Types of motor skills (gross and fine) and their characteristics

Thanks to the locomotor system, human beings can perform a wide repertoire of movements, ordered by the brain, which allow us to relate to the world and also explore it to get to know it better.

With motor skills, reference is made to the body's ability to perform different movements and gestures, which can be of greater to lesser complexity and perform varied functions.

From throwing a ball, writing with a pen or simply running, these movements are within the concept of motor skills, however, they would fall into different categories of it.

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We are going to find out what are the types of motor skills, their development throughout people's lives and the movements that go into each one.

Types of motor skills

Basically motor skills are divided into two types, gross and fine, depending on the types of muscle groups that are involved in the movement that is performed.

1. Gross Motricity

With gross motor skills, reference is made to

a person's motor abilities that involve large muscle groups. the intervention of this type of muscles allows making movements in which the whole body is activated or large part of a limb, such as crawling, walking, jumping, climbing, cycling, swimming, and others many more.

This type of motor skills begins to develop at an early age, towards the first weeks of the baby's life. Its development is continuous although, if it is not put into practice or exercises aimed at improving this ability are not carried out, there is no loss of gross motor skills. However, the usual thing is that there is a progressive development of these capacities throughout life, even in adulthood.

The direction in which the large muscle groups are perfected is from head to toeThat is, first you learn how to move your head and neck, then you have greater control over your trunk, and finally you control your legs and arms.

During the first years of life, the development of this type of motor skills is essential to acquire the ability to control posture, body balance and gait.

1.1. Postural control

Developing sufficient capacity to control posture and balance are fundamental questions to be able to carry out actions in which one is upright, such as walking or sit down.

When he is just born, the baby is not able to control his posture voluntarily, nor is he able to hold his head in correct balance. That is why in the first weeks of life, it is recommended that the child is lying down.

After two months the baby has already acquired enough capacity to maintain a certain balance, being able to sit upright with the help of her caregivers.

As the first year of life approaches, infants have acquired sufficient capacity to be able to sit on a chair by themselves.

1.2. Learn to walk

Related to the previous point, in order to be able to walk upright, she must first have enough postural control to be able to stay upright.

In addition, it will require strength in the legs, which it will have acquired after several months crawling and placing part of the weight of the trunk on them, with the help of the arms.

It is around the first year of life that babies are able to walk, however, according to the research carried out in this field, it has been seen that the neural pathways are already possessed before birth for it.

One fact that would give strength to this is that if a two-month-old baby is placed in an upright position but being held by someone, the baby will alternate legs as if it were walking.

Regardless of how innate this ability may be, it is very important for the baby to see others, both the same age and older, walk in order to develop this ability.

The rise and fall of gross capacities

Although the changes that occur during the first years of life are significant, gross skills also improve during the 7-12 year period. At this age, who will soon be a teenager, improves their ability to run, dodge, jump rope and other activities related to the field of sport.

That is why it is quite notorious to carry out sports activities during adolescence, coinciding with the time when people notice a better dexterity in terms of their locomotive ability it means.

However, since everything that goes up has to come down, after a few years, especially around 30, a decline in gross motor skills begins to occur. As a result, people older than this age see their movements become slower and more difficult to perform. To prevent this motor decline from occurring early and quickly, it is advisable to perform physical exercise at any age and on a frequent basis.

2. Fine motor

As for fine motor skills, unlike its counterpart, small muscle groups are involved, which are mostly found in the hands, especially the wrists and fingers. This ability is remarkable in the human species, since it has a high control of the movements of the fingers of the hands, allowing to grasp objects, write, play the piano or make gestures.

Fine skills are developed throughout the life of the entire individual, being able to improve and learn new movements in practically any age of the person, as long as there are no physical or level injuries cerebral.

However, especially in childhood, there are significant changes in the development of these capabilities, which go hand in hand with the improvement of certain skills fostered by the system educational.

2.1. First months of life

The first fine movements that can be observed in a baby are reflexes, which are manifested from the moment he is born. However, within a few weeks, many of these disappear.

At eight weeks, the baby is able to make some movements with the fingers, being able to pick up, although clumsily, things.

Between two and five months, the baby is already able to coordinate his gaze with the movement of his own hands, this being a decisive point in his ability to explore the outside world.

Between seven and twelve months the most remarkable point of the baby's fine motor skills occurs, with an improvement in the ability to grasp objects, point with the index finger, pass objects from one hand to another and, very important also, make a clamp with hand.

By the time the baby is one year old, she has enough fine capacity to handle objects voluntarily and with greater safety.

Thanks to this, he can take the objects he wants and thus explore them to get to know them better, learning both physically and through stimuli. Thus, learn aspects such as size, weight and shape.

2.2. Preschool

This stage would include between two and five years of age. At these ages, the child is able to close and open the hand by making different combinations with the fingers.

Thus, the child can learn to use scissors, paint with pencils, button his shirt and pick up objects more accurately.

In addition to this, they learn about the environment in which they are and the stimuli they receive from it, effectively coordinating their movements to go exploring.

23. School stage

Between the ages of five and seven, fine motor skills are already remarkably developed, although it can always be improved. Arms and legs are in sync better.

It is at these ages that children learn to write and read. The first writing essays, although clumsy, are the demonstration of them, while reading is characterized by using the fingers to direct their gaze to the line they have to read.

Bibliographic references:

• Guthrie, E.R. (1957).. "The psychology of learning". Harper et Brothers, New York (ed.)
• Sparrow, W.A. (July 1, 1983). "The efficiency of skilled performance". Journal of Motor Behavior. 15 (3): 237–261