Babies Physical Development

Babies need to be physically active from birth. They need to be able to move, stretch, kick, look, grab, wriggle and wiggle. Physical activities encourage the children’s development by promoting their movement skills. According to research, babies should not spend prolonged time in car seats, prams and rockers as this affects their growth and posture. Physical activities also help to promote fine and gross motor skills as well as pincer and palmar grasps. Regular physical activity is good for maintaining good health, preventing the development of health risk factors or poor health and enhancing self-confidence and social skills. There are many proven benefits of physical activity in young children.

These include:

• healthy growth and development
• building strong hearts and muscles and bones
• acquisition of fundamental motor skills
• improved movement
• balance, coordination and reaction time
• increased mental awareness
• improved social skills, self-esteem and confidence
• healthy weight management

Our team at The Village Nursery has recently taken part in physical development training which has helped massively in regard to supporting children physically. Our babies have taken part in a variety of physical activities:

• Soft play
• Large scale mark making
• Exploring pots and pans
• Ball games
• Building towers using blocks
• Dancing to music
• Outdoor play
• Exploring the slide and see-saws
• Painting using a variety of creative materials e.g. washing up brushes and sponges
• Tummy time with the sensory hoop
• Jigsaws

Our children really enjoy exploring the soft play as it challenges their physical development. Babies of all ages and stages of development can join in which is great! They loved crawling over the different levels of soft play and some of the older children attempted to walk over it too.

Another favourite within the baby room is messy play; the babies enjoy mark making and getting messy with paint. Large scale mark making is good for the children’s physical development as they are able to move around whilst making marks, and they are using their fine and gross motor skills, as well as using palmar grasps. Painting is a fun activity assisting physical development as it supports babies’ hand eye coordination and promotes fine motor skills, which in turn supports writing later on in life. Painting can be done with a variety of different objects, such as sponges and washing up brushes, which makes it more fun for the children.

The sensory hoop has been very popular with the younger babies. It is a great tool to use at tummy time. Tummy time is crucial to babies’ development of muscle strength and to physical milestones such as crawling. Whilst doing tummy time, the children can explore the sensory hoop, feeling all the different textures and this encourages them to move around the hoop.

Our babies love listening to music. They enjoy clapping along and some even move their bodies to the beat of the music! It is also fun when they use musical instruments along with the music. Music also promotes a calm and relaxing environment which soothes children if they become a little upset.

Physical activities to do at home with your baby

• Dancing to music
• Tummy time
• Encourage your baby to sit / crawl / pull up / cruise / walk
• Water play
• Ball play
• Walk to the park