Supporting Their Physical Development For A Healthy Future

Watching a child grow is one of the most amazing parts of being a parent. It may seem that your child is growing and changing without much input from you, but everything they encounter, from the moment they open their eyes, contributes to their growth.

Whilst many of the learning skills we’ve explored so far this year are rooted in supporting your child’s cognitive development, it’s important not to neglect the need to encourage activity and physical movement, especially in a world where many of us spend a large amount of time sitting in front of screens. A recent study by Sport England suggested that 1 in 4 adults are doing less than 30 minutes per week of exercise, which isn’t enough to keep the body healthy and active.

Babies and children at all ages and abilities can benefit from play that requires physical activity – in this blog post, we’ll look at many of the ways you can encourage, support and champion physical play, and why it’s so vital for your little one.

What Does Physical Development Mean?

Physical Development refers to the growth and development of your child’s brain and body from newborn until they reach adulthood.  Encouraging participation and enjoyment in an active lifestyle from early on in your child’s life will help them to grow into strong, healthy, active adults.

Physical development doesn’t just mean visible changes either. Your child’s senses, nervous system, muscle control, bone density, hand eye coordination and fine motor skills all grow in strength as they develop, giving them more tools, understanding and confidence to explore the world with.

There are two types of physical development, Gross motor skills refers to the ability to use your larger muscle groups to perform tasks, such as walking, dancing or lifting. Fine motor skills refers to the ability to perform more precise tasks. You’ll see your baby develop these skills naturally, but providing fun play opportunities that support their physical growth and encouraging an active lifestyle within your home will boost their development and be the first stepping stone to a healthy and active future. We cover lots more about supporting your little ones hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills in our Learning Skills content – explore it all here.

The Benefits of Supporting Your Child’s Physical Development?

As well as promoting an active and healthy lifestyle within your family, there are lots of individual benefits to helping with your child’s physical development. Here are just a few:

Balance and Coordination

Balance is needed for riding bikes, climbing and nearly all sports and outdoor games, refining their balance means better control over muscle groups, reducing falls and increasing confidence when it comes to physical activity. Coordination will help them dance, react physically, play instruments and aim for goals. Coordination also helps them move at the speed they want to. Skipping with a rope is a great way to improve their full body coordination, try it together or teach them some rhyming games to play whilst skipping independently. We found these lovely skipping rhymes.

Motor Skills

As well as full-body benefits, physical development means the refinement of their fine motor skills, allowing them to hold a pen, perform self-care tasks such as brushing their teeth and hair and put on their own clothes and shoes.

Stronger Bones & Healthier Joints

Strong bones come from a combination of good nutrition and an active lifestyle and help to protect their internal organs and provide muscle support.

A Love Of Nature

Physical activity goes hand in hand with being outside. It can be hard if you don’t have an outside space near your home to play in, but there are lots of portable games you can take to the park and ways to encourage a love of nature without needing a garden. Read our blog on Fun Outdoor Learning With Your Child or Learning To Count With Nature. Or consider investing in a National Trust membership, where you’ll find lots of wonderful activities for little ones to get involved with nature throughout the year.

Get Active Outdoors

Play that needs room to move really comes into it’s own in the summer. Your local green, park or sports field can offer the same or more space as a garden, and there are lots of options for games that don’t require any equipment at all or are portable to get everyone moving.  As soon as your little one can walk, they can take part in outdoor games, and helping them get involved (even if you have to do most of the work!)  supports so many of their developmental needs.

Try rounders, hopscotch (use washable pavement chalk) , stuck in the mud, hide and seek, scavenger hunts or pooh-sticks with toddlers and walkers. Set up obstable courses using boxes or other found objects. For very small babies, laying or sitting them on grass or sand and allowing them to explore with their hands, encouraging crawling towards you or playing clapping games such as pat-a-cake can help them get to grips with their physical abilities and enjoy being part of the fun.

If you want to invest in a sturdy, long-lasting outdoor game or activity, explore our Garden Toys and Games category, where you’ll find fun for all ages.

Get Sporty

The first time they catch a ball is always a memorable moment as a parent, and their joy at succeeding at this small coordination task will give them confidence and a sense of achievement. repeating success helps babies to solidify knowledge, so you’ll probably have to cheer that catch quite a few more times!

As they grow, they’ll have the opportunity to try a variety of sports, from early playschool sports days to watching sporting events on TV, children are drawn to the fun atmosphere and competitiveness of sports so offering opportunities to try different activities will allow them to find the things they really enjoy.  Running races, egg and spoon races and relays are easy to set up if you have a few children to keep entertained. Or try throwing the ball into a bucket from different distances, using water blasters to shoot targets or throw it back to the playground by using jumpers for goal posts and show off your goal keeping skills. If you don’t have a lot of outdoor space, there are plenty of active games you can play inside, try the floor is lava (if you don’t mind little feet on your furniture!) or a rainy-day game of hide and seek.

Letting your child lead the way by showing what they love and want to do more of (and what they don’t!) means you can encourage a genuine love for an active lifestyle which will give them all the benefits we’ve discussed so far, from stronger bones, better balance coordination and fine motor skills and a love of the outside and being active!

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