Balance is the ability to maintain control over the body and is an important skill in everyday tasks such as walking, sitting, dressing, or riding a bike. Balance begins to develop in infancy. The child first learns to maintain control over their head, then as core...
Having good climbing skills is important for all children as this allows them to be physically active and interact socially on the playground. The adventurous spirit is alive and well in most toddlers and young children. As they find their feet, the whole environment...
What is Physical Activity? Physical Activity (PA) can be defined as any movement of the body which requires the expenditure of energy. Activities can be moderate and not really cause us to huff and puff such as walking slowly, reaching, balancing, painting at an...
Engaging in risky play provides children with immense learning opportunities: Improve gross motor skills. Use motor planning and sequencing skills to execute complex movements. Think about consequences as part of risk assessment. Improves visuospatial skills. Often...
What are fine motor skills? Fine Motor Skills involve the use and coordination of the smaller muscles in the hands, fingers and thumbs. Fine motor skills begin to develop very early in life. You may notice how a baby concentrates to coordinate their forefinger and...
DCD is often under diagnosed and often misunderstood. Learn More
Why is jumping important? The 2018 Active Healthy Kids Australia Report Card recently highlighted declines in the jumping ability of Australian children and young people which indicate that ‘it’s time for a jump start’ for muscular fitness. When we think about the...
Professor Leon Straker discusses the impact of electronic gaming on the health of young children.
Like all learning - the development of scissor skills is a process which occurs incrementally. Just as you would not expect to give a young child a pencil and expect them to begin writing fluently - the functional use of scissors is the same. The child needs to have...
Image Courtesy of babycollege.co.uk What does it mean to cross the midline? Think of an imaginary line extending from the top of your head down the centre of your body. This is the midline – which theoretically separates the left and right side of the body.To be able...
Learning the fundamental motor skill of kicking begins in the early years but does not usually mature until the age of 6-7 years. Kicking skills will continue to be refined over the years with practice and coaching.The enjoyment toddlers experience with learning to...
To be human is to experience emotions. Sometimes these emotions are positive such as feeling happy, excited, elated or joyous and sometimes the emotions are negative such as feeling sad, lonely or jealous. For most of us, we experience a whole spectrum of emotions...