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By helping young children develop their fundamental motor skills you can boost their confidence and
help them gain greater enjoyment from sport and physical activity.
hildren do not automatically
become proficient at sports.
Some will be naturally more adept
than others, but they all need to be taught
fundamental motor skills and given the
opportunity to progress through stages.
Motor skills are voluntary, learnt
movements made by the human body to
achieve a task, such as a child twisting their
body and moving their arm to throw a ball.
By mastering fundamental motor skills such
as a basic sprint, vertical jump, side gallop
and leap, children will have the basic skills
needed to participate in sport.
So, as a parent or carer, which
fundamental motor skills can you help
develop in the young children (approximately
primary school-aged) you care for?
Aim to incorporate skills such as running,
side-stepping, jumping, catching, throwing
and hitting a ball into children’s playtime.
Create simple games that incorporate these
motor skills, such as tying a ribbon around
a higher item and seeing if the children can
jump and touch it. Turning the activities into
games will encourage greater enthusiasm
and participation than simply getting them
to run back and forth over a distance.
C
Start simple and gradually
progress
Sports often feature lots of moving elements
and multi-tasking that can be overwhelming
for a child. Help them get comfortable
with these ‘open motor skills’ by stripping
the game back to its basic elements and
gradually piecing them together. For
example, start by throwing and catching a
ball when you and the child are stationary,
then progress to throwing the ball to the
child while they are moving, and then to
throwing the ball while the child is moving
and another child tries to intercept.
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Progression
not
only
enhances
development, it can also help children’s selfesteem by matching their abilities to the task.
Teaching your child new skills
When teaching a child a new skill you should:
• keep instructions to a minimum to avoid
information overload
• focus feedback on the key elements
taught, not on performance outcomes
• clearly explain how to correct errors
• provide lots of encouragement and keep
it fun
• keep the environment as neutral as
possible, i.e. more static elements
• observe the child for signs of fatigue and
respond appropriately.
When you can see that the child no longer
needs to think about every facet of the
movement, and they are performing it with
more fluidity, they are in the ‘associative
stage’ of motor skill learning.
At this stage you can start to:
• incorporate goal and performanceoriented games, such as challenging
them to see how many times they can
throw a ball through a hoop
• encourage them to incorporate their own
unique style of movement, as long as it
doesn’t put them at risk of injury.
By incorporating fun games that encourage
running, side-stepping, jumping, catching,
throwing and hitting, you can help your
kids develop their fundamental motor
skills, increase their confidence and
gain greater enjoyment from sports and
physical activity.
Kelly Sumich is the author of Coaching Children:
Sports Science Essentials and Kids Exercise
Programs Done for You. She is the founder of the
Sports Science Education Institute.
sportsscienceeducation.com.au