[Upcomingteacher]

In Early Childhood Education, what are the stages of gross and fine motor development?

[DoulaLC]

You will see a natural progression from infancy on. Infants will develop their fine motor skills outwardly. You'll see this from tracking an object with their eyes very early on to being able to reach out purposefully and grasp that object after several months. Think fine motor skills as the small muscles used to pick things up, grasp, turn over in their hands, match shapes, work puzzles, cut and draw, for example.

Larger muscle skills (gross motor) happen in conjunction or sometimes slightly later. You'll see this as top to bottom development. Rolling across the floor to an object, getting their arms under them and pulling themselves with just their arms (army crawl), knees under and crawling, pulling up to stand and cruise the furniture, balance, walking, climbing, running, etc.