006; Suppl 450: 86-95.

Dressing Skills: Developmental Steps for Kids

in Behavior, Birth-3, Development, Education, Kindergarten-5th Grade, Living Skills, Middle School, Milestones, Occupational Therapy, Parenting, Physical Therapy, Preschool, Therapy

Dressing may seem like a simple task, but it is actually a task that requires multiple skill sets from children. Dressing requires skills such as fine and gross motor coordination, body awareness, bilateral coordination, right/left discrimination, postural stability, and motor planning. As a parent, it can be difficult to know at what age a child should develop certain skills in dressing.

Developmental steps of self-dressing skills in children*:

1 year:

Pulls off shoes
Removes socks
Pushes arms and legs through garments

2 years:

Helps pull down pants
Finds armholes in pullover shirts
Removes unfastened jackets
Removes untied shoes

2.5 years:

Removes pull-down elastic waist pants
Unbuttons large buttons
Puts on front button shirt

3 years:

Puts on socks and shoes (though it might be the wrong feet or socks upside down)
Puts on pullover shirts with some help
Buttons large buttons
Pulls down pants
Zips and unzips with help to place on track

3.5 years:

Identifies front of clothing
Snaps fasteners
Unbuckles belt
Buttons 3-4 buttons at a time
Unzips jacket zipper

4 years:

Removes pull over shirts without help
Buckles belt
Zips jacket
Puts on socks correctly
Identifies front and back of clothing

5 years:

Dresses alone
Ties and unties knots

6 years:

Ties bows and shoelaces

According to Jayne Shepherd (2005), achieving independence in dressing may take up to 4 years. During this time, parents gradually perform fewer of the tasks, and encourage their children to do more, with the ultimate goal of independence.

*Source:

Shepherd, J. (2010). Activities of daily living and adaptations for independent living. In J. Case-Smith, (Ed.), Occupational therapy for children (5^th ed., p., 501). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

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10 Signs at School Suggesting a Student May Benefit from Physical Therapy

in Physical Therapy

Children develop and improve their gross motor skills significantly during their early school years, between three and ten years of age. A lot of gross motor development occurs at school while playing at recess or doing activities in gym class. School offers the opportunity to recognize if a child needs extra assistance from a physical therapist in expanding or improving their gross motor skills.

Here are some tips for teachers that will help determine if a child would benefit from physical therapy:

The child prefers to sit and play instead of run or participate in gross motor activities during recess or gym class.
The child has difficulty jumping, skipping, or galloping when compared to their peers.
The child has an atypical gait pattern (for example, they walk on their toes or they are “knock-kneed”)
The child prefers to w-sit (with their knees bent, feet by their bottom, and bottom on the floor) instead of crossed-legged on the floor.
The child frequently trips, falls, or bumps into objects.
When walking up and down the stairs, the child does not alternate their feet, instead placing both feet on each step.
The child is unable to kick a soccer ball.
The child is unable to catch or throw a playground ball.
The child runs significantly slower than his peers or has difficulty running for more than one minute.
The child complains of pain or tightness in their ankles, knees, hips, or back.

If you see any of these characteristics in children at school, they may benefit from a physical therapy evaluation. Without fully developed gross motor skills, a child is going to have difficulties keeping up with their peers during recess or gym class. It will also affect their ability to participate in gross motor games and sports. Also, it is important to note that many children will exhibit the above behaviors and may or may not require physical therapy (PT) intervention therefore it is important to consult with a PT first.

Differences and Similarities Between Occupational and Physical Therapy | Pediatric Therapy Tv

in Diagnostics, Education, Health and Wellness, health care, Occupational Therapy, Parenting, Pediatric Therapy TV, Physical Therapy, Sensory Integration, Therapy

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric occupational therapist explains ways to distinguish between occupational and physical therapy and how they are similar.

In this video you will learn:

To determine the differences between physical and occupational therapy
How the two disciplines are alike
What types of therapies are used for the different disciplines

Video Transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide
audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV where we provide experience and
innovation to maximize your child’s potential. Now your host, here’s Robyn.

Robyn: Hello, and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host, Robyn
Ackerman, and I’m standing here with Lindsay Miller, a Pediatric
Occupational Therapist. Lindsay, people are often confused between physical
therapy and occupational therapy. Can you explain with the differences and
similarities are between OT and PT?

Lindsay: Sure. With occupational therapy, we usually work on independence
with self-care skills, and these are skills like dressing and bathing. We
also work a lot on fine motor skills as well. So that’s any sort of
movement using your hands and fingers like writing, coloring, using
scissors, using a fork and knife, those types of things. Traditionally,
physical therapists work on mobility, so that’s walking, running, jumping,
and other gross motor tasks that use the larger muscles of the body. In the
pediatric realm, occupational therapists also work on executive functioning
skills, so those are our thinking skills and our thinking processes, and we
also work on sensory processing as well, so that’s how children react
emotionally and behaviorally to their environment and their surroundings.
In the pediatric world, physical therapists also work a lot on mobility
again and also gross motor development. So that’s, can your child crawl and
can they get themself up into standing and those sorts of things.

Some of the similarities are that occupational and physical therapy both
can look at muscle strength, flexibility, range of motion, and muscle tone,
but the biggest difference is really how we look at those things and in
what context. So occupational therapists look at those muscle strength and
flexibility and those types of things and how they affect functioning and
daily life whereas physical therapists look at those things and how it
affects mobility and gross motor skills. So overall, there is some overlap
between occupational and physical therapy, but the biggest difference is
really how they look at it in terms of functioning.

Robyn: All right. Thank you so much, Lindsay, and thank you to our viewers.
And remember, keep on blossoming.

Announcer: This has been Pediatric Therapy TV, where we bring peace of mind
to your family with the best in educational programming. To subscribe to
our broadcast, read our blogs, or learn more, visit our website at
learnmore.me. That’s learnmore.me.

Tag Archive for: gross motor development