Physical Development

What is the physical development of a child?

Physical development is the major motor or physical achievements of a child during the infancy and early childhood stages. Physical development is a vital part of growing up as children learn to master control of their body; examples of physical development include sitting, crawling, standing and walking. As infants grow and develop these events are easily observed in their emergence and are viewed as ‘markers’ along life’s journey, hence the reference of ‘Developmental milestones’.

Developmental milestones are a series of milestones that we, as humans, are designed to reach in order to not only survive but live a healthy life. Developmental milestones commonly refer to a set of developmental changes resulting in the improved ability of an infant to coordinate and control voluntary movements (Carruth, Ziegler, Gordon, & Hendricks, 2004). For instance, an infant must have the ability to control the head whilst balancing the trunk in order to sit without support to use the hand and arm in movements that will enable self-feeding, which is a skill necessary for survival.

These motor milestones are then categorized into fine and gross motor movements. For instance, fine motor milestones are related to the arm, hand, and fingers which allow movements that will grasp and manipulate small or fine objects such as food. On the other hand, gross motor milestones relate to a series of accomplishments which allow an infant to transition from being relatively immobile to a capability of bipedal locomotion (lower limbs moving).

 

What can affect physical development?

Children living with developmental and medical conditions such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Down syndrome and Attention-deficit hyperactive disorder commonly experience delays and impairments in many domains of life, such as typical (normal) physical and motor development (Horovitz & Matson, 2011). Appropriate services, such as occupational therapy, are critical services to engage in early screen and detection of these conditions in order for interventions to be implemented for your child to reach developmental milestones.

To place into perspective, typically developing infants have an expectant crawl range of 5-11 months with the average at around 7 months. For children with Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy for instance, a study found that these two groups experienced significant delays in onset of crawling. Similarlyfor walking expectancies, a typical infant has an acceptable range of 9-17 months with 11 months being the average range of walking. Subsequently, children with Cerebral Palsy and Down Syndrome fall just out of this range.

Other factors to consider are variables such as genetic factors, prenatal influences, gestational age and birth size, body composition, nutrition, sex differences, socio-economic influences and cultural values.

 

What are the different physical development stages?

The age range, where a particular cohort of children reach a particular milestone is commonly referred to as the ‘window of achievement’ for that milestone (Thalagala, 2015). To elaborate, the ‘walk alone’ milestone is between 8.2 months and 17.6 months – thus the window of achievement for that milestone is 8.2 – 17.6 months.

Tummy time is another important physical development stage for infants where the infant is awake and in supervised positioning on their stomach (Hewitt, Stanley, & Okely, 2017). ‘Tummy time’ is recognized by the National Academy of Medicine and both the Australian and Canadian Early Years as recommendations for infants to be undertaking as physical activity. These recommendations indicate that ‘tummy time’ should be provided to an infant less than 6 months of age – every single day. Essentially, tummy time stimulates and enhances their physical motor development and can be done from the time of their birth in small periods of play that is supervised.

Tummy time is a precursor to milestones and motor skills such as rolling, sitting, crawling and pushing to sit as it allows the opportunity for the infant to strengthen their neck, head, shoulder and trunk muscles. It is recommended that the infant engage in tummy time only whilst they are awake and supervised for safety reasons. Again, a good place to start for tummy time is a minimum of 30 minutes a day spent in supervised tummy time when the infant reaches 2 months of age as well as avoiding prolonged supine (face up) time in order to potentially progress the motor development of your child.

physical development stages in children

Physical Development in infancy

The World Health Organisation identified six key milestones as they were simple to evaluate, essential for upright self-locomotion and universal. It is important to note that there are numerous variations on how these six milestones are defined, however most research on physical development takes into consideration one or more of the following six key milestones.

  1. Sitting without support: Infant is able to sit up straight with head erect for at least ten seconds. The infant also does not use their hands or arms to balance the body.
  2. Hands-and-knees-crawling: Infant moves forward or backwards on hands and knees alternately. There have to be at least three consecutive movements in a row and the stomach cannot touch the ground.
  3. Standing with assistance: The infant is standing in an upright position with both feet whilst holding onto a stable object with both hands – it is important that the infant is not leaning at as their legs must be supporting most of their own body weight.
  4. Walking with assistance: The infant is standing in an upright position with their back straight. The infant is able to make sideways or forward steps by holding onto a stable object with the use of one or both hands. One leg then moves forward whilst the other supports part of their own body weight. The infant must take at least 5 steps in this manner to have achieved this milestone.
  5. Standing Alone: The infant is standing in an upright position on both feet with their back straight. The legs are now supporting the total body weight of the infant. The infant has achieved this milestone once they can stand in this position for at least ten seconds without contact with a person or object.
  6. Walking Alone: The infant must be able to take at least five steps independently in an upright position with their back straight. Again, one leg moves forward whilst the other leg supports the body. There must be no contact or help from another person or object

 

Physical Development in early childhood

Common gross motor developmental milestones include the ability to roll over at 4 to(Eaton, 2008) 6 months and taking their first steps between 8 to 12 months according to the pediatric guideline.

