Better Physical Development
Formal learning situations require a lot of skills to be mastered first. These skills are known as foundation skills. When building a house, you need a strong foundation. The same can be said for learning. In formal learning situations, these foundation skills are essential to be able to do simple tasks like using pencils and scissors correctly. They are also important to be able to control the body to do a task, whether it be eye control when reading, stability skills to simply sit and listen or hand control to be able to write. These essential movement skills must be developed and mastered before children can be expected to be successful in formal learning situations. The development of these skills must be a priority for early learning.
The most useful professional development I ever did, was a course on the foundation skills children need to have to be successful at school. This was run by an early childhood teacher. It was completely relevant to me even though I was teaching 10 year olds at the time. I could suddenly see that the child with illegible handwriting who hated doing any writing was never going to improve simply by doing more handwriting practice. They would however benefit from work on gross and fine motor skills to improve hand and finger control. The child struggling to use equipment to work out numeracy problems needed work on bilateral movement and fine motor skills to be able to use these materials successfully. These students had some gaps in their foundation skills and needed a programme for improving these skills. This should ensure they would be more successful at school.
Foundation Skills
These movement skills include fine and gross motor skill development, hand-eye and foot eye coordination, bilateral movements and crossing the midline to name a few. These form some very important developmental milestones. Should they not be developed properly, they can cause delays or gaps in learning later on. For example, children require fine motor skills to be able to hold and control a thin pencil correctly. However, they will need to have developed a range of gross motor skills (shoulder, arm, fist, and palm) and then fine motor skills (fingers) in order to be able to hold the pencil in the correct position. Another example is not developing bilateral movements (being able to use both sides of the body either symmetrically or independently). This will make it difficult to perform simple tasks such as cutting paper or turning pages in a book.
Children need to have practiced these foundational skills on a daily basis to be able to master them. The earlier they start, the better! Below are some of the activities I have used in the classroom and with my toddler.
Click on the different skills below to find out more. These simple activities can help your child to develop these areas further. These activities require no specialised equipment – just what you can get from a $2 shop.
Body Awareness
Directionality
Spatial Awareness
Using left and right side of the brain