Psychomotor development in the first years of life is fascinating. Since they are born, babies are developing their motor system, their movements and the way they manipulate their surroundings, at a very fast and continuous pace.
The maturation of the nervous system, responsible for motor development, has a pre-established order and therefore the development has a clear and predictable sequence, although it is not exact in each baby and child, since it depends on various factors.
This is a summary of the motor skills that babies and children are up to six years old of age, a guide to what they "should" be able to do, although there may be differences in the pace of development.
Motor behavior from 0 to 4 months
- Raise your head.
- Keeps hands predominantly open.
- Holds an object with the fingers and the palm of the hand.
From 4 to 8 months
- Keeps head and chest raised.
- Take the objects.
- It rolls over the stomach and is supine.
- Sitting with support, turn your head on both sides.
- An object is brought to the mouth.
- Put your hands together in the midline.
- Take a candy with several fingers.
Motor behavior from 8 to 12 months
- He sits without help.
- He stands leaning on things or people.
- Crawl, crawl, slide.
- Pass the objects from one hand to another.
- Give a toy
- It is turned upside down while facing up.
- Drop one object deliberately to pick up another.
From 12 to 18 months
- Stand without help.
- Walk with help.
- Climb a ladder crawling or with help.
- Master the behavior or grip gripper.
- Start eating for yourself.
- Build a tower with three cubes.
- He sits in a small chair.
From 18 to 24 months
- Walk without support.
- Run.
- Get up without support.
- Throw and kick a ball.
- Go up and down the stairs with help by placing both feet on each step.
- Put rings in a holder.
- Use a rocking horse or rocking chair.
- It mimics a circular movement.
- He squats and stands again.
From two to three years
- Walk, run, climb stairs.
- You can ride a tricycle.
- Walk two or three steps along one line.
- It stays on one foot.
- Throw the ball forward.
- Jump with your feet together.
- Open a door
- Walk backwards.
- Unwrap an object.
From three to four years
- Do a somersault.
- Imitates postures with arms.
- Go down the stairs alternating feet.
- Turn the page of a book.
- Hold the paper while drawing.
- Fold a sheet of paper in half.
- Cut with scissors.
- Fold a paper twice.
- Copy a vertical line and a circle.
- Build a three-piece puzzle or figure board.
- Walk on tiptoe.
- Go up a slide and slide.
- Trace with templates following the contours.
Motor behavior from four to six years
- Jump on one foot.
- It is held alternately on one foot with the eyes closed.
- Jump forward with your feet together.
- He leans down and touches the ground with his hands.
- Open a lock with key.
- Makes a ball crumpling paper.
- It knots.
- Copy a cross, a triangle, a square and a rhombus.
- Cut with scissors following a line.
- Draw a person with six parts.
- Copy simple words, with upper and lower case letters.
- Copy the numbers and dates.
- Change direction when running.
- Walk on a board while maintaining balance.
- Jump back
At six years of age, children are more autonomous and independent, they know their body better, their possibilities and their limitations, their movements acquire security ... The fundamental thing for all aspects is that they have an environment that accompanies them and helps them in this development.
There has been an important motor development that has made them grow from babies to children, while his psychology and his affectivity have also undergone an impressive evolution in these first years of life.
