Why Motor Skills Matter : Improve Your Child's Physical Development To Enhance Learning And Self-Esteem

Why Motor Skills Matter : Improve Your Child's Physical Development to Enhance Learning and Self-Esteem

Practical advice for parents on the interaction among their child's muscular, mental, and motor development"Why Motor Skills Matter provides not only knowledge but a game plan as to how parents can help their little ones develop optimal potential via play, stimulation, and establishment of an appropriate environment." --Ruth A. Peters, Ph.D., bestselling author of Laying Down the LawAccording to pediatric physical therapist Tara Losquadro Liddle, playful interaction beginning in infancy is crucial to a child's learning ablilities, language, speech, and overall emotional balance. Filled with practical, age-appropriate activities for newborns up to five years old, Why Motor Skills Matter shows parents how to:Integrate touch, movement, and body awareness during playtime Bolster motor skills Develop appropriate play for each age level Understand their child's development Why Motor Skills Matter explains the impact motor skills have on the neurodevelopment of a child, helping parents participate more fully in their child's development. From Publishers Weekly Pediatric physical therapist Liddle's commonsense guide to early childhood development advocates a body-centered approach to development for unsure parents, or nervous parents-to-be. The author supports her thesis-"that mild deficiencies in physical development could have a major impact on self-esteem and well-being"-with four thorough sections: an overview of the newborn sensory system; first year of development; motor skills and language through age five; and a final part on children with "special considerations" (e.g., preemies and babies with low muscle tone, sensory issues or orthopedic conditions). Aided by editor Yorke, Liddle's non-technical prose explains infants' sensory systems (vestibular for balance, proprioceptive for spatial location and tactile for touch) and the importance of ensuring they work in harmony. The "ability to utilize our senses... to absorb information, sort it out, and then respond to it" defines Liddle's therapeutic specialty, sensory integration. She stresses that the quality of a baby's progression from belly play to sitting, crawling and creeping, is more important than the timing of these milestones, and she makes a compelling case for the connection between a newborn's muscle tone and his or her cognitive development and ultimate emotional and social success. Not another trend to promote exceptional babies, Liddle's sensible, unpreachy advice draws on solid orthopedic science to back up the relationship between physical movement and learning. In addition to sidebars on toys, and line drawings, lists of source materials, a bibliography and an index enhance this well-informed handbook. Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From the Back Cover Learn to use physical activity to raise an emotionally well-balanced, more coordinated, and happier child "Parents and educators may underestimate the value of motor development during childhood. This book does much to fill a wide gap in understanding its relevance. Supplied with the practical content of these pages, parents can assist their children to savor an important form of mastery and gratification."--Mel Levine, author of A Mind at a Time"Finally . . . a book for parents that demystifies motor development. Why Motor Skills Matter provides a game plan as to how parents can help their little ones develop optimal potential via play, stimulation, and establishment of an appropriate environment."--Ruth Peters, Ph.D., bestselling author of Laying Down the Law: The 25 Laws of ParentingIs your child a loner because he won't play with other children on the playground--or does he hang back because he lacks the strength or balance to master the monkey bars? Is your baby lazy because she won't roll over--or does she simply have weak stomach muscles? Minor developmental lags can lead to a misreading of your chil