12 months

  • Can stand up and may start to take their first steps
  • Walks holding onto furniture
  • Begins to develop a primitive tripod grip (thumb and two fingers)
  • Responds to “no”

15 months

  • Begins to walk unassisted
  • Is able to begin stacking bricks

 

Physical Development in children

2 years

  • a child is able to run around and has the ability to walk down steps with 2 feet to a step
  • A child is able to use a zipper and a tower of 5-6 bricks
  • Child’s behavior may become defiant
  • Pincer grasp begins to develop

3 years

  • Able to catch objects and maneuver around easily – precision develops
  • Is able to hold a pencil or crayon with control and begin to draw objects
  • Develops 2-4 word sentences
  • Make-believe or imaginary play begins to occur
  • Is able to use a fork and knife

4 years

  • Is able to balance and control a tricycle
  • Can fasten and unfasten buttons and build a tower of 10 or more bricks
  • Hand dominance begins to form

5 years

  • Can climb, skip and hop
  • Has good pencil control and can color in neatly.
  • Learns to tie shoelaces
  • Can dress/undress without assistance
  • Can begin to distinguish truth from lies

 

It is important to remember that there are underlying skills that are required to demonstrate adequacy in fine motor skills. These underlying skills are:

  • Cognition
  • Postural stability
  • Attention
  • Muscle tone and strength
  • Hand/eye co-ordination

 

How does play support a child’s physical development?

Purposeful and active play

is and must be a critical component in the lives of children from infancy through adolescence. Active play contributes to not only the physical development of the child but the cognitive, social and emotional well-being of the infant.

There are many types of play such as:

  • unoccupied play
  • solitary play
  • onlooker play
  • parallel play
  • associative play
  • co-operative play
  • rough and tumble play

 

Although active play does not necessarily have its own category, it can be integrated into many forms of play that are important for infants to achieve their developmental milestones.

Active play is essentially any type of unstructured participation in physical activity. Motor development, social skills, and overall physical activity can be improved or promoted through active outdoor play.

A statement released in 2015 recognises the importance of active play through an active outdoor position statement – “access to active play in nature and outdoors, with its risks, is essential for healthy child development and increases children’s opportunities for self-directed play outdoors in all settings such as school, home, child care, nature and the community”.

Active play is also teaching the children that physical activity is enjoyable, as well as supporting a range of developmental milestones from physical development to language and problem-solving capabilities (Houser, Roach, Kirk, Turner, & Stone, 2016).

 

 

 

 

Reference

 

Carruth, B. R., Ziegler, P. J., Gordon, A., & Hendricks, K. (2004). Developmental milestones and self-feeding behaviors

in infants and toddlers. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 104(Supplement 1), 51-56. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2003.10.019

Eaton, W. O. (2008). Milestones: Physical A2 – Haith, Marshall M. In J. B. Benson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development (pp. 334-343). San Diego: Academic Press.

Hewitt, L., Stanley, R. M., & Okely, A. D. (2017). Correlates of tummy time in infants aged 0–12 months old: A systematic review. Infant Behavior and Development, 49(Supplement C), 310-321. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.10.001

Horovitz, M., & Matson, J. L. (2011). Developmental milestones in toddlers with atypical development. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 32(6), 2278-2282. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2011.07.039

Houser, N. E., Roach, L., Kirk, S. F. L., Turner, J., & Stone, M. R. (2016). Let the Children Play: Scoping Review on the Implementation and Use of Loose Parts for Promoting Physical Activity Participation. AIMS Public Health, 3(4), 781-799. doi:10.3934/publichealth.2016.4.781

Thalagala, N. (2015). Windows of achievement for development milestones of Sri Lankan infants and toddlers: estimation through statistical modelling. Child: Care, Health & Development, 41(6), 1030-1039. doi:10.1111/cch.12258