Gross motor skills are those skills required for body movement which develop as a human being grows from infancy to adult hood. These skills include walking, jumping, running, body balance and various other body movements (Kail, Cavanaugh & Cavanaugh, 2010).
I focused on two children without any form of disabilities. The children were both five years old and in kindergarten. I focused on their various activities in their daily life. The two children were both very active and playful. They were both able to jump over a one foot obstacle, run a hundred yards non-stop and were also able to sit upright on a chair. The two were also able to tell right from left although with some hesitation. One of the children though had a smaller body mass than the other but they were equally very healthy. The difference in body mass could be as a result of genetic makeup or the feeding habits of the two. In general, the two children gross motor skills were improving as they continued exercising their limbs even though not at the same rate.
Fine motor skills are the skills that require an individual to utilize smaller body muscles (Kail, Cavanaugh & Cavanaugh, 2010). The skills include writing, tying shoe laces, drawing and other skills that involve some level of higher dexterity. The two children had some distinct differences in terms of the fine motor skills. While bigger child could write legibly, the smaller one had a problem in performing this skill. The small one was more skillful in modeling plastacine (a kind of artificial clay that children learn to create shapes and other objects with) than the bigger one. While the two both showed fine motor skills development, each developed distinct skills probably due to their distinct interests. The child with the bigger body mass was able to handle his pencil better than the smaller child while the smaller child could manipulate scissors better. Fine motor skills as observed are very important any child’s growth and can only be developed properly by consistent training.
Social skills simply involve the abilities of an individual to interact with other individuals in a society (Matson, 2009). Social skills are extremely important especially for children in their development since they have to learn to interact with other children in the course of growing up. Proper social skills enable children to have the ability to adapt to varying environments and also to interact with different individuals in varying settings.
The three main stages involved in developing social skills include thinking, doing and seeing (Matson, 2009). Thinking involves being able to interpret other individual’s actions and determining the appropriate reactions to those actions. In my observation, the two children had varying abilities in interpreting other children’s actions. The bigger child was a little bit aggressive towards other children. He had a desire to always be in control in every situation. The smaller child was more cooperative and could easily read other children’s action including their no verbal cues.
Seeing involves interpreting the nature of the social context one is in. It involves deciphering the kind of individuals in a specific context and the nature of the individuals’ activities. A child’s ability to interpret this allows him or her to easily join in and get along with others. The two children in observation were a little different in this aspect. The smaller child was more observant than the bigger child. The smaller child could easily join groups and adapt to their activities while the bigger child would most of the time bully his way in often disrupting other children’s activities.
The last skill involves doing. Knowing what to do or say in a given social context is an important skill children should develop. While the bigger child forced his way into other children’s activities, the smaller one was more accommodative and could easily join easily into various conversations or activities. He was thus liked more while the bigger kid who was mostly bullying other kids was in most cases avoided.
New York: Cengage Learning.
Matson, J. L. (2009). Social Behavior and Skills in Children. New York: Springer.
