Physical & Motor Development
Gross Motor Development
WiseTip: PM-GMO-M0009-P01C

Create safe and interesting spaces where your baby can move around and explore.

WHY IT MATTERS

Babies need to spend some of their play time on their stomachs for healthy motor development.

When placed on the tummy for short periods, babies can explore objects in an environment conducive for exploration and discovery.

When infants observe others’ goal-directed reaching actions, they map both the movement and the goal onto their

motor representations

Motor Representations - Naturalised mental representations of actions

that develop their motor experience. Infants’ mapping of observed actions to their own motor representations is facilitated by brief, but salient, visual experiences with these actions by others.

Babies often see something they would like to touch and hold but are hindered by unrefined muscles in their arms and hands. Expect newborns to swipe and swat; grasping what they see happens only accidentally. With more practice, babies will be able to grab and hold on to an object.1

Babies at this stage become aware that an object can exist even when they cannot see it. This awareness is referred to as object permanence. It explains a younger infant’s delight and surprise when playing peek-a-boo.

As babies’ brains and nervous systems continue to develop, they begin to coordinate, combine, and integrate sensory inputs (visual and auditory) in what researchers call intermodal perception. A baby’s hard-wired need to explore and learn is ready to be satisfied when voluntary movements gradually replace reflexes, coupled with increasing muscle strength and sensory perception capacity.