Tag: physical development

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Physical Development in Child Care

Preschool children marching and waving streamers

Physical development is an important area of child development that includes children’s physical growth, as well as their increasing ability to control the muscles of their bodies. Children’s physical development follows a predictable pattern, but each child grows at his or her own rate. Active play helps children develop their motor skills. Child care programs can support children’s physical development by providing safe surroundings, good nutrition and plenty of time for active play and exploration. Learn more about how child …

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What Child Care Providers Can Expect in Preschoolers' Physical Development

Preschooler in ball pit

Between the ages of 3 and 5, children are still growing quickly, and are continuing to practice their large and small motor skills. Child care providers can support preschoolers’ physical and motor development by ensuring that children eat well-balanced meals and snacks, by building in plenty of time for active play and by planning a wide variety of activities to encourage motor development. The lists below give an idea of what to look for in the physical development of preschool-age …

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What Child Care Providers Can Expect in the Physical Development of 6 – 8 Year Olds

Girl with braids and rain boots jumping

Six- to 8-year-olds are continuing to grow and develop their large and small motor skills. As they enter elementary school, children may begin participating in organized sports, dance, and other activities that require well-developed motor skills. Child care providers in out-of-school child care programs need to know the basic milestones of physical development in school-age children in order to plan challenging but realistic physical activities. The following lists detail some common physical milestones in 6- to 8-year-olds.

Between the ages

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Ages and Stages in Child Care

Children in ball pit

Children of different ages need different types of care and nurturing. Quality child care programs help children grow in all areas of development: physical, intellectual, social, emotional, language, moral, and spiritual domains.

Child care providers need to understand how children of different ages grow and learn in order to provide warm, sensitive care and positive learning experiences. Positive learning experiences help young children’s developing brains make and strengthen the connections they need to succeed.

There are many different ways to …

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What Child Care Providers Can Expect in Toddlers' Physical Development

Toddler on riding car

Child care providers play an important role in promoting toddlers’ physical development Young children grow and develop so quickly between the ages of 12 and 36 months. In two short years, toddlers move from just learning to walk to being able to run, climb and jump with confidence. Toddlers explore their environments by touching, handling and tasting everything around them. They move from very basic fine motor skills to being able to turn pages of a book and draw with …

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Play Activities to Encourage Motor Development in Child Care

Toddler boy on slide

Play is crucial to the development of children’s gross and fine motor skills. Through play, children practice and perfect control and coordination of large body movements, as well as small movements of hands and fingers. Child care providers can support young children’s motor development by planning play activities that provide children with regular opportunities to move their bodies.

Activities to Support Gross Motor Development

Gross motor skills involve control of the arms, legs, head, and trunk. Child care providers can …

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Creative Art Helps Children Develop across Many Domains

Hand covered with colorful paint

Creative art activities can help children in all areas of development. Child care providers should plan creative activities with the child’s overall development in mind. Here are some ways that art activities can support young children’s development.

Physical Development

When child care providers offer art activities, they are supporting children’s large and small muscle development, as well as their eye-hand coordination. Using crayons, markers, and paintbrushes helps children practice the fine motor control they will need for writing later on.…

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What Child Care Providers Can Expect in Infants' Physical Development

Baby crawling on stomach

If you are a child care provider working with infants, you may be amazed by how quickly the babies in your child care program grow. By the time they are 1 year old, babies have almost tripled their birth weight. They learn to control their head, arms, hands, legs and feet, eventually start crawling and may even take a few first steps.

Child care providers help infants develop physically. Providing nutritious foods, encouraging their growing motor skills and providing safe …

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Keeping Children Active Indoors

Ring around the rosie

Child care providers often dread those days when the weather is bad and the children can’t get outdoors to play. But children need to have active times every day to use up energy, learn new things, and be healthy. Luckily, active play can happen indoors as well as outdoors. With a little imagination and creativity, child care providers can come up with activities that use large muscles and burn energy, but can be done indoors. Here are some ideas to …

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Supporting Both Large Motor and Small Motor Development in Child Care

The child care program is a wonderful place to help children develop motor skills. “Motor skills” is a broad category that includes a wide variety of abilities — from sitting up to running and climbing and from picking up small objects to writing with a crayon or pencil. Motor skills are typically divided into two types: large motor and small motor. Child care providers can help young children develop both types of motor skills.

Large Motor Skills

Large motor skills …

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