Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Developing Your Child’s Motor Skills

Developing your child’s motor skills is a key component to enabling children to perform everyday functions. Fine motor skills include writing, drawing, and cutting with scissors. Gross motor skills include walking, running, climbing, as well as sport-related movements such as hitting a ball with a bat and kicking a ball while running. Developing motor skills play a big role in our eventual need to care for ourselves, performing such actions as getting dressed in the morning, sitting upright, and stepping in or out of a car. And so, it should come as no surprise that parents must help their children develop motor skills as early as possible.
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Scootering is a Proven Method For Developing Motor Skills in Children
One of the best ways to develop your child’s motor skills is by them learning how to use a scooter. Scooters designs advance with the coordination abilities associated with children’s ages. There are scoot boards for very young children, three-wheeled scooters for slightly older kids, and two-wheeled scooters for advanced children and pre-teens. All scooter designs serve the same function in the way of developing motor skills.

Motor skills are developed by strengthening aspects of the body, such as core strength and hand-eye coordination. Riding a scooter achieves all of these smaller goals that lead to an overall improvement in motor skills, including:

- Core strength development
- Coordination in arm and leg movements
- Cardiovascular health
- Developing orientation and proprioception abilities
- Vestibular health
- Bilateral movement coordination
- Hand-eye coordination

It is a pleasure to watch your child learn how to maneuver a scooter around a turn or brake at the end of a hill. These actions signal that the child is learning how to (a) navigate his/her environment and (b) implement skilled movement. As a parent, it is comforting to see your child learn these invaluable skills. After all, someday they will need to make important choices that require motor skills - such as crossing a busy street, chopping wood with an ax, or merging their vehicle onto highway traffic - and they will not necessarily have you there to help them.

Scootering Develops Children’s Key Muscle Groups
The effort from learning how to ride a scooter develops core muscles in the chest and back, as well as in the abdominal area. Obviously, the legs receive strength training as well. Practically all leg muscles - hamstrings, quads, calves - are strengthened while riding a scooter. Joints and connective tissues (tendons and ligaments) appreciate the lack of heavy impact in scooter riding, stretching and strengthening at a better rate than in actions such as running or jumping. Riding a scooter requires the muscles to tense and loosen repetitively, an action that is excellent for developing strong, lean muscle fiber.

Developing a child’s key muscle groups at a young age later translates into an easier day for the child. For instance, sitting up well while eating helps digestion and sitting straight at a desk helps fight fatigue and information retention. Children with more muscle control and stronger connective tissues will have an easier time carrying their backpacks while climbing up the bus steps or walking home from school. Metabolic levels and resting heart rate improve with healthy muscle to fat ratio. Riding a scooter is something children can do from a young age. They are fun, healthy, and less cumbersome than bicycles.

Riding a Scooter Makes the Whole Family Healthy
It is in parents’ best interest to purchase a kick scooter, from a brand like Fuzion for their children. Scooters are an excellent way to develop their motor skills, a gift that will truly last a lifetime. But the health benefits are not limited to children; adults receive the cardiovascular and calorie burning benefits of riding a scooter. No one is too old to enjoy the glorious feeling of coasting down a hill. So, while you’re at it, pick up an adult kick scooter for yourself and enjoy the healthy activity with your kids.







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