Essay On Physical Development

Physical development is the process that starts in infancy and progresses into late adolescence, concentrating on motor skills as well as puberty. Physical development involves developing control over the body, particularly muscles and physical coordination. As I have become more educated about the physical development of children throughout infancy, early, middle/late childhood, and adolescence, I have come to an understanding that there are several necessary steps that can be taken to ensure that a child has optimum physical development. Some of these steps should be taken in the first few years in the child’s life and some should be taken in the later years of the child’s life. Before the birth of the infant takes place there are steps
In order to optimize the child’s physical development during early childhood, parents should provide the child with numerous opportunities to be active. The parent should monitor the amount of time that the child spends watching TV shows or movies or playing games on the parent’s phone. Rather than sending a bored child to watch a movie the parent could take the child outside and play soccer or basketball. Not only would this enhance the child’s gross motor skills (which involve large muscle groups) but it would provide the child with exercise as well. Preschool children should engage in at least two hours of physical activity per day, divided into one hour of unstructured free play and one hour of structured activity. For a structured activity caregivers could do a puzzle with the child or put together a Lego theme set. By the end of early childhood the child’s fine motor skills have most likely improved to the point where the child could write their own name, build objects with blocks, and pour from a pitcher without spilling. To further the advancement of the child’s fine motor skills parents could allow the child to do tasks on their own such as pouring their own glass of water. I have seen parents who are very particular about these types of things because they don’t trust the child not to spill all over, however the parent needs to understand that the child needs to learn some lessons